The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
“John Valuk is dead. He fell on his head.”
Most cult classics didn’t start out trying to be that way. We’re fairly confident the people behind The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Death Race 2000 and maybe even Santa Claus Conquers the Martians thought they had some pretty good movies on their hands. But every once in a while, some brave soul actually tries to make a campy, loopy, outrageously born-to-be-cult-classic film. Today’s case study: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
The over-the-topness isn’t long in coming. Buckaroo Banzai is
introduced as a man of many talents—among them, particle physics, brain
surgery, and rock n’ roll. During a test of his latest invention, the
Oscillation Overthruster, Buckaroo revs his Jet Car up and drives right
through a solid rock face, crossing over into the 8th dimension.
Unfortunately, it isn’t uninhabited. The evil Red Lectroids from Planet
10 have been banished to the 8th dimension, and now that Buckaroo has
broken the dimensional barrier, they want out.
Meanwhile, Buckaroo rocks out with his East Texas bar band, the
Hong Kong Cavaliers. But good-hearted Buckaroo stops the show when he
spots someone who isn’t having a good time. The glum one is Penny
Priddy, a suicidal lass with a thing for Buckaroo and a face just like
that of Buckaroo's dead wife. Despite what looks like an assassination
attempt (Penny was really trying to shoot herself), Buckaroo takes the
lady under his wing.
Once the Lectroid assault gets fully underway—with the help of Dr.
Emilio Lizardo, a dimension-breaker himself, now possessed by Lectoid
spirit Lord John Whorfin—the fun really starts. The Lectroids, all
named “John” something (“John Ya-Ya… John Smallberries…”), are after
the Overthruster, which they hope to use to go fight the Black
Lectroids back on Planet 10. We should point out here, by the way, that
the Black Lectroids are also good guys, and that they all have Jamaican
accents. But the Black Lectroids also take no Red Lectroid crap, and
they're prepared to spark a nuclear war to stop the Red menace—unless
Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers can do something about it.
The movie definitely had its weird factor amped up, but that was
kind of the point. A solid cast of movie pros, including Peter Weller
(the original Robocop), Jeff Goldblum, Ellen Barkin, and the
Red Lectroid army of John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Dan Hedaya and
others, kept things from getting so nutty that your head exploded. Buckaroo Banzai filled its cult classic role well—it may never be confused with Citizen Kane or The Godfather, but it’s definitely the best movie ever made about a rock and roll particle physicist brain surgeon (so far).
“Wherever you go, there you are.”
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