The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

Waste of time

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I totally forgot about this movie. I grew up on it as a kid. Ready Player One mentioned it so I looked it up and watched it. Great movie, you can see Back To The Future, Earth Girls Are Easy, DR Who, Howard The Duck, a bit of Robcop and Leviathan too in it.

I watched this recently again. I don't know what it it with this film in particular, but there is a nerve in the mayhem of a script that gets me. Sure Toxic Avenger or the likes go by the same "let it roll, this is great.." attitude. BB is on a different level just because the cast list is so effing good. I feel I am watching so rogue student project born out of good and well humoured attempts. I don't think any one sitting down and watching this will be overwhelmed by the insightful lines open for interpretation into the metaphysical realm of interplanetary understanding nor the many many many references to older films other scripts, and curiously also similar to Back To The Future with the Fords Oscillator Overthuster http://www.figmentfly.com/bb/publicity7b.html. I am draw to this repeatedly as a chaos B-movie that follows little logic and full attention to having great time making this film. I would seem the characters are all larger than life and there will be a cult remake in the wake. But as far as I know this never happened. Sadly this is a one of a kind. It also happens to make anyone but me wake up and wanting to watch this to the end every time, all my friends drop off into sleep.

Adventurer/surgeon/rock musician Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) and his band of men, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, take on evil alien invaders from the 8th dimension.What an incredible cast, with John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Goldblum and Weller himself, just to name a few. Thirty years later, this film is still a marvel to behold -- and while it may not be perfect, it is strange enough to make up for its shortcomings.I have only see the theatrical print (in a theater, no less), but now I want the comic books, the director's cut and so much more. I want the sequel (which, of course, is completely unlikely).

Writer Earl Mac Rauch and debuting director W.D. Richter (himself a writer of such things as the 1978 version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers") present to cult movie lovers a rollicking and memorable tribute to and send-up of the Saturday matinée serials of decades past. It has its heart in the right place while maintaining a completely irreverent attitude, a fair amount of invention, and a goofy unpredictability (even while telling what is ultimately a time-honoured tale of alien invasion). The movie features one of the most eclectic casts you'll see in this sort of thing, right down to the small roles. It's got fun alien makeup (by the Burman studio), an appreciable amount of cheese, some choice bits of dialogue, and a colourful bunch of cool characters.Peter Weller stars as the Buckaroo Banzai of the title, a celebrity and jack of all trades: he's a neurosurgeon, physicist, government troubleshooter, jet car test driver, and rock star all in one. He works with a dedicated team of fellow scientists and musicians dubbed The Hong Kong Cavaliers. They find that it's up to them to save the day when extraterrestrial villains called Lectroids start acting up. Among the newest members of Buckaroo's team are the troubled Penny Priddy (an appealing Ellen Barkin) and jovial "New Jersey" (Jeff Goldblum); the nemesis is Lord John Whorfin, who's taken over the body of a scientist named Emilio Lizardo (both roles are played by John Lithgow, who's in peak hammy form).You know you're in for some good times when you peruse the cast list: Christopher Lloyd, Lewis Smith, Rosalind Cash, Robert Ito, Pepe Serna, Ronald Lacey (the Nazi torturer from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" playing the President of the United States here!), Matt Clark, Clancy Brown, Carl Lumbly, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Bill Henderson, Billy Vera, Jonathan Banks, John Ashton, and none other than Yakov Smirnoff playing the National Security Adviser! Everybody is fun to watch, with Weller thoroughly engaging as the game-for- anything Buckaroo, a man destined from birth to be something special. There's some poignancy here and there, but cast & crew commit to mostly keeping an upbeat spirit while the insanity of this movie plays out.This viewer is glad there is an audience for stuff like this (it *does* have a following); this is the kind of thing that ought to get encouraged more often.The end credits with Buckaroo and buddies marching through an aquaduct is irresistible and ends the proceedings on a true high note.Eight out of 10.