The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai -- Better than Citizen Kane?

marinermc — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:07:00 GMT

YES. IT IS.

Most of you will assume that I'm attempting to be counter-counter-snobbish by saying that what is essentially a B+ film (Banzai) is better than the most beloved and copied piece of drawn out, boobless garbage since The Birth of A Nation. And you'd be partially justified in that assumption -- or is it presumption?

Anyway, the point is, the two films have nothing in common, are seperated by 50 years, and are merely spoke of in such a way so I can be needlessly incendiary in my first (and possibly last) post. But I choose Buckaroo as my first review simply because it's one of those films that you look back on after having not seen in since you were 7 yeard old, and say "wow, this is junk -- but sweet junk."

What's it about?

A group of renegade Renaissance men (brain surgeons, detectives, government watchdogs, and lounge singers) enounter an old arch nemesis, the slithery and discredited Dr. Emilio Lizardo, who recently escaped from a low-security insane asylum to pursue his journey across (or, rather, into) the coveted 8th Dimension. Lizardo (also called John Whorfin and played by a positively cuckoo-nuts John Lithgow) has connections with a group of aliens -- Red Lectroids -- from the 8th Dimension, bent on the destruction of Earth's measly 3 dimensions!

Banzai (played by Peter Weller) and his gang (made up of guys called New Jersey, Perfect Tommy, and Professor Hikita (there's always ONE) etc. have just come back from driving a super-duper transdimentional jet car through a mountain and into the 8th Dimension and become wrapped up in a transdimensional (synonym suggestions?) ***-fight between Red and Green Lectroids (Christmas Aliens essentially). They head off in true Hong-Kong Cavalier style to stop the threat all while Banzai falls in love with his dead wife's identical twin and rides around on a motorcylce in uncomfortable-looking polyester pants.

Luckliy for them Jeff Goldblum arrives and probably saves their (and our) collective heinies. And he does it in a Tom Mix/Roy Rogers cowboy suit with flappy chaps.

Personally (as a child and a man-child) I can't get over the human names the evil Red Lectroids assign themselves. Essentially they're all called John and have random words as last names: John Bigbooty, John Smallberries, and, my favorite, John Ya Ya. Oh, lazy writers...

Best Line? I have to pick just one from a movie replete with cheese...

New Jersey, played by Jeff Goldblum, pointing to a watermelon in a glass case hooked up to an EEG: Why is there a watermelon there?

Reno, played by Pepe Serna: I'll tell you later

RATING?

Five Lectroids out of Five. Hilarious, stupid, SHORT, and utterly comfy due to its sentimental connotations.

marinermc Blog

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai -- Better than Citizen Kane?