Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

shayannjarm Surreal, confusing, non-sensical, great actors, plot holes.. Sci-fi? Parody? Pastiche? Comedy? Action? Drama? Romance? It's all and none of these; it's a cluster of the most indescribable nonsense which only occasionally attempts to make any sense, with a group of actors so talented that character development is meaningless, and who are so dedicated to the film's own lunacy that I can't help but revel in every moment of it's loosely structured plot and ambiguous storytelling. I don't know what I just watched, and I hate myself for loving such a complete waste of time! I'm currently unable to either confirm or deny whether this movie is worth watching. Honestly.. It defies explanation. That is all.

bregund Well, I tried watching it again over the weekend. As you get older, some films you tried earlier in your life, and didn't like, begin to make sense. Some, like Sunset Boulevard, get infinitely better. Some, like Time Bandits, get worse. You start to see flaws where you didn't before, or touches of brilliance that had been hidden from your perceptions. For me, Buckaroo Banzai wasn't that great when it came out and still remains so, so it's comforting to know that some films remain consistent across your life. I don't understand what I'm looking at, I don't get the story, or why the characters do what they do, I don't get their motivations. I don't understand what the aliens want or what their plan is. What is that thing circling the earth? Why is Jeff Goldblum dressed like a cowboy? As a fairly astute consumer of films for over forty years, I'm accustomed to a certain degree of lucidity, linear progression, and clear presentation of ideas in my entertainment, and at every turn this film zigs when you expect it to zag. It's indefinable, which is fine as a standalone film that embraces irreverence, but the cost is confusion. I couldn't be alone in my assessment of this train wreck, given hollywood's current lust to remake everything under the sun except for this film. It's not entirely awful, however, with John Lithgow and his outrageous Italian accent, or Christopher Lloyd's ice-cold ownership of every scene he appears in.In another twenty years I'll watch this film again, maybe it will finally make sense to me.

spmact I heard this was a cool 80s movie, and I was curious because I like a lot of 80s movies and had never heard of this one. It was directed by the same guy that did Big Trouble in Little China, which was great, and I also like Peter Weller and John Lithgow, so I decided to give this one a shot. I also read some positive reviews of the film on this site, and after seeing the movie I had to leave my own review so people wouldn't be mislead by all the positive reviews.Man, was this terrible. The plot was goofy, the effects were bad, and the so many things in it made no sense. It's like they set out to make the silliest movie they could and didn't care if it would be good or not. I grew up in the 80s and have a fond memory of many of that decade's movies, but this is definitely not one of the good ones from that era.

Darragh Hickey What is a cult film? Is it a movie that failed at the box office yet found an audience on home video such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or Office Space? Is it a film that's so bad it's good such as Troll 2 or The Room? Or is a cult film just a movie with a rabid fan base that will throw out dialogue after dialogue and adorn rooms with odd memorabilia?Really a cult film can be all these things; the phenomenon of cult cinema has been around since the 50's with the infamously bad films of Ed Wood and it doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon. The purpose of these reviews is to bring the weird, wonderful and downright insanity of cult cinema to you. The reviews will be broken up into the main review itself as well as quotable lines and oddest moments. Many will choose The Rocky Horror Picture Show as the ultimate piece of cult cinema, but really it's become so mainstream it defies cult films. The real king of cult cinema is the 1984 film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.Film: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Director: W.D Richter Cast: Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd.The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is possibly the most nonsensical film ever to be put on celluloid. The majority of it doesn't make a lick of sense, the plot flies by without letting the audience really understand it, and we're just thrown into this world full of myth and science fiction and we just have to accept it. This is the beauty of the film, it just forces you to accept everything and enjoy it. Banzai is a melting pot of genres, a weird high-bred of action adventure, science fiction, comedy, satire, and romance and none of it makes sense yet it's a brilliantly original and enjoyable film.The plot follows the adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (Robocop himself, Peter Weller) a physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rock star who, along with his rock band/assistants, The Hong Kong Cavaliers must stop a group of inter dimensional aliens, lead by John Lithgow's alien leader, Lord John Whorfin trapped inside the body of an Italian scientist, in order to save the world. The film just drops you into all of this, creating an incredible myth surrounding Buckaroo and his band and intrigue among the audience about what exactly is going on.The beauty of the film (much like many cult classic) is that its flaws are also its greatest strength. The dialogue can be incredibly heavy on the techno babble at times attempting to explain the science of the film, and it can confuse the audience, but within two seconds there's some great joke or dead pan delivery made and we're sucked right back in. The cinematography isn't really all that spectacular, its flat and very colourful and really isn't great, but in Buckaroo Banzai it works because it makes the whole film look like a comic book come to life. That's the best way to describe Buckaroo Banzai; it's an old 80's comic book that somehow jumped onto the silver screen.The performances are all very solid in that great cult cinema way. Peter Weller is believably charismatic as Banzai, who delivers his lines with a deadpan that would make Bill Murray jealous. Banzai's Hong Kong Cavaliers include great eccentric performances by such actors as Jeff Goldblum playing a New Jersey cowboy, and Clancy Brown as Banzai's own personal narrator, Rawhide. The crown jewel of the film in terms of performances however, goes to John Lithgow playing the villainous role of Lord John Whorfin in the most over the top, insane way possible throwing out lines with an Italian accent that makes Super-Mario seem legitimate. It's a performance that will be forever remembered as one of the most brilliantly funny portrayals in cult cinema history.If the film has any legitimate flaws it's that we don't get to see enough of Banzai working with his team as they all seem like brilliant characters that just don't get enough screen time. The love story between Banzai and Penny Pretty (Ellen Barkin) isn't given all that much time to develop and could have been more interesting, especially with her being the long lost twin sister of Banzai's murdered wife.The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension really is the ultimate cult classic, it bombed at the box office, at times it's so bad it's good and it has a rabid fan base that are still clamouring for a sequel. It's a must see film if you're a fan of cult cinema a truly brilliant piece of pop cinema that is so insane it works. Buckaroo Banzai is by far the weirdest film around and it's brilliant.