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(More customer reviews)'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai' nearly defies definition! A cult classic, this send-up of alien invasion stories, pulp fiction heroes, and adventure movies is a love/hate proposition; while I found it to be brilliant fun, many of my friends thought it was incomprehensible! One thing for sure...There is NO other film quite like it!
Buckaroo (played with laid-back coolness by Peter Weller) is a Japanese/American race car driver/neurosurgeon/rock star/comic book hero who, with his rock 'n roll commandos, The Hong Kong Cavaliers, balances his time between saving lives, pushing the boundaries of science, troubleshooting for the President, and playing gigs in nightclubs (lost, yet?). The film opens with his performing surgery, recruiting a new Cavalier member (a pre-stardom Jeff Goldblum), then hopping into a prototype race car, supposedly to break the land speed record, but actually to test a device that would allow man to travel through solid objects by adjusting their molecular density! (NOW are you lost?)
The experiment works, but thrusts Bonzai temporarily into the Eighth Dimension, a kind of Phantom Zone for criminals from Planet Ten. The breech allows an alien invasion to begin, as Planet 10 stormtroops (frog-faced creatures who all take the names of various celebrities named 'John') get their marching orders, and invade New Jersey!
This is not the first time the Eighth Dimension has been breeched; in 1938, Dr. Lizardo (John Lithgow, in his funniest performance ever) attempted a similar experiment, but his head became stuck, temporarily, in the hole! An alien presence entered his mind, and Lizardo was shipped off to a mental hospital, where he plotted the destruction of the human race ("Laugh-a while you can, monkey boy! You all are-a gonna die!") Freed by the invasion force, Lithgow begins to carry out his threat!
Meanwhile, Bonzai meets Penny Priddy (Ellen Barkin, in an early performance), the twin sister of his lost love, while the Hong Kong Cavaliers are performing at a gig, and begins wooing her with his philosophy of life ("No matter where you go...there you are.") A frantic call from the President and a murder attempt breaks up the romantic interlude, and the adventure REALLY begins! (If you aren't lost by now, you may just be a Buckaroo fan!)
The film careens from one climax to another, scarcely allowing the viewer time to think (which, in a film like this, may be a GOOD thing!). Director W.D. Richter deftly keeps the tone light, although there is a heartbreaking death scene tossed in. As the situation grows more desperate, alien Black Lectoids, and the Buckaroo Bonzai Fan Club (Team Banzai) arrive to lend a hand! Will Good triumph? Will Buckaroo find happiness with Penny Priddy? Will the sequel, with Buckaroo taking on a world crime syndicate, ever be made? (Sadly, as the film bombed in it's initial release, THAT appears unlikely!)
Loaded with more imagination than any three films you can name, and a oddball sense of humor, to boot, 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai' is a wonderful, wacky triumph, that challenges you to toss aside preconceptions, and 'enjoy the ride'!
I HIGHLY recommend it!
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"The very oddest good movie in many a full moon," Buckaroo Banzai combines "humor, imagination, a little oriental mysticism and a passel of sharp performances [into] very chic sci-fi" (Time)! Oscar(r) nominees* Peter Weller and John Lithgow team with Emmy(r) winners Ellen Barkin and Christopher Lloyd for a fiendishly clever, action-packed adventure in an outlandishworld you'll want to visit again and again!Brilliant brain surgeon Banzai (Weller) just made scientific history. Shifting his Oscillation Overthruster into warp speed, he's the first man ever to travel to the Eighth Dimension and come back sane! But when his sworn enemy, the demented Dr. Lizardo (Lithgow), devises a plot to steal the Overthruster and bring an evil army of aliens back todestroy Earth, Buckaroo goes cranium to cranium with the madman in an extra-dimensional battle thatcould result in total annihilation of the universe!*1993: Short Film/Live Action, Partners (Weller); 1983: Supporting Actor, Terms Of Endearment (Lithgow)
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