After a number of years of silence, actor Paul Reubens brought back his Pee-wee Herman character for this Netflix exclusive movie. You might think that during all those years of keeping his iconic character out of the limelight, Reubens would have come up with a storyline for a new movie that would be more original, but that's not really the case. This movie's story feels VERY much like the 1985 movie "Pee-wee's Big Adventure", with a number of individual scenes and moments having a strong deja-vu feeling. Even the titles of the two movies have a strong similarity! But I guess what really matters is whether this new movie is funny or not. Well, it moves along at a brisk pace, it's never dull, and there are some genuinely amusing moments here and there, some coming close to the old Pee-wee magic. But quite often the gags feel like weak humor cut out of the script from the 1985 movie. I think another reason why the movie is not as funny as it should be is that director John Lee is no Tim Burton, though in fairness he was working with a somewhat limited budget. I will give the movie this, however: It's better than "Big Top Pee-wee".
Review of Pee-wee's Big Holiday
Pee-wee's Big Holiday
(2016)
Watchable, but feels more like a remake than a new adventure
4 September 2017