The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984)

Wow

I was bored and thought I'd look for a good movie I haven't seen. Wow look at all the great reviews I'll give it a shot. The worse movie I've ever seen! Seriously it drove my friends out of the house during movie marathon night. Finished it just to say I did. Only thing good about it is giving it to the most hated person in the office during the company party. Yup I'll buy for those I don't like in hopes they also waste their life's watching it. July 9, 2008

Perfect

The Princess Bride and Young Frankenstein perfect movies -- just like this one. If you've ever thought of yourself as a different sort of person, if people have thought you were wierd, this movie's for you. If you've never thought of yourself that way, this movie's still for you, because you'll laugh and change the way you look at things. Oh, for goodness sake, stop reading these reviews and just click on the darn movie! June 24, 2008

Odd but interesting

This is definitely not something that will appeal to everyone. My opinion improved after repeated viewings. May 4, 2008

There's no there there...

I'm sorry but I have to go against the flow of positive reviews and say this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It has moments - isolated performances such as John Lithgow's speech to the other aliens - that are pretty funny, but as a film it is a completely disjointed mess. There are many scenes that don't seem to connect to anything. The editors could just have easily shuffled the scenes and put them together in random order since it doesn't make any difference (and maybe they did). And could the acting have been more non-existent? No Mabel, it couldn't! Instead of getting well known actors it would have been easier for the film makers to wander around town until they found and recruited a local garage band. If you want to see a really bad sci-fi film that is funny in spite of its' awfulness have a look at Zardoz. If you really need Buckaroo Bonzai do yourself a favor and just get a movie poster - it will be less painful. April 27, 2008

Not As "Out There" As I Expected

Really, this movie is quite typical of what you'd expect in a sci-fi movie. Two scientists attempt to discover a way to travel inside of things based on the premise that atoms of matter are composed of mostly empty space. The scientist played by John Lithgow succeeds only partially, and the results of his experiment leave him in a nutty mental state. The other scientist later teams up with Buckaroo Banzai, and Buckaroo is the first guy ever to pass through a solid mountain by entering what I assume to be the 8th dimension.

Buckaroo is really the most likeable character in the movie. He never loses his cool and he can pretty much do anything. Unlike Neil Connery in Operation Double 007, Peter Weller makes this role somewhat believable.

Anyway John Lithgow finds out Buckaroo's experiment has succeeded completely, so he breaks out of the mental asylum to try to get his hands on some of Buckaroo's technological stuff that will finally allow him access into the 8th dimension. And we find out that the reason he wants to get there so bad is his body has been taken over by one of the alien beings from that dimension, and this alien wants to go home. Lithgow gives a terrific quotable speech when he's just on the verge of accomplishing this long awaited task.

But of course, he's foiled by that darn Buckaroo Banzai. A few good aliens from the 8th dimension warn Buckaroo that stopping John Lithgow is imperative or some kind of physical explosion will happen that will cause nations of the world to lose their cool and go to war with one another, destroying the entire planet. It's all very scientific. Buckaroo heeds their advice, gets help from an alien disguied as a Jamaician, and the world is saved.

This is like a heavily sci-fi movie with just a few eccentricities thrown in sporatically here and there. I figured it would have a LOT more eccentricities, but it's mostly just your typical, somewhat mediocre, sci-fi movie. Aside from the character names, the Buckaroo Banzai comic, Jeff Goldblum's cowboy costume, and the whole rock band image, there really aren't any eccentricities in this film.

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of sci-fi movies, which explains most of my disappointment, but I love the old 80's style music, and Buckaroo Banzai and his band are just plain cool. Even though I don't care for their movie all that much, I'll probably promote the characters themselves till my dying day. Buckaroo Banzai rules! April 19, 2008

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