Review: Buckaro Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension

[jeriendhal]

Summary: The brilliant Anglo-Japanese neurosurgeon, particle physicist and rock star Buckaroo Banzai faces his greatest challenge yet when he comes up against the evil Red Lectroids, led by John Worfin, who are hell bent on breaking through the 8th Dimension and conquering Planet Ten. Even if it means THE DESTRUCTION OF THE EARTH!

Review: Not exactly a success when it was originally released, BB found a cult status on home video after its movie run, mostly on the strength of the determinedly quirky premise and characters. It presents the adventure as not Buckaroo's origin story, but as Part Whatever in an ongoing series of movie, and is boosted by a deliciously hammy performance by John Lithgow as Lord Worfin/Dr. Lizardo.

That said, while I used to love this movie when I was a kid, my patience with it wears a bit thin as an adult. Peter Weller was never the most expressive actor in the world (making him perfect for Robocop, ironically enough, where he honed working in a not terribly comfortable or mobile suit into a fine performance) and is at his most wooden here, barely reacting to events beyond mild annoyance. It doesn't help that's he's bit of jerk as well. His annoyed "Peggy, get off the phone!" is/was hilarious, given it's being addressed to the twin sister of his late wife as she's being tortured by the baddies, but these days it doesn't say much for his character. *

Still, you do have a pre-Back to the Future Christopher Lloyd as John ("It's BigbooTAY!" ) Bigboote, who seems more annoyed than enthusiastic to be helping his Il Duce with his plans for inter-dimensional conquest, so that's something.

But god, I can't stand synthesizer soundtracks anymore...

* Also, little black kid running around an alien base shooting Red Lectroids with an Ar-15? Not funny, Dude.

Comments

[selenite.livejournal.com]

So what is the proper gun for shooting Red Lectroids?

[lilfluff.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, while I now read that Big Trouble in Little China is not in fact the result of rewriting the Buckaroo Banzai vs The World Crime League script; there is in fact a seed of fact that has encouraged people to believe this rumor about the movie.

The original BTILC script was a Western/Kung-Fu mix set in turn of the century San Francisco. Buckaroo Banzai's script writer W.D. Richter was hired to rewrite the script, among other things moving it to the present day. He'd probably have received more credit but the studio tried to completely remove the original script writers names, so the Writer's Guild issued a ruling that only the original pair should be listed as writers, and Richter simply as an 'adaption by' credit.

Interestingly, one of the reasons Buckaroo Banzai does have a feeling of being mid-series is that Richter apparently wrote quite a few partial scripts for different Buckaroo stories before completing the Across the 8th Dimension script.

I also got to see but not open a copy of the novelization. It was bagged, and priced IIRC at over $100, which is a bit crazy as AbeBooks seach shows good condition copies in the $7-10 range. I'm going to guess it was a, "Let's see how much I can convince people at a convention to pay," pricing.

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

jeriendhal —Peter Weller was never the most expressive actor in the world

  No, but my older sisters thought he was hot. They were the ones who introduced me to the movie.

lilfluff — Interestingly, while I now read that Big Trouble in Little China is not in fact the result of rewriting the Buckaroo Banzai vs The World Crime League script;

  Funny, I’ve never heard that one. I have frequently heard about a Buckaroo Banzai TV series that never materialized, though.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I've heard about the series too. Never saw anything serious except for a brief bit of test CGI where the jet car helps a space shuttle with a landing gear problem touch down.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

I suspect the reason the movie has acquired its cult following is that it's something of an homage to Doc Savage. Buckaroo never hits a man hard enough to dislocate his jawbone, and there are more than five quirky obsessives hanging out with him, but these are details; if I put my brain in neutral it was fun.