THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION (1984)
Tagline: Expect the unexpected. He does.
(Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi) [PG]
Buckaroo, The White House wants to know is everything ok with the alien space craft from Planet 10 or should we just go ahead and destroy Russia?
In this one Buckaroo Banzai, who is not only a brain surgeon, crime fighter, and rock musician, he also tests out highly dangerous equipment for the Banzai Institute. It’s basically a worldwide syndicate where everyone seems to know exactly who Buckaroo is, and also has endless resources, but that’s not important right now. After breaking into another dimension (inside of a mountain) Buckaroo draws the attention of evil aliens that are planning to conquer Earth and other worlds. Partly because he has a device they need, and partly because he is the only one that can see them after his “dimensional encounter”. Can Buckaroo and his band the Hong Kong Cavaliers stop this threat from the 8th dimension?
Okay, so this movie was originally intended to be at least a 2 part series with probably more planned. They even advertise that we are getting a second installment at the end of the movie. Only this damn thing bankrupt the entire studio because it bombed and of course that meant no one else to date has been successful in revamping it. It did do well on DVD and actually became a bit of a cult classic. In 2021 the novel for the promised movie titled “Buckaroo Banzai Against The World Crime League”.
Design-wise I did like some of the ships in this, but the aliens themselves looked very run of the mill and the heads on everyone looked like they were borrowed from the sets of movies like ENEMY MINE and THE LAST STARFIGHTER only they were even less defined. The effects were actually pretty awesome for the ’80s especially during the short sequence where Buckaroo breaks into another dimension. The score overall is pretty bad when we get one. A lot of this movie just doesn’t bother with any kind of score at all.
Story-wise there was just too much they tried to cram into this thing even going with a sub-plot about Buckaroo’s deceased wife having a twin sister and now he’s kinda digging on her. I think all this would have been fine if the movie had taken time to flesh it out rather than trying to stuff it into a movie that could have played out over at least 2 films. I also found it odd that this movie goes to the effort to show you that Buckaroo is part of the band “Buckaroo Banzai And The Hong Kong Cavaliers” but they only show 1 song and that one gets interrupted. However, I think the plot being too compact and convoluted as well as the fact that as cool as Buckaroo is, he’s super hard to identify with unless you are like Elon Musk or something made this inaccessible to mainstream audiences.
Acting-wise this movie is very good. I can’t really think of anything wrong. I mean this thing had everyone from Ronald Lacey (best known for INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK), to Clancy Brown (best known for HIGHLANDER), to Christopher Lloyd (best known for BACK TO THE FUTURE), to Jeff Goldblum (best known for JURASSIC PARK) and more. Everyone and their sister were in this movie. Sometimes though that doesn’t really help if the parts are too small or the script just isn’t great. While this movie does have some humor the blend between that and the serious moments feel a bit disjointed. There is something a little bit strange about a dude named John Bigboote having his name repeated like 10 times in a few minutes during an alien hostage rescue situation, and not in a good way.
Overall the best I can do is a 3 out of 7 on this one. If this movie would have spent some time (even a few minutes) letting us get to know the characters, it would have been far more enjoyable.
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