The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai In The 8th Dimension (1984)***

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the 8^th Dimension is a comic book film without the comic. A pure adventure that harkens back to interstellar heroes such as Buck Rodgers and Flash Gordon, fighting aliens with interesting instruments and an even more interesting crew. Comic book films are built to be flashy anyway (at least in this era), but combined with the 1980’s era of excess the film explodes as a flashy piece.

Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) can be classified as the definition of an over achiever. He’s a surgeon, physicist, adventurer, and a rock n’ roll band front man. He also has a huge following that feels almost cult like in that he is the end all be all of the world. I guess you could compare Buckaroo to a modern day god to be worshipped by this world. When Buckaroo breaks from protocol and ends up passing thru solid matter he encounters an alien race that has been hiding in solid objects, which is really the perfect hiding place if you can pull it off. When news breaks of Buckaroo’s exploits Lord John Worfin (John Lithgow), who was a scientist that discovered what lies beneath the atoms but has been possessed for decades breaks free of his room at straight jacket inn and plans to use Buckaroo’s tech to raise from the alien raises exile. Throw in representatives from their home planet deliver a message saying that if they can’t control the situation they will have to cause Earth to be vaporized in a nuclear holocaust between the current super powers.

Buckaroo Banzai has all the ingredients for greatness, but never achieves them. It’s a great premise that keeps a viewer engaged, but it doesn’t feel like it really goes anywhere. Where the character of Buckaroo Banzai is an over achiever, this film is an under achiever. The acting is average with Lithgow really chewing up the scenery as Worfin. An over the top film that doesn’t go over the top, Lithgow’s performance wakes up the audience. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s a bit too much. As a whole, the film sort of lumbers along like a way too long 1980’s music video. There’s a ton of glitz, but the substance is very little. It’s not terrible, but not perfect. Not even close.

I really wanted to enjoy Buckaroo Banzai. The premise of the film is my kind of film and it is an over blown ‘80’s flick. This film is like a well packaged toy where the box makes you want the product inside, but once you get inside the marketing you get a dull, uninspired experience. On paper you could compare this film to Big Trouble In Little China, but don’t be fooled. This is a film that had a ton of potential, yet feels like it’s stuck in the mud. An ok film, but disappointing.