Pee-wee Herman's second feature film, a sodden misfire. What went wrong? He's a gentleman farmer this time (still with his white loafers, red bowtie, etc.), and an "inventor" after the fashion of George Washington Carver ("the father of the peanut"), who plays host to a travelling circus and especially to its Italian trapezist, Gina (a glimpse of the bead of sweat between her breasts knocks him on his back). The circus element doesn't mesh either visually or conceptually with the farm element. A Fellini might have made it mesh, at least visually, but this has only a Randal Kleiser. There is the occasional stray idea that seems worth putting a leash on, but few of these are brought to heel. Most egregious example: the effort to find Pee-wee a job in the circus, a premise that would have fueled half a movie for Keaton or Jerry Lewis, produces four scenes as short, flat, and heavy as paving stones. And even Pee-wee himself -- right from the opening dream sequence, which, unlike the opening dream sequence of his Big Adventure, has nothing to do with what follows -- seems to slip off track. A bigger loss than his virginity (shots of a train entering a tunnel, fireworks exploding, etc.) is that of his happy rapport with the community around him: what have these crabby townsfolk got against him, anyway? With Kris Kristofferson, Valeria Golino, Penelope Ann Miller, and Susan Tyrrell. (1988) — Duncan Shepherd
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