Perhaps this is sacrilege, but I found Pee-Wee's Big Holiday to be the best of his three films. (I agree that the biker-bar scene from Big Adventure is the best individual scene—but this film is more consistent in tone and execution.) Pee Wee's goal is to get to Joe Manganiello's birthday party in New York City after the two bond over milkshakes and root-beer barrels in Pee Wee's home town of Fairville.
All we know is that Pee-Wee never has left home and that NYC is a long way east. Joe zooms back to his penthouse in Manhattan on his motorcycle. After looking for a sign as to whether or not to go cross-country to New York (and being hit on the head by a Big Apple), Pee Wee hops in his car and is immediately kidnapped by three female bank robbers (Pepper, Freckles, and Bella, aka Pee-Wee). He's left tied up in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere—but he hitches a ride east with a traveling salesman vending the sort of gag gifts that Pee-Wee finds irresistible.
Pee-Wee's misadventures en route to NYC all are amusing and clever. There is an overt theme of friendship and tolerance, as well as an underlying theme of homosexuality being a-okay—but this latter is embodied in a sly and funny way. Whether Paul Reubens himself is gay or bi- scarcely matters—and Pee-Wee himself encounters several would-be girlfriends along the way, including Bella.
For me, the encounter with an Amish community entertained by Pee-Wee's balloon antics was the best scene in the film—perhaps because I'm from Pennsylvania. The action never flags, and the large cast is consistently strong. Pee-Wee's punning is scintillating throughout.
Let's hope Paul Reubens soon will host Saturday Night Live in character. His perpetuation of Pee-Wee in 2016 is utterly on-target and satisfying.
All we know is that Pee-Wee never has left home and that NYC is a long way east. Joe zooms back to his penthouse in Manhattan on his motorcycle. After looking for a sign as to whether or not to go cross-country to New York (and being hit on the head by a Big Apple), Pee Wee hops in his car and is immediately kidnapped by three female bank robbers (Pepper, Freckles, and Bella, aka Pee-Wee). He's left tied up in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere—but he hitches a ride east with a traveling salesman vending the sort of gag gifts that Pee-Wee finds irresistible.
Pee-Wee's misadventures en route to NYC all are amusing and clever. There is an overt theme of friendship and tolerance, as well as an underlying theme of homosexuality being a-okay—but this latter is embodied in a sly and funny way. Whether Paul Reubens himself is gay or bi- scarcely matters—and Pee-Wee himself encounters several would-be girlfriends along the way, including Bella.
For me, the encounter with an Amish community entertained by Pee-Wee's balloon antics was the best scene in the film—perhaps because I'm from Pennsylvania. The action never flags, and the large cast is consistently strong. Pee-Wee's punning is scintillating throughout.
Let's hope Paul Reubens soon will host Saturday Night Live in character. His perpetuation of Pee-Wee in 2016 is utterly on-target and satisfying.