Not too sure what to think about this movie. It seems like its a spoof, of what, I do not know however. Perhaps of comic-book type of movies from the '80's, or adventurous serials from the '30's/40's? But then again there's the problem that the movie is not really funny and on top of that, also not so very well made. Guess the movie can best be seen as a cult-classic, for the fans of it.

To be honest, the movie began well and promising. It developed some potentially interesting characters and plot lines but for some reason as the movie progresses they don't get handled well. The movie becomes more crazy and crazy as the movie heads toward the ending. At one point I even stopped caring and wanting to understand what the movie was all about. It was confusing, it was poor but above all it was odd.

The movie could had been fun, the movie could had been action filled but yet it all isn't. It's wasted potential, cause I guess that in essence Buckaroo Banzai isn't really a bad fun movie main-hero.

The movie is only fun now really with its character's names. All of the alien's their first name is John and they have names such as John Bigboote, John O'Connor and John Smallberries. But other than that, there isn't really much fun present in the movie. The many famous actors however still provide the movie with some fun and this uplifts the movie. Amazing how many great actors are in this movie such as Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Clancy Brown, Ronald Lacey, Vincent Schiavelli and Dan Hedaya. John Lithgow is deliciously overacting as the movie its main villain but I just wish that he had more sequences and was made more interesting as a character. Peter Weller was a great leading man in the '80's and he shows with this movie how well he can carry a movie.

The special effects are all decent for '80's standards but perhaps overused a bit too much. The musical score is typically '80's like and absolutely horrible. Further more the movie is fairly well looking, too bad inexperienced director W.D. Richter doesn't know how to use everything to its full potential.

Yet it's not all that bad and the movie still entertains, so the movie obviously still has some redeeming qualities which makes this still a bit of a watchable movie.

5/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

His movie tanked when it came out but has earned a well-deserved niche as a cult favorite. I know it's one I can rewatch occasionally, because to me it's a fine B movie. When it came out, I told people it's an updating of Doc Savage. Buckaroo, played by Peter Weller, is a surgeon-rocker who is testing a rocket car to drive through a mountain, across the Eighth Dimension. When the news gets out, John Lithgow, who invented the key gizmo in 1938, and was transformed into an alien, leads a band of similarly misplaced aliens to steal the device and get home. This results in the good aliens from that planet preparing to blow up the Earth and preventing that happening.

Weller has a bunch of similarly brilliant scientists helping him, including Jeff Goldblum (who is called "New Jersey" and dresses in a Singing Cowboy outfit),Robert Ito and the underutilized Lewis Smith. Lithgow is supported by a bunch of comic actors who specialize in eccentrics, like Christopher Lloyd and Dan Hedaya.

It's trash of the highest order. The movie's failure put paid to W. D. Richter's career as a director. The planned sequel, "The World Crime League", in which he would battle a Fu Manchu-type villain, went through numerous rewrites and became BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA.

"The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" is a movie that understands full well what kind of movie it is and so they made it as zany as possible. Peter Weller was a few years away from playing RoboCop when he played the renaissance man who travels through solid matter and brings Earth into confrontation with aliens. What was particularly neat was when they noted that all matter is mostly empty space due to the spinning of the atoms (which presumably makes it possible to travel through the matter). And of course the part about Orson Welles's radio broadcast was cool. But mostly, the movie is just fun, and it looks like the sort of movie that they probably had fun making. As long as you accept it as an unabashedly silly flick, you're sure to enjoy it. Weller, as well as John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum and the rest turn in some great performances.