“Sorry John, everybody ‘need see Buckaroo.'”
Evidently, not everybody. Last night in conversation it came up that Rob has never seen The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. Oh, what he is missing!
Screenwriter Earl Mac Rauch pulls out all the stops, and gives us a scifi film so full of awesome one-liners and camp I never get tired of watching it. Peter Weller’s title character, Buckaroo, isn’t merely a legendary neurosurgeon, he’s also the lead of a crime fighting rock and roll band, the Hong Kong Cavaliers. When Buckaroo and crew perfect his parent’s lives work, a dimension-traveling rocket car, they inadvertently set off an interplanetary war.
Posed against John Lithgow’s Dr. Emilio Lizardo/Lord John Whorfin (one of his finest performances ever) and an army of Red Lectroid, Team Banzai struggles with our own misguided U.S. government, and with Buckaroo’s highly dramatized personal demons, while saving the world.
I hope Rob can get past Weller’s role in RoboCop to watch this gem.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension