The Amazing Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the 8th Dimension.
Cult films come in a range of genre and variety. The term itself has a whole range of films underneath it. From comedies to horror, dramas to, well, the most fucking bizarre things you’ll ever see - cult is plentiful when its delivers. They all have one thing in common though - they weren’t really appreciated when they first came out. Unseen, poorly promoted and with a message probably ahead of their time, cult films often linger in the atmos until one person picks it up and falls in love with it. Then another. Then ten. Then thousands more. All in celebration. God Bless DVD. (Sidebar: Which is why I will hammer on about Filth until people reveal in its riches).
Anyway, regardless of all this, you haven’t seen a film quite as bat-shit insane but terribly beloved by fans since The Amazing Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the 8th Dimension. And yes, I’m fully aware that is a ridiculously long title. So let’s call it Buckaroo Banzai for now. Because there is no one like Buckaroo Bonzai.
Right - so strap in guys for the weirdest but biggest ride of your life. And that’s just the plot. The film revolves around our titular hero who is the son of an American mother and Japanese father, though played by Peter Weller but he’s RoboCop so we can forgive him for not being remotely mixed at all. Anyway, I’ve already written quite a bit so I’ll keep this going. Buckaroo is literally everything a hero could be - his a scientist ready to break interdimensional travel, he is a martial arts master, a secret agent and a rock star who travels to globe. Oh, and he’s a neurosurgeon. Yeahhhh. Anyway, Buckaroo hasn’t got time to relax when an invasion of an alien special from the titular dimension called the Red Lectroids have been waiting for Buckroo’s invention so they can conquer their planet. Oh, and there’s Buckaroo’s arch nemesis Dr. Emilio Lizardo who is actually possessed by Red Lectroids. OH! And there’s Rastafarian aliens, a twin sister of a dead wife, JEFF GOLDBLUM, annnnnnd a WATERMELLON. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh.
Right - this is a case of one of those films where you really have to see it to believe it. Whether or not this is actually a good movie or a case of so-weird-its-great still hasn’t been figured out. BUT that’s not the point. Director W.D. Richter and writer Earl Mac Rauch are clearly giving no shits and just cobbled together little bits and pieces of different genres, creating a Franken-film that has to be seen to really be believed. There are some hysterical one liners, by the way, and some jokes that satire every other fucking film out there. They are just lines and moments that are tinged with glitter and over the top craziness that only the eighties (surprised? No. Thought not,) could muster up. It’s so insane that it is almost coherent. And it’s over the top middle finger to stuffy film critics and the rules of cinema literally make it…well… awesome.
What holds it together is the cast because - and I’m assuming that this film was birthed from an LSD trip in Thailand and some serious shit went down between Weller and Nigel Lithgow (who appears Lizardo) - they looked at the script and premise and went, “oh fuck yeah, I want to be in this.” Lithgow is actually incredible as the electrified haired villain romping around with this accent from everywhere and wide-eyed craziness. Weller is literally the greatest man on Earth so there is so surprise that he’d that the role. The conversation probably went something like this:
“Oh so what’s the character like?”
“Well - he does this and this and this and is pretty much bad ass at everything.”
“I’M FUCKING IN!”
There’s also Christopher Lloyd, Lewis Smith, Ellen Barkin and JEFF.GOLD.BLUM! Nuff said.
So this may not be the kind of posh review you’d find on, say, The New York Times. But seeing as the film has no restraints, I am not having any. Just endeavour to watch it at some point because the movie will make your life a billion times better. You just don’t know why. You just don’t know how. It will.
Oh. And. JEFF GOLDBLUM
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh