So it looks like I will get to my Sunday Night Movie feature after all! Anyway after a spate of fairly serious and heavy films I was in the mood this sunday for fare that was lighter and just fun to watch. It had been a piece of time since I last pulled out my DVD of The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension so between time and mood this was the perfect film for me.

Buckaroo Banzai is a film that has a very idiosyncratic response in people who see it. Either people fall in love with this stranger quirky movie and quote it for years, or they scratch their heads and wonder how anyone could like something so utterly stupid. There seems to be almost no middle-ground reaction.

This film is at heart a pulp adventure, much along the lines of say a Doc Savage story, if you are familiar with those books. The titular character, Buckaroo Banzai is at once, a physicist, a surgeon, and a rock star. On all these fields he is perhaps the best. He has surrounded himself with a talented team of characters at the Banzai Institute. They combat evil, improve mankind lot in the world, and play concerts to adoring fans. If this is all too over the top for your, then this movie is not for you. It has the feel not only of a pulp adventure, but also of someone role playing game writ large and with credible actors playing the parts.

Peter Weller is Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, leader of the institute and the Hong Kong Cavaliers. he is the heart and the soul of the operation. Without Buckaroo’s unique genius and improbable skill set, nothing else in this crazy universe is possible.

Ellen Barkin is Penny Priddy a stranger who just happens to look exactly like Buckaroo’s murdered wife. Of course she is the new love interest, but with suggestions that she may not be exactly what she thinks she is.

Jeff Goldblum is Sidney Blumenthall, the most recent of Buckaroo;s recruits into his inner circle, The Hong Kong Cavaliers. As you can see from the pic, Sidney didn’t quite get the memo that the Cavaliers are a rock band.

when Buckaroo completes an experiment that his parents died attempting, he sets into motion a chain of event that threatens the Earth very existence. By discovering the method by which people can penetrate and pass through solid matter Buckaroo unwittingly has created the circumstance that could allowed evil murderous aliens to escape from the 8th dimension. The evil aliens are lead by Lord John Warfin, deftly played in a wonderful scene chewing manner by John Lithgow.

His second in command, John Bigboote (bu-Tay) is played by Christopher Lloyd. Since I have learned that Lloyd is the sort of actor who remains in characters between takes and buries himself in his parts that must have made for an interesting set.

Yes both of them are named John. ALL of the aliens have taken the surname of John. It’s part of the inherit silliness of this movie.

Set during a time when the USSR and the USA faced-off each other with thousands of nuclear tipped missiles, this film is both escapist fun and a bit of a time capsule. Made with a limited budget and apparently quite a bit of discord between the writers and the producers it is a flawed project. Still, it is one that I throughly enjoyed watching and it is a shame no sequel ever materialized.