The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eighth Dimension

Who wouldn't want an oscillation overthruster?  It allows one to pass through solid matter.  I've wondered what comprises it.  Not merely atoms.  Neurosurgeon/rock star/physicist Buckaroo Banzai finally makes the device work, driving a souped up vehicle straight through a mountain.  Sure enough, he finds something else - another dimension.  A place where a group of evil aliens were banished.  What do they have to do with the batty Dr. Emilio Lizardo/Lord John Whorfin?  It gets somewhat complicated.

But not so much as I remembered.  I was quite a devotee of 1984's THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE EIGHT DIMENSION when it played on HBO back in my teen years, and while my multiple viewings began to elucidate things, it remained an enigma.  Watching it last year, for the first time in many, it almost all made sense. Huh. It was more than sweet nostalgia, though when I hear Michael Boddicker's playful, unexplainably emotion scoring, I get plenty of that.  That theme song may well be my favorite, and it plays over the end credits, one of my favorite ever.

But let's back up here. Earl Mac Rauch's original screenplay creates patently kooky worlds playfully brought to life by director W.D. Richter and his team (listen to his Blu-Ray commentary, it's informative and enjoyable).  We're mainly on Earth, but get glimpses of Planet Ten, and the good aliens.  There's a war between the Black and Red Lectroids, and that overthruster may release the latter from their banishment in the mountain.  Lizardo originated the device decades earlier, but rushed experimentation that left him stuck between dimensions.  And totally insane.

Maybe BUCKAROO BANZAI is a mess of half realized ideas, but I love it anyway.  I tend not to examine the screenplay too closely, but simultaneously love this collection of oddball sequences.  I love the cast too.  Peter Weller plays the title character just right - not as a superhero but a mysterious rogue who has genius and heart.  He really cares about his band and partners in crime, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, that has members like Rawhide (Clancy Brown), Perfect Tommy (Lewis Smith), and "New Jersey" (Jeff Goldblum).  Ellen Barkin shows up as a suicidal twin of Buckaroo's deceased wife.  Christopher Lloyd is John Bigboote, one of the Red Lectroids whose last name is forever mispronounced.  And John Lithgow goes full tilt with his whacked out portrayal of Lizardo, sporting an accent that perhaps begin with the most caricatured Eye-talian you've heard.