The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension

Posted by Notcot on May 27, 2010 in Cult Film |

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5 Comments

tim yeoman
at 8:23 pm

This film is so under-rated. The U.K. missed this film in a big way, just look at the cast list.Weller,Goldblum and the rest. This film is so much fun, even the end credits have a tune that sticks in your head.
This film is an up-dated version of the classic pulp hero Doc Savage,you would be forgiven for thinking that Ron Ely might turn up playing Buckaroo’s dad, which leads me to the reason for the title of this review:
For Region 1 you can get a 2 disc special DVD. Tons of extras including extra scenes re-introduced into the film,including our hero as a boy with his parents.(Jamie Lee Curtis as his mum)
This might not seem like much but as you get to know our hero,you will have some unanswered questions like what makes him tick and what is the deal with his new girlfriend?
Heck. Get this DVD anyway and meet loads of aliens with the first name John, a watermelon and Jeff Goldblum dressed like Tom Mix.
Rating: 5 / 5


 
Alasdair Swanson
at 8:58 pm

Buckaroo Banzai — surgeon, scientist, rock star, comic-book hero and interplanetary icon — is only part of the story. There’s a whole world hidden away behind the film, the world of the Banzai Institute and Blue Blaze Irregulars. And, on this R1 Special Edition, you get it all :

- MARVEL at the CD Covers of the Hong Kong Cavaliers!
- ADMIRE the plans of the Jet Car!
- GAWP at the interviews on Banzai Radio!
- BOGGLE at the choice of Theatrical or Special Editions!
- FIND all the Easter Eggs!
- TRY to keep your lunch down when you see Chicken In A Watermelon!

This is *the* most feature-packed DVD I’ve seen in years, applied to a film that richly deserves it. If you’re in on the film, the complete immersion in its universe is intoxicating, otherwise it can wear thin quite fast. I love it, and the print and sound mix are both pristine — much better than the third-generation copy I’d been watching for the last ten years. The only shortcoming is the lack of an english SDH stream but otherwise, it’s gorgeous. Now if only “The Wizard of Speed and Time” was available like this…

Oh, *don’t* bother with the R2 version, it’s a bland vanilla disc that will disappoint terribly.
Rating: 5 / 5


 
J. D. Stevenson
at 10:55 pm

Buckaroo Banzai is one of my all-time favorite Sci-Fi movies, in the mold of “Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy”. It is a bit spoof, a bit pure Sci-Fi, and a great deal bizarre (but non-frightening). It actually has a plot, attempts by the good earthpeople to foil a dastardly plot by the invading aliens, but, for me at any rate, the tongue-in-cheek banter is first rate. Consider the New York neurosurgeon showing up to go on the mission wearing a complete cowboy outfit including sixguns and chaps. Great fun; well worth adding to your library if you like the genre.
Rating: 4 / 5


 
M. J. Jacobs
at 12:23 am

If you can follow the entire plot and work out what’s going on the first time you watch this, congratulations, you’re ready to join MENSA! It is a very fast-plotted, fast-moving, and bewildering spectacle full of wonderful science fiction in-jokes and over-the-top characters. Where else could you find so many of Hollywood’s “A-list” literally just before they made it into the bigtime? A cast of many, but worth many thousands.

The visuals are delicious, and the concepts are delightful, and every character seems to be perfectly cast for the role. John Lithgow’s mad scientist is mad in the comic-book tradition, and before Robocop, Weller plays an architypal hero for modern-day western society.

You’ll want to watch this many times (if you can understand it at all), and it isn’t for people who think that Dumb & Dumber is challenging cinema. If you are brave enough to enter the 8th dimension, you’ll be glad that you did.
Rating: 5 / 5


 
Douglas Ormiston
at 3:10 am

Play ‘spot the star’ or revel in the absurdity of a convoluted plot involving secret plans by evil forces from the fourth dimension to take over the world by harnessing the power of the overthruster, and rock star/nuclear physicist Buckaroo Banzai’s attempts to thwart them in partnership with rastafarian intergalactic do-gooders. It really is that bizarre, it really is that good, and it really does contain so many stars just a little before they were famous. You really must see this. Absolutely classic late night viewing. Makes Dark Star seem sensible.
Rating: 5 / 5


 

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