Friday, October 2, 2009

Night 3 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.
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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.
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Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.
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Night 3..."The Burbs" I remember seeing this movie in the theater when I was a teenager. It wasn't much of a hit but I've always loved it.
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Joe Dante (The Howling and Gremlins) directed this comedy-thriller released in 1989 by Universal Studios. Suburbanite Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks) is setting in for a week long vacation of relaxing at home. That is until strange things start to happen in the house next door. The Klopek family, a very "private" people, have just moved in and they don't take kindly to their nosey neighbors. Ray starts to suspect something is not right when the neighborhood grouch goes missing. Despite his wife Carol's (Carrie Fisher) insistence that he needs to leave the house and take a real vacation, Ray is determined to stay at home and solve the mystery. With the help of Art (Rick Ducommun), the neighbor who helps himself to the contents of every one's fridge, and Rumsfeild (Bruce Dern), the over-excited ex-soldier, Ray will set out to find out just what is really going on next door.
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This movie is a great example of when comedies were slightly silly but very funny and Tom Hanks was goofy and made you laugh. The scene where he eats the anchovy just makes me laugh so hard I about cry. The sound effects are priceless and just add to the unpleasantness of it.
Yes, it's a bygone era that is very much missed. OK, so maybe I don't miss Corey Feldman too much (yep, he's in there too). It's always nice to have comedy mixed with a little spookiness.
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Some trivia about the movie...
1. The back lot at Universal where they filmed "The Burbs" has been used for many TV shows and movies. It was the street for "Leave it to Beaver" and most recently it is Wisteria Lane for "Desperate Housewives". And don't quote me but I'm almost positive it's the same street that the Munster's House still resides on. It would have been painted a light blue at this point in time and look quite a bit different. Keep your eyes open. You may just see it in the background somewhere.
2. When the Peterson's son Dave is eating breakfast you can see a box of "Gremlins" cereal on the counter in the background. Joe Dante directed Gremlins in 1984 and Corey Feldman was also in it. Did they really have a Gremlins cereal? Wow, how did I miss that?
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Rules for pendant giveaway...
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One comment about the movie per film. You can get (1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) by following on Twitter. You can also get (1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://tiny.cc/3RR4W . 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour! You can also get (1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Just make sure to post each extra entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment page. If you already follow go ahead and take the extra entries. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

16 comments:

  1. I love the crazy militant neighbor in this. It's a great movie!

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  2. I love how the neighborhood comes together and stalks the neighbors basically hahha. and Corey Feldman is of course hilarious!

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  3. dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

    daily tweet 1 http://twitter.com/DeeGee13/status/4588597543

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  4. I follow this blog as DG

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  5. I follow on twitter (deegee13)

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  6. While the movie was cool, the book was 398% better. Read it about a year before the movie came out. I'd suggest getting it.

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  7. Oh, and I'm starbabyonline on twitter. ;-)

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  8. You'd think I could remember all of this in one post, sorry! Tweeted about it too: http://www.twitter.com/starbabyonline

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  9. I barely remember watching... the early 80's were a blurrrr LOL highschool, parties, etc etc... tweeted as hockeyvampiress

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  10. I watched this movie a long time ago, but I honestly don't remember much about it...

    I love Tom Hanks though, so I definitely need to watch it again (okay, mostly so I can see the anchovy scene...LOL).

    )O(
    boo

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  11. oh yeah, the Munster house is still there. I think they use it for one of the houses on desperate housewives,lol.

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  12. My fave is just after he eats the sardine and starts snorking and twitching. Cracks me up!

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  13. I loved this movie when it came out and still watch it occasionally now!!
    Gremlins Cereal?! No Way ;)
    cyclona66(at)aol(dot)com

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  14. I am a follower
    cyclona66(at)aol(dot)com

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