The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
| Year: | 1984 |
| Production Co: | Sherwood Productions |
| Director: | W D Richter |
| Producer: | W D Richter |
| Cast: | Peter Weller, Jeff Goldblum, Clancy Brown, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Shiavelli, Ellen Barkin |
Something of a one-joke film. If you take the character arc, narrative and premise the whole film is deceptively mainstream. All they really did was populate it with bizarre characters, all of them with outlandish back stories.
As such it's a lot less interesting than it looks, and apparently audiences agreed. The film was a monumental flop on its 1984 release despite the best efforts of the producers to make it a cult classic - before the term had even been coined. Of particular note is the frame before the end credits, promising Buckaroo would return in a sequel. The production company went bankrupt over the losses and the sequel was never made.
A surgeon, rock band lead and adventurer Buckaroo Banzai (Weller, in his only other notable role aside from Robocop ) builds on the work of his scientist parents, who used a rocket-powered car in the desert to travel to the eight dimension when he was a child.
When Banzai successfully achieves a similar feat, he unwittingly opens a doorway into our world, and aliens come to Earth to take over. It's up to Buckaroo and his band of men - the Hong Kong Cavaliers - to stop them.
Some very recognisable faces, it was sort of a sci-fi comedy Big Chill, but aside from the bizarre outlook, not much stood out.
As such it's a lot less interesting than it looks, and apparently audiences agreed. The film was a monumental flop on its 1984 release despite the best efforts of the producers to make it a cult classic - before the term had even been coined. Of particular note is the frame before the end credits, promising Buckaroo would return in a sequel. The production company went bankrupt over the losses and the sequel was never made.
A surgeon, rock band lead and adventurer Buckaroo Banzai (Weller, in his only other notable role aside from Robocop ) builds on the work of his scientist parents, who used a rocket-powered car in the desert to travel to the eight dimension when he was a child.
When Banzai successfully achieves a similar feat, he unwittingly opens a doorway into our world, and aliens come to Earth to take over. It's up to Buckaroo and his band of men - the Hong Kong Cavaliers - to stop them.
Some very recognisable faces, it was sort of a sci-fi comedy Big Chill, but aside from the bizarre outlook, not much stood out.