The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension


John Lithgow thanking his agent and calling his lawyer after being cast in this movie.

What sort of movie does a 15-year-old sci-fi geek go and see in 1984? Well, he goes and sees the film adaptation of George Orwell’s novel, 1984. He also goes to see this.

The plot: Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) is a brain surgeon, rock musician, scientist and adventurer. His team are the Hong Kong Cavaliers. Buckaroo invents a machine to take him to the eighth dimension and back.  It’s been done before, by Dr Emilio Lazardo (John Lithgow), except he returned insane and wants to steal Buckaroo’s device and use it to conquer our dimension. 

Assessment: This is a classic 1980s low budget sci-fi movie with a crazy plot, effects that really don’t deserve the adjective ‘special’. But what it doesn’t have in lasers, warp speed and quality dialogue it makes up for it in crazy plot and one of the most eclectic array of actors from the ‘80s, many of whom we all know as stars today

In addition to Peter Weller and John Lithgow, there’s Jeff Goldblum, Ellen Barkin and Christopher Lloyd.

This film seems to be aimed to be the beginning of a series, but it was too off the wall to get more of a following than the hard core geeks. It also looks pretty basics by today’s standards and was even in 1984 - remember that this was almost decade after Star Wars and Star Trek hit the big screens. Of course, that’s not the sort of sci-fi it was and not why you’d see it now.  I’m struggling for a reason to watch it again - maybe so that the ‘80s fashion and hair can be experienced in probably their most extreme form.

The Casablanca connection: Buckaroo and Rick aren’t alike.  Rick isn’t a renaissance man, rather a traditional man with street smarts and conventional ways of dealing with the challenges of evil he confronts. He tries to avoid the fight that Buckaroo jumps into without a thought, only giving in when it becomes obvious that he must join the good fight. There’s also no team to support Rick on his journey, save for Louis. 

So what’s the connection? There were both low budget films made quickly and not really intended to have a lasting impact. Buckaroo fulfilled its assignment, but Casablanca went on to become one of the greatest films of all time.

Rating: 1 out of 5. You’d have to be a rare breed to think this movie is good now.

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