The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

• Title:  The Adventures of  Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension
• Director:  W.D. Richter
• Date:  1984
• Studio:  MGM / Sherwood Productions
• Cast:  Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Goldblum, Rosalind Cash, Robert Ito, Clancy Brown, Vincent Schiavelli, Carl Lumbly
• Genre:  SF, Adventure, Comedy
• Format:  Color
• DVD Formats:  Anamorphic Widescreen, R1, NTSC

 "Remember, no matter where you go - there you are."  -- Buckaroo Banzai
"History is made at night, Character is what you are in the dark."  -- Lord John Worphin

This is a movie where I actually owned a copy on VHS tape.  However, it is amazing just how good the DVD looks, especially the anamorphic widescreen.  It is, without a doubt, one of my absolutely favorite movies.  I have seen in many times, and have several of  the best lines memorized.

Buckaroo Banzai comes at you all at once and never slows down, producing a wild ride, filled with great lines and snappy dialogue.  However, it also quickly establishes it's characters so we come to care about them as people as the film zips along at warp speed and then some.  If  you have never seen this movie before - I highly, highly recommend watching it at least twice in order to figure out what is going on.

The crawl at the beginning of  the film attempts to explain part of what's going on and introduces some of  the humor of the movie, mentioning that Buckaroo, with an American father and Japanese mother -- was "brought into life the way he was destined to live it - going several directions at once."  It also mentions those "hard rocking scientists - the Hong Kong Cavaliers", Buckaroo's friends who have just sort of drifted into his circle.  And in the movie - he picks up a couple of  new followers.

The opening of  the film attempts to introduce the many sides of Buckaroo -- brilliant neuro-surgeon (Jeff Goldblum gets some great lines in that scene so watch closely), experimental scientist and physicist, head of a rock band, and founder of the Banzai Institute.  He's also an incredibly sensitive man, able to pick out a girl crying in a crowded audience while on stage playing jazzy rock music.

However, the majority of  the plot involves the 1938 Radio Broadcast of  "War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles - the one that panicked the country, when people believed it was real.  This movie posits - What if  it was real?  But the aliens weren't from Mars, but rather trapped in a prison called the 8th Dimension, an inter-spatial place between the tiny particles of matter.  That is, matter is mostly empty space, so Banzai is attempting to prove it is possible to cross inside it.  An earlier experiment into the 8th Dimension had released several aliens from this prison.  When Banzai's experiment opens the Dimension again, more aliens from the Planet 10 arrive to cause World War III if  Whorfin (formerly imprisoned in the 8th Dimension) isn't stopped.

But that really simplifies this brilliant movie.  There are many extremely likable aspects to the film -- a brilliant cast; the idea that the film treats it's audience as intelligent and just drops one into the middle of events, trusting the audience can figure it out without spoon-feeding information; some truly brilliant, funny lines; a rip-roaring, fast-moving fun plot; great characters.  In many ways, it has everything.

By the bye - the sound design in this film is also notable.  Pay attention to the background announcements in the scene when Whorfin escapes from a mental hospital (Whorfin is inhabiting the body of  Dr. Emilio Lazardo) or in the scenes at YoYoDyne Propulsion Systems.

Recommendation:  Run don't walk to the nearest rental store or Netflix and get a copy of the film.
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Next Film:  Adventures of  Robin Hood, The