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76
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9
17
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37
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53
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66
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45
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61
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43
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66
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29
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23
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80
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61
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xx
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30
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34
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60
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32
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27
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41
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39
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46
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73
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78
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55
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66
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69
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58
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47
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66
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34
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33
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54
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67
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51
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42
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28
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63
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86
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35
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48
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30
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53
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24
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83
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33
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45
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55
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47
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96
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35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
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88
Up![]()
71
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67
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28
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73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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58
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96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
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72
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78
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61
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xx
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58
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72
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48
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73
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62
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76
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86
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13
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70
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35
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71
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66
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51
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76
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26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
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45
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81
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45
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xx
Carriers
55
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57
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62
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65
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69
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59
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82
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75
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82
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67
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71
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70
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24
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85
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55
Endgame
xx
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xx
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56
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62
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74
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49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
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28
Free Style
xx
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50
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25
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50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
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89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
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66
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81
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xx
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63
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73
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xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
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94
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29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
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61
Intimate Enemies
42
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70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
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41
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41
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66
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34
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80
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83
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xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
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48
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73
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66
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47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
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68
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68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
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79
Serious Man, A
40
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61
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77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
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46
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39
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89
Still Walking![]()
50
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55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
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61
Trucker
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Turning Green
83
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66
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66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
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67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Pee-wee's Big Adventure

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 13 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Adventure | Comedy | Family/Kids
Written by:
Paul Reubens
Phil Hartman
Michael Varhol
Directed by: Tim Burton
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 9, 1985
DVD: May 2, 2000
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for mild violence and adult situations
Starring Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger, Phil Hartman, Cassandra Peterson, James Brolin, and Morgan Fairchild
When Pee Wee's beloved bike is stolen, he goes on a cross-country trip to the Alamo because a "physic" tells him it's there. On the way, he finds himself in one oddball encounter after another, from posing as an escaped convict's alibi girlfriend to dancing his way out of a biker brawl in a bar to riding in a big-rig with cackling Large Marge (one year after her death). With so much going on, Pee Wee's adventure could be a Hollywood movie.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Batman Beetlejuice Big Fish Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Ed Wood Edward Scissorhands Planet of the Apes Sleepy Hollow Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street The Nightmare Before Christmas Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Everything about Pee-wee's Big Adventure, from its toy-box colors to its superb, hyperanimated Danny Elfman score to the butch-waxed hairdo and wooden-puppet walk of its star and mastermind, Pee-wee Herman, is pure pleasure.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
Inspired lunacy, Pee-wee's big adventure is one of the most inventive films in recent memory. This clever and wholly original work incorporates a wide variety of cinematic tools with a fresh and unique sense of style.
Read Full Review >Empire Staff (Not Credited)
Burton's first feature revels in the weird, the unpredictable, the infantile and the absurd. A dazzling debut.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
I'm completely unsure what else Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is about. I can tell you that 70 percent of moviegoers in their 20s and 30s will likely find this crazy production to be a barrel of fun, and frequently a barrel of laughs. A certain intelligence peeks through it all. [9 Aug 1985, p.68]
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Pee- wee's Big Adventure is a shrewdly observed, deftly executed looney tune. [9 Aug 1985, p.42]
Chicago Sun-Times Llyod Sachs
Pee-wee's Big Adventure goes up and down the hills of Pee-wee shtick, without much concern for things like cohesiveness and consistency. What makes it wear so well is the balance achieved between Pee-wee's nitwit nervousness and his pathetic optimism. [12 Aug 1985, p.35]
Chicago Reader Dave Kehr
With all these safety features built in, this 1985 film is too well padded to qualify as genuinely radical wit, but in an even-toned, TV sort of way it's mildly amusing and inventive throughout.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
If Pee-Wee wasn't the most engaging physical comedian since Dick Van Dyke, it would be disastrous. As it is, the opening works well enough to have viewers completely hooked by the time he sets out on the road, like Huck Finn, with his clothes wrapped up in a handerchief on a stick. [10 Aug 1985, p.E9]
Variety Staff (Not Credited)
Children should love the film and adults will be dismayed by the light brushstrokes with which Paul Reubens (one of three credited screenwriters, but star-billed under his stage name, Pee-wee Herman) suggests touches of Buster Keaton and Eddie Cantor.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Vincent Canby
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is the most barren comedy I've seen in years, maybe ever.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon
The movie has the cartoonish realism of a Muppet movie. However, Mr. Herman is no Kermit the Frog, although he made me feel like Oscar the Grouch. [13 Aug 1985, p.1]
Time Staff (Not Credited)
This movie could induce terminal boredom in adults and rot the minds of the young. [26 August 1985, p.64]
Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel
Nothing, absolutely nothing, at either location is the slightest bit funny. [13 Sep 1985, p.C]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
