THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION

U.S.A. | 1984 Directed by W.D. Richter Starring Peter Weller John Lithgow Ellen Barkin Color | 102 Minutes | PG Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC) MGM Home Entertainment

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		Review by Nick Coccellato Film:6 DVD:9

It's Buckaroo Banzai, that rock 'n' rollin' leader of the Hong Kong Cavaliers! He’s a doctor, scientist, and musician… truly a renaissance man! Now Banzai has to battle Red Lectroids from Planet 10 — by way of the 8th Dimension — or else his planet will be destroyed!

The film stars Peter Weller as Banzai, a mythical jack-of-all trades. When he's not performing brain surgery with "New Jersey" (Jeff Goldblum) or jamming onstage with "Perfect Tommy" (Lewis Smith), "Reno Nevada" (Pepe Serna) and "Rawhide" (Clancy Brown), Banzai is busy crossing into the 8th Dimension with his Oscillation Overthruster-equipped jet car. However, his success in crossing the dimensional barrier threatens his planet when Lord John Worfin (John Lithgow), a former-associate-now-turned-Red-Lectroid of Banzai's colleague Professor Hikita (Robert Ito), learns of Buckaroo's success and plans to steal the Overthruster so his comrades at Yoyodyne Propulsion — Red Lectroids in human form with names like John Bigboote (Christopher Lloyd) and John O'Connor (Vincent Schiavelli) — can go back to Planet 10. If they succeed, Black Lectroids in a metallic space cloud hovering over earth will disrupt worldwide communications and trigger World War III! Meanwhile, Banzai discovers a distressed woman named Penny Priddy (Ellen Barkin) who may or may not be the identical twin of his long-dead wife Peggy. Got it so far?

This film feels like everything including the kitchen sink was thrown into a pot, stirred gently, and served on a giant silver platter. The movie is chock full of throwaway details and non sequiturs, like the watermelon in the Banzai Institute lab or the U.S. president’s Declaration of War: The Short Form. The problem is that none of it gels in the way one would expect.

Firstly, Peter Weller (Robocop) is a good actor but was a bad choice to play Banzai. His performance is almost totally on one-note: subdued nonchalance. His best moments in character are when he really emotes, like the moment he struck by an electrical signal from a telephone booth that allows him to see the Red Lectroids and he runs into a conference hall and shouts, "Evil! Pure and simple from the 8th Dimension! Get them!"

Secondly, the attitude of the film distances the audience from the story instead of involving us with it. The deadpan style that director W.D. Richter employs is so deadpan, so understated that it left me bored for a good portion of the film. Everyone in the film seems so unaffected by what happens that it left me unaffected as well.

Finally, a lot of the scenes in the film aren't structured well, visually or otherwise. The opening sequence when Banzai travels into the 8th Dimension uses either too many quick cuts or too many blurry images for the audience to follow. And the climax, or should I say anticlimax, is so poorly handled that when Banzai tries to stop Worfin before he gets back to the 8th Dimension, what happens next feels like a forgone conclusion.

However, the film is so inventive in detail, so ambitious in its grand design and just so plain silly that I can’t help but admire the film in hindsight. Fun supporting performances from Goldblum, Barkin, Lloyd and Lithgow are too nutty and over-the-top to be ignored. The final credit sequence alone, where Banzai and the entire cast of the film strut down the dry L.A. aqueduct to the film’s theme song, is worth the price of admission (or rental).

While I haven’t been very impressed with the slate of remakes that have been coming out of Hollywood over the last decade, especially the reboots of decade old franchises like Planet of the Apes, Batman, Superman, and now Spider-Man (!), I do feel that Buckaroo Banzai is just the right property to be given a revamp. I can imagine Johnny Depp as Banzai, Marion Cotillard as Penny, and maybe Paul Rudd as New Jersey. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem likely that anyone will touch Banzai for awhile because according to IMDb: "The film was a box-office bomb and Sherwood Studios went bankrupt. After its release on video and cable, however, BB became a cult favorite. Legal wrangling due to the bankruptcy prevented any other studios from picking up the sequel rights, and even years later MGM had to fight through a pile of red tape simply to get the OK to release it on DVD."

As Buckaroo might say at a time like this, "No matter where you go, there you are."

MGM did a very good job with this 2002 release. The 16x9 anamorphic transfer of the 2.35:1 widescreen image is as pristine as the 5.1 audio soundtrack is clear. I was particularly delighted by the Pinky Carruther’s Unknown Facts subtitle option about the backstory on the characters and the events (they even reveal what the watermelon was there for!). However, a lot of Pinky Carruther’s Unknown Facts, just like the Buckaroo Banzai Declassifed Documentary and the commentary by W.D. Richter and Earl Mac Rauch, are so dry that it needs more of a tongue-in-cheek approach to make it work — much like the film. After all, this is supposed to be a comedy! The deleted scenes don't work either, nor do they add much to the movie, so it was a smart decision on the part of the filmmakers to keep them out of the film. I really did like the 3-D animation trailer of the jet car escaping the 8th Dimension, being chased by alien warbirds and helping a damaged space shuttle without its front wheels land on the tarmac. All in all, a good package! 1/18/10

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