criterionforum.org

HE'S A MAN OF PEACE IN A SAVAGE LAND... SUBURBIA.

The films of director Joe Dante have taken us to some strange places a mysterious Chinatown antique store in Gremlins; a secluded resort populated by werewolves in The Howling; even deep inside the human body in Innerspace. But now he takes us to the strangest place of all surburbia!

Family man Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks) is looking forward to a week of putting his feet up at home in the quiet, leafy cul-de-sac of Mayfield Place. But his plans are scuppered by the arrival of new next-door neighbours, The Klopeks, whose behaviour and habits are more than just a little kooky. But things go from kooky to downright sinister when local old boy Walter disappears, leading Ray and his buddies to suspect their new neighbours of killing and eating him! Sure, the Klopeks are a strange bunch what with their digging up the backyard in the middle of the night but they re not devil-worshipping cannibal killers... are they?

If you re looking for a knowing slice of tongue-in-cheek terror then look no further than The Burbs. A standout horror comedy from a director who has given us more than his fair share of fun frighteners, The Burbs assembles a superb cast including Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher and Corey Feldman in a tall tale of small-town terror. You ll never look at those eccentric neighbours in the same way again!

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the Theatrical cut, newly-restored from the original film elements
Original uncompressed 2.0 Stereo PCM Audio
Isolated Music and Effects Soundtrack
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
New audio commentary with writer Dana Olsen, moderated by author Calum Waddell
There Goes the Neighbourhood: The Making of The Burbs - A new feature-length documentary including interviews with Dante, actors Corey Feldman, Courtney Gains and Wendy Schaal, director of photography Robert M. Stevens and production designer James H. Spencer
The original Workprint cut of the film transferred from Director Joe Dante s personal copy, on home video for the very first time - includes deleted and alternate scenes!
A Tale of Two Burbs Video featurette comparing the differences between the Workprint and Theatrical cuts of the film, with optional audio commentary from Dante
Alternate ending, presented in HD for the very first time
Original Theatrical Trailer in HD
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys

JamesF wrote:No link or official confirmation yet, but the new Arrow Video trailer shown at Frightfest in London this weekend included a title that's not been mentioned before...

Hopefully Arrow lets Joe Dante know so he can participate in the release.

Surprising since he did an interview on the Usher disc. If true i'm hoping for Matinee as well.

If there's anyone here from Arrow that wants to get in touch with Mr. Dante PM me.

Joe Dante has said numerous times in interviews that he has kept a ton of material (deleted scenes, screen tests, scripts, etc.) from many of his films but that Universal specifically has never cared to include the lion's share of it on the DVDs. Hopefully this will be corrected if Arrow invites him to be involved in this release and contribute his material (the same for Matinee). There are certainly quite a few deleted/alternate scenes from The 'burbs (some of it's in the trailer) and a few alternate endings too (one DVD release had one alternate ending but Dante has said that there were "a few" endings shot).

Moe Dickstein wrote:If there's anyone here from Arrow that wants to get in touch with Mr. Dante PM me.

Since Joe Dante contributed directly to Arrow's The Fall of the House of Usher BD (the interview wasn't bought from a third party), I suspect Arrow has his contact details already.

MichaelB wrote:

Moe Dickstein wrote:If there's anyone here from Arrow that wants to get in touch with Mr. Dante PM me.

Since Joe Dante contributed directly to Arrow's The Fall of the House of Usher BD (the interview wasn't bought from a third party), I suspect Arrow has his contact details already.

I'm sure that they do. It is kind of surprising though, that when they sat him down for that interview, no one bothered to mention to him that they would be releasing The 'Burbs on Blu-ray, or that nobody has bothered to call him since they licensed it.

MichaelB wrote:

Moe Dickstein wrote:If there's anyone here from Arrow that wants to get in touch with Mr. Dante PM me.

Since Joe Dante contributed directly to Arrow's The Fall of the House of Usher BD (the interview wasn't bought from a third party), I suspect Arrow has his contact details already.

One would hope but it never hurts to try to get people in touch.

Jeff wrote:I'm sure that they do. It is kind of surprising though, that when they sat him down for that interview, no one bothered to mention to him that they would be releasing The 'Burbs on Blu-ray

It's a racing certainty that the interviewer simply didn't know. Otherwise, he'd almost certainly have shot a 'Burbs-related interview there and then - I mean, wouldn't you?

So I suspect the interview was in the can before the film was licensed.

Dante on Universal's bare bones treatment of Matinee that he attempted well in advance of their DVD announcement not to have them release it bare bones because he's sitting on potential extra features he wants out there.

Dante: ...I was sort of hoping Criterion might pick [Matinee] up, but that was not to be. And so I kept calling Universal every couple of months and I would say, "I want you guys to remember that if you put Matinee out please call me because I have all this extra stuff I want to put in." And then I read on the Internet last year that Matinee is coming out and has a date. I call them up and they say, "Whup, it's too late. It's in the works now; it's too late to add anything. Maybe when it goes out on Blu-ray." And I said, "Look, if you put it out with nothing on it it's not going to sell enough copies for there to be a Blu-ray." In any case they were not interested in including anything including Mant!, which had been on the laserdisc. And they claimed that their lawyers were much more liberal in those days and that they could not account for the music rights for this. And of course the Mant! music comes entirely from their own movies. They basically used it as an excuse not to do anything. I was very disappointed with this. I think that the idea of going to the trouble to put out a niche movie that has a certain kind of fan base and not give them anything at all extra is bad business.

Glenn: Okay, so just what new extras did you hope to get on the disc?

Dante: Missing scenes, stuff like that, things that we cut out for time. There's a scene in the classroom where they watch a "Duck and Cover" movie, which I thought was a nice scene but there was a need to pick up the pace so it came out. Sure, nothing revelatory but unfortunately it's still sitting in my vault unseen. The nice thing about DVD is that when you're making a movie and you're fighting with the producers over the cut, you still know that there's a possibility that your version may see the light of day. At least that used to be true. So you tend to want to save these things. If you just keep them in the closet and don't let anybody see them it's kind of pointless.

Although I have no way of knowing for sure, Dante is somebody who has kept as much extra material from his movies as possible over the years and I have to assume the same goes with The 'burbs, that there's plenty of potential extra material for the DVD in his "closet" that the fans will love. And unlike Matinee, this is a film where the deleted/alternate material has been discussed by Dante and others numerous times in the past but other than the one alternate ending nobody has ever seen anything.

So it seems the Carlotta French BD doesn't use every Dante-owned extras : we have a 30 min ITW, a 4 min old featurette, the whole Mant! + a 6 min preface by Dante and that's all. No deleted scenes, nothing, but still, the edition is approved by Joe Dante.

Sounds like the Laserdisc, or at least that's where Mant! was last seen

HE’S A MAN OF PEACE IN A SAVAGE LAND… SUBURBIA.

The films of director Joe Dante have taken us to some strange places – a mysterious Chinatown antique store in Gremlins; a secluded resort populated by werewolves in The Howling; even deep inside the human body in Innerspace. But now he takes us to the strangest place of all – surburbia!

Family man Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks) is looking forward to a week of putting his feet up at home in the quiet, leafy cul-de-sac of Mayfield Place. But his plans are scuppered by the arrival of new next-door neighbours, The Klopeks, whose behaviour and habits are more than just a little kooky. But things go from kooky to downright sinister when local old boy Walter disappears, leading Ray and his buddies to suspect their new neighbours of killing and eating him! Sure, the Klopeks are a strange bunch what with their digging up the backyard in the middle of the night – but they’re not devil-worshipping cannibal killers… are they?

If you’re looking for a knowing slice of tongue-in-cheek terror then look no further than The ’Burbs. A standout horror comedy from a director who has given us more than his fair share of fun frighteners, The ’Burbs assembles a superb cast including Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher and Corey Feldman in a tall tale of small-town terror. You’ll never look at those eccentric neighbours in the same way again!

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- High Definition digital transfer
- Newly created exclusive content
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys [Amaray version] / Limited Edition SteelBook packaging [SteelBook version]
- Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film, archive content and more!
- More to be announced closer to the release date

SO glad to see this flick get a deluxe treatment. Hopefully Arrow lets Dante run rampant on the extras-- he's so much fun to listen to, and it seems like most labels don't think to consult him before putting out his films!

Can't wait for this, one of my favourite films ever.

Pics up on the arrow facebook page of interviews with The Feldman and Courtney Gaines

"sardine?"

Maybe we´ll see the alternate endings on the disc?

Had no idea this was a Joe Dante film! A friend of mine went to Northwestern and the screenwriter (who's a NU alum) spoke at his class. It was basically an hour of him talking about all the shitty things that happened to his films. (If you want to boil the whole thing down to a few sentences, his movies typically retain most of his plots, but little else - barely any dialogue and none of the jokes.)

The 'burbs may have been a better experience, but I believe he talked about the multiple endings. This may all be old news, but I think the original ending had Hanks character in the back of an ambulance (or something like that), and before it drives off, he sees that it's driven by his crazy neighbors.

hearthesilence wrote:...This may all be old news, but I think the original ending had Hanks character in the back of an ambulance (or something like that), and before it drives off, he sees that it's driven by his crazy neighbors.

Hmm, then that might have been a little too close to the ending of TWILIGHT ZONE - THE MOVIE from six years earlier (which Dante took part in directing)!

Doesn't that happen in the film anyway, with the film carrying on into another ending rather than just stopping there?

From what I understand, the Klopeks

Spoiler

hadn't done anything wrong

in the original ending. The ending hearthesilence describes is pretty similar to the one they ended up with in the final film.

I haven't seen the film, and this is all second-hand information, but I think he was asked to write an additional scene where Hanks' character gets away, i.e. a happy ending for him.

There is a lot of speculation and rumors about exactly what material was cut from this film, and over the years I've gotten the impression that what was cut from the screenplay prior to filming & what was actually shot but deleted from the film in post-production (or re-shot) has all kind of blended together. Only those involved in the actual production would be able to shed light on all of this. Joe Dante has talked a little bit about the cut material but not in great detail. Hopefully this release will sufficiently explore all of the cut material, filmed and unfilmed.

And holy crap, someone just alerted me that there's an entire message board devoted to this film alone: https://btheburbs.runboard.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Honestly had no idea this had such a strong cult following. Is it even considered one of Dante's stronger works?

I don't know if there's any general consensus when it comes to Dante (Maybe Matinee?), but I think it's definitely one of his strongest films

If it counts for anything this is one of my mother's favourite films, so I'll be buying a copy for her at least! The 'burbs certainly gets the most UK TV screenings of any of Dante's films, maybe only rivalled by Gremlins 2, so I can understand its popularity.

And never underestimate this being at the pinnacle of Tom Hanks' 'early, funny' period!