Amazon.com Essentials:
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension is one of the most agreeably insane movies ever made. Peter Weller stars as Buckaroo, an acclaimed neurosurgeon, particle physicist, and, of course, rock star. He travels with the Hong Kong Cavaliers, a band of hard-rocking scientists who are also really good dressers. Buckaroo's interdimensional experiments with his Operation Overthruster throw him (and the Earth) straight into the middle of an alien war, and before you know it, he's got just a few hours to save the world. Confused? Hang on, we're only 10 minutes into the movie. Buckaroo Banzai hurls you right into the middle of its comic-book universe and keeps going at a breakneck pace. It's chock-full of overlapping jokes (even as we're trying to make sense of Dr. Lizardo's hospital room, a voice calmly announces that "lithium is no longer available on credit" over the PA system), hilarious throwaway dialogue ("You're like Jerry Lewis: you give me hope to carry on."), and weirdness just for the sheer joy of it ("Why is there a watermelon there?" "I'll tell you later."). You'll want to watch it at least twice--there's just no way to catch everything the first time around. Ellen Barkin has a terrific time doing a dead-on film noir moll parody as Penny Priddy, and John Lithgow turns in a brilliant manic performance as Dr. Lizardo/John Whorfin. There is no reason not to own this movie unless you are cold and dead inside. Laugh while you can, Monkey Boys. --Ali Davis
Amazon.com video review:
Peter Weller plays that Renaissance Man, Buckaroo Banzai, a
neurosurgeon, car racer, rock singer, and alien chaser in this
overdone sci-fi adventure from 1984. After crashing his nuclear-fueled
race car and causing a disturbance in the eighth dimension, Banzai
releases some extremely unappealing aliens into our atmosphere.
First-time director W.D. Richter (Late for Dinner) pulls out
all the stops, resulting in a manic dash that is often incoherent. The
intent may have been to re-create old-time serials with a pulp-fiction
bent, but the screenplay, full of macho dialogue and cool poses, tries
too hard. We could have done with a less complicated story and more
character development. Still, consider this flawed fun, because it may
be silly, but it is also clever. Originally released as The
Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. --
Rochelle O'Gorman
