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I still don't really know what to make of The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai (Across The Eighth Dimension). Heck, I don't even really know what to make of that damned title. Still, it could be worse, it could be Megaforce!


"I tell you if it ain't one thing, it's another"

This was one of those movies that I hadn't seen since I was considerably younger and realistically I could have rented. But oh no, it was one of those (fairly) rare cases where we were screwed in R4 and we got none of the considerable bonus materials found on the R1 DVD. Amazon, here I come.

Now that I have watched it, I can honestly say (and I could say this about a lot of titles I've bought) I probably didn't have to get it (although at the $10 price tag it's nothing too get too worried about).

This movie is all over the shop. It's not particularly well written. It's not particularly well acted. It's not particularly well directed. But there's something about it I can't quite put my finger on. The movie is quite conventional in many ways but serves it's treats up in such an idiosynchratic manner (reminiscent of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy) you can't help but be one over, despite it's many faults.

There has been much mention of the similarities and connections between this movie and Big Trouble In Little China and I guess I can kinda see that, but I think BTILC is the more entertaining of the two. W.D. Richter, the director, contributed to the script of BTILC and there has been some confusion as to whether or not the movie began as a sequel to BB (apparently not). The other connection is that the Jack Burton character from BTILC supposedly has a cameo in the script for the never filmed BB sequel, Buckaroo Banzai Versus The World Crime League.

Despite all my whinging, there is much too admire in this movie. Fred Koenekamp's wondorous Panavision cinematography is a delight from go to whoah and he and Richter obviously took great pleasure in filling the screen with the staggering ensemble cast (or alternatively, the truly quirky set decoration of Linda DeScenna, back to her later)from corner to corner of the screen.

One of my most favorite gags in this movie is the conceit that Orson Welles' broadcast of War Of Worlds was actually real and that he was forced to come on at the end and say it was a fictional radio play to cover up the truth!

When I think of this movie, it reminds me specifically of two other movies, one which came the year before it and one which came the year after it. "http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086197/">The Right Stuff (1983) is a compelling look at the American space program and one can't but get a sense of deja vu of the opening scenes of BB as the Jet Car is successfully tested across the El Mirage dry lake bed in California or the press conference between the entire Team Banzai and a scrum of journalists. The other movie that has a kinship to this one is Back To The Future (1985) (and to a lesser extent, it's sequels). From the Jet Car to the costumes to the art direction to the sense of humour to the special effects, there is an array of cross referencing going on. The obvious reason is that many of the crew from BB went on to work on BTTF (and similarly, The Right Stuff). Producer Neil Canton took many key crew from BB to BTTF, amongst them, his Production Manager Dennis Jones, music supervisor Bones Howe and actors Christopher Lloyd and Read Morgan. Jeff Goldblum played a not dissimilar role in both The Right Stuff and BB.

As I mentioned before, Linda DeScenna is one of those unsung talents in Hollywood and her beginning in Hollywood was as a Set Decorator - which is surely one of the most under-appreciated jobs someone can have on a movie set. But if you tell someone she dressed the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek - The Motion Picture or Deckard's apartment in Blade Runner or Willy's pirate ship in The Goonies or Biff's garish alternate reality 80's penthouse in Back To The Future Part Two you may start to get an appreciation for her work. BTW, she didn't work on Parts One or Three of BTTF, only Two. But she has received five Oscar nominations for her work.

As I also mentioned before, the costumes are also an important element to BB, and are futuristic in a subtle manner without being too obvious. Like DeScenna, Costume Designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers has had a considerable career, beginning with the San Francisco filmmakers: Lucas on American Grafitti, Coppola on The Conversation and Saul Zaentz on One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Her idiosynchartic style melds nicely with BB and can also be seen on display in the Burton flicks Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Beetle Juice.

The music is also an important part of this movie. The synthesized score by Michael Boddicker is a piece of daggy fun, and is ably supported by talented veterans such as Alan Howarth (who worked with John Carpenter on a number of scores) and the afore-mentioned Howe.

The assembled cast is initially impressive, although it cannot be said that there is any Oscar calibre performances in the movie. Peter Weller and Ellen Barkin make a fairly dull leading couple and do not show much of the spark or wit they will show off in later films (RoboCop and Sea Of Love respectively). The supporting cast is slightly more impressive: John Lithgow appears to be auditioning for his later huge success in Third Rock From The Sun, Goldblum continues the string of likeable geeks from much of his career, Clancy Brown, in one of his few likeable roles, and the cast is round out by people as diverse as Lloyd, Ronald Lacey, Matt Clark, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Billy Vera (!!) and Jonathan Banks (the same year he played Deputy Brent in Gremlins and Zack in Beverly Hills Cop!). Unlike most deleted scenes in movies, the removed opening introductory scene to BB features a never seen before performance by Jamie Lee Curtis.

The highlight of the DVD package is the movie itself, which looks beautiful, considering its age and low budget. The extras are fairly frivilous (and as frustrating as the movie itself), though care has been taken with them by Richter and writer Earl Mac Rauch. All of the extras are prepared as though BB is real and Richter and Mac Rauch are keepers of the BB archives. Cute! Not! We do get some behind the scenes footage and interviews, but all from the POV that BB was a docudrama. The deleted scenes are mostly pointless, but unlike so many these days, they at least provide some context to the final movie. The highlight of the extras is the credit given to modelmaker Greg Jein, one of the most under appreciated people in the business and someone you could build an entire documentary around (hey, there's a crazy idea). From the spaceships of Star Wars, to the mothership in CE3K to the ferris wheel in 1941 to the Enterprise in many of the Star Trek productions this guy's modelled a lot of cool toys that have been the stuff of little boy's dreams. 'Nuff said.