Mar 04 2009
B+ Movie Review: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Heinlein wrote “Specialization is for insects” after listing a long litany of things any individual should be able to do, including changing a diaper, writing a sonnet and planning an invasion. This concept travels to a certain archetype of capable hero who knows a little about everything and a lot about how to make use of what he knows. We see examples in Sherlock Holmes, McGuyver, James Bond, Dr. Gregory House and the pulp action hero Doc Savage.
In the 80’s, an new instance of this type of hero appeared in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
Buckaroo Banzai, played by Peter Weller (of Robocop) is a brain surgeon, a scientist, adventurer and rock musician. He has a band, a team of brilliant sidekicks and collegues and a private militia of volunteers who help him because he’s just that awesome. His list of talents and accomplisments makes the ideal set forth by Heinlien seem like little more than a morning agenda.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension starts with Buckaroo Banzai piloting a rocket propelled truck through a mountain by means of extra-dimensional travel. The technobabble filled trip takes him to the title referenced 8th dimension, a place he discoveres is full of strange alien lifeforms called Lectroids, exiles from a war on Planet 10. He finds out there are Lectroids present on Earth and they want to return to Planet 10 on a mission of conquest. Buckaroo Banzai and his team then take on the mission of stopping the Lectroids, whose mission threatens not only their planet but ours.
Sound convoluted? It is. Fun, but as twisted as a bag of pretzels.
The movie has a number of great performances by impressive actors. Jon Lithgow, Clancy Brown, Jeff Golblum, Ellen Barkin and Christopher Lloyd all show up in this film and each one makes their characters memorable and believable. They all play it straight, making the world that much more bizarre as the characters deal with aliens and super science the way most of us deal with coffee makers.
Twenty-five years after its release, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension has fans and fanatics. It has spawned comic books and novels (though we’ll probably never see the sequel promised in the credits Buckaroo Banzai versus the World Crime League, unless someone does a reboot). It has risen to the very definition of cult film and easily gets the B+ rating from me.
If you’ve never seen this one, fix that. Take it in and go back to a world that never was, maybe should have been but definately would be cool to be a part of. “Because no matter where you go… there you are.”
