Paul Reubens Does Not Have It Anymore In 'Pee-Wee's Big Holiday'

Released by Netflix

Release Date: Mar. 18th, 2016

Starring: Paul Reubens. Jordan Black, Doug Cox

Written by Paul Reubens and Paul Rust

Directed by John Lee

Rated TV-PG (Suggestive content, mild language) 

I had hope for Pee-wee's Big Holiday. I grew up watching Pee-wee, whether it began the Tim Burton directed Pee-wee's Big Adventure, the letdown that was Big Top Pee-wee, or the Pee-wee's Playhouse. I loved Pee-wee and his "child-like persona that gets into some very adult situations" routine. So my hopes were not big after seeing the trailer for the movie. But I figured that the movie would be better than what the trailer was showing us. I was so wrong.

Pee-wee's Big Holiday takes its structure from Big Adventure. Pee-wee travels a long way by means of driving (until his car is stolen) and meeting people who will take him somewhere to have a wacky adventure. Everything that happens here is very episodic, just like the first movie was. I liked the set up too.

Pee-wee meets Joe Manganiello, an actor I am not very familiar with, at a restaurant that Pee-wee works at. After some very unfunny set up, Manganiello invites Pee-wee to his birthday party in New York and all Pee-wee has to do is get there. He tells Pee-wee that he should take the open road because he will have a better time than flying. Pee-wee agrees and decides to drive there.

So far so ok. Pee-wee meets a group of women as they are running from the law after robbing a bank. One of the women's names is also Pee-wee and then they steal his car. More wackiness ensues, but I am not going to put you through all of the tiring events that happen to Pee-wee through the course of the movie.

There are plenty of jokes here, but they aren't funny. I can be ok with that if the movie is entertaining anyway. I have watched plenty of comedies that were not funny, but there was something about them that made me like the movie anyway. Big Holiday is not like those movies. This is a soulless movie that tries to pass itself off as something that it is not: a good movie.

There is one joke that I couldn't wrap my head around. Pee-wee blows up a balloon and then contorts the opening in the balloon to make it make funny noise as the air escapes. The entire thing; Pee-wee taking the balloon out of his pocket, blowing the balloon up, and the funny noises are all done in one take. The camera just lingers there as Pee-wee does all of this to a balloon. Why? It wasn't funny. It isn't even a joke that is funny at first, then becomes annoying because it is so long, then becomes funny again at the end because we can't believe that the joke went on for that long. No. the joke was never funny to begin with.

The big problem with Big Holiday is Pee-wee himself. The guy is an asshole. He gets mad at people when things don't go his way. Pee-wee was in a band until his band members decide to do other things. A lady wants to talk to him about RSVPing to an event at the library and Pee-wee starts speaking in abbreviations so the lady will go away. These things are not funny. Pee-wee being a manchild is not funny. The people around him should help him find a psychologist before he starts murdering people.

Pee-wee's Big Holiday is one of the worst movies of 2016. Almost everything in this movie is wrong. I don't know how anybody, outside of Paul Ruebens found any of this funny. The movie just introduces us to one unfunny situation after another until the movie is over. Don't watch this movie.


Jimmy P is an avid film lover and tries to get out to the theater as much as possible. He is also a collector of DVDs and Blu-rays. Jimmy P lives with his wife in Parts Unknown.

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