Looking Back - The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Looking Back At Sci-Fi Movies of Yesteryear

The year is 1984. Spock has been found and we are all still reeling from The Return of the Jedi from the previous summer.  Michael Jackson is still burning up the charts from an album that came out two years ago and Peter Davison is bidding us farewell as the Fifth Doctor.  It is also the year the movie The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension came out.

One of the reasons I do this occasional article is to watch movies from my youth that my parents didn’t take me to see (Plus to see some of the classics from decades past).  After watching Buckaroo Banzai I was glad my parents didn’t waste money to see this movie as in a word it is awful.

Well were to start.  For one the story is kinda lame and hokey.  But hey that was the 80's for yah.  The thing about this movie is that there is quite a bit of recognizable stars in it.  For one it stars Peter Weller as Buckaroo Banzai with a supporting cast of Jeff Goldblum, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin and Christopher Lloyd.  Well the acting is bad which is a shame considering the actors involved but when you have weird dialog and silly scenarios then you just got to make the best of it I believe.

The story could have been good. Aliens here trying to steal the oscillation overthruster for their own evil plans and must be stopped by Buckaroo before another set of aliens blows Earth up to prevent this.  Well not a bad plot but would have been better if the execution was there.  I think it would have been better if the movie didn’t take it self so seriously and just stuck to being a comedy.

Since it is billed as an adventure comedy I did not find this movie all that funny.  In fact the funniest thing about this movie was me laughing at myself for actually renting it and watching the movie. Buckaroo Banzai had one of the worst soundtracks ever.  It sounded like someone got a brand new electronic keyboard and went to town. The soundtrack is very cheesy and is just very bad music.

From what I gather Buckaroo Banzai has a cult following and that is fine.  I can see that since quite a few bad movies from the 80's especially geeky ones do have a large cult following.  But I just did not like the movie at all as I thought it was stupid and not very funny at all.  For once I’m glad my parents did not take me to go see this movie. If you do watch this movie check out the credits for a somewhat cool closing segment during them.

Grade D-