Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension
When can an original film be almost TOO original for its own good? Perhaps doing so can guarantee that film the status of being a “cult classic” from the getgo even if more normal minded viewers might take it all in and not really be sure what to think, but especially if it’s a film clearly intended to be the start of a franchise (complete with its own never produced sequel clearly advertised before the end credits) that nonetheless bombed completely at the box office and bankrupted its production company thus throwing the “franchise rights” so utterly up in the air that complex licensing deals had to be made just to get this one movie out on DVD and Blu Ray and virtually wiping out any chances of revenue generating spinoffs such as sequels, comic books, remakes, video games or a TV series (although one is currently rumored to be in preproduction). That would all apply to this 1984 release which while indeed a cult classic seems to revel in a virtual plethora of wildly original ideas and concepts only punctuated at times by its execution (mostly with its action scenes) that appears to have been hampered due to a low budget. No doubt, in the hands of a crazy auteur like Terry Gilliam, that budget would have ballooned to over $100 million (and still bombed), but here the director is one W.D. Richter, a guy best known for being a prolific writer (and who ironically did NOT write this project) and working on a troubled shoot most notably centering around the Director Of Photography who was replaced halfway through which resulted in the entire look and feel of the film being changed (and probably not in a good way). Even more interesting is the presentation of the story itself since after an opening crawl telling us who the Banzai character basically is, the viewer is left to their own devices when it comes to figuring everything else out as the storyline is told almost completely out of context. We do know that the Banzai character started out as a brilliant neurosurgeon who then temporarily stepped away from that field to travel the world, study martial arts (although we never see him actually use those kind of skills), become a molecular scientist and also gather up an inner circle of goofy sidekicks (and several random “helpers” who are part of some kind of Little Orphan Annie type fan club) to start their own rock n roll band that travels around to different venues performing for their legions of fans. Oh yes, and he’s also a crimefighter, has first class access to the ear of the U.S. President, and seems to also be a bit of a daredevil whose death defying stunts are usually a part of some experiment that he’s conducting. Quite a lot to chew on here, but the casting of the slightly odd, quirky and offbeat Peter Weller as Banzai was a wise one, always seeming slightly disconnected from the same thought processes as the rest of us mostly because he’s got so many things on his plate going on at once. Weller’s slightly monotone, deadpan style of acting while still projecting a soulful yearning (which served him well as Robocop) is exactly what’s needed for this type of character who might seem distracted much of the time in his more “fun” pursuits but is all deadly serious focused when it comes to what’s most important. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of much needed backstory and character development (especially when it comes to the sidekicks) that would have fleshed this whole story out just a little bit more. We’re told that the Banzai gang (referred to as “The Hong Kong Cavaliers”) even have their own comic book series, but for doing what? Worse, most of the crew has very little individual appeal to any of them, with two notable exceptions: Clancy Brown as the rodeo cowboy type named Rawhide (who seems to not only be Banzai’s Head Of Security and Road Manager for his band, but also the second in command of the overall group) and Jeff Goldblum as the dorky new recruit, a fellow neurosurgeon who adopts a cheesy cowboy outfit and is given the nickname New Jersey with Goldblum playing the role in classic Goldblum style complete with his little asides and distractingly unrelated bits of (possibly adlibbed) business that he has been known for as an actor. We also get Ellen Barkin (in an early role) as a girl whom Banzai picks up at one of his gigs and is strangely attracted to simply because she is the spitting image (and possible twin sister) of his former wife (although whether Banzai’s wife is either deceased or merely divorced from him is never quite made clear) which causes him to make her the newest member of his entourage. Then there’s John Lithgow acting crazier than at maybe any other point in his career (and that’s saying something) as Dr. Emilio Lizardo, an apparently already established supervillain in Banzai’s rogues gallery (whom it is made clear has a history with him) who is locked away in a mental asylum but manages to escape (very easily) after learning that Banzai has broken the barrier into The Eighth Dimension during his latest experiment. Turns out that Lizardo himself had conducted a similar experiment and nearly succeeded although it led to his mental breakdown and subsequent criminal career (and considering when the original experiment occured it also seems as if Lithgow has not aged a day in over 40 years). Lithgow has contacts on the outside in a secret race of humanoid aliens (led by Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli and Dan Hedaya) who are all part of a corporation waiting for the day when they can perfect their technology so that they can go back to their home planet (even as the home planet is less than thrilled about their impending return). What’s even crazier is that these creatures’ arrival on Earth coincided with the Orson Welles radio broadcast of War Of The Worlds, thus intimating that not only was that actual broadcast real, but (considering that they have the ability to alter one’s reality) they had somehow hypnotized Welles into declaring that the broadcast was a hoax when in reality it was just as real as many believed it to be at the time. Again, this is quite a lot to swallow for any viewer even with the film’s brisk pace and rather sparse running time of 102 minutes, but again this results in a number of Banzai’s crew members being (mostly unlikable) caricatures including a smug pretty boy type who uses the moniker Perfect Tommy, another lame cowboy type who is called Reno, and an annoying gatekeeper sort of guy who gets one attempt to be funny (and fails) named Pinky. Other weird ideas get batted about here and there with little to no real sense of where they belong, but as long as the movie focuses on Weller’s cool as ice lead performance (with Lithgow dropping out of the film for an extended period of time only to reemerge about 40 minutes later), things seem to be going in the right direction until we get to the inevitable shootouts and final confrontations which is where the whole movie starts to resemble something rather ordinary (even as most of the bad guys in these scenes have extensive alien makeup on) and Banzai himself is not even responsible for the final denouement but rather the good guy aliens instead. But keep in mind that this is a world where the U.S. President (Ronald Lacey) is depicted as a constantly bedridden fellow who nonetheless appears to be using the whole crisis as an excuse to start a thermonuclear war with Russia and The Secretary Of Defense (Matt Clark) not only becomes a de facto sidekick by the end but is literally portrayed as being a strutting redneck type complete with stereotypical Southerner catchphrases. A world where the so called action heroes might look the part but talk in such a way that they all seem like nerdy MIT grads even while the one thing that makes them the most popular with the general public is their aura and general reputation as being full fledged rock stars (as opposed to being actual heroes). Even as Banzai is described in the opening crawl as living life being pulled in all different directions, thus so is the viewer rapidly trying to separate the good elements of this film from the bad, enjoying certain scenes for sure (the victory walk at the end is almost inspiring) but still wondering just what further elaboration on the story, characters and overall universe created here could have added to this franchise that never was, a standalone movie with a strong yet limited fanbase who never got to savor anything more than this onetime effort…
8/10