The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension |  | Director: W. D. Richter
Actors: Peter Weller, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Robert Ito, James Keane
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
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Rating:  221 reviews
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 1002040
UPC: 027616862785
EAN: 0027616862785
Theatrical Release Date: 1984
Release Date: January 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | "The very oddest good movie in many a full moon," Buckaroo Banzai combines "humor, imagination, a little oriental mysticism and a passel of sharp performances [into] very chic sci-fi" (Time)! Oscar® nominees* Peter Weller and John Lithgow team with Emmy® winners Ellen Barkin and Christopher Lloyd for a fiendishly clever, action-packed adventure in an outlandish world you'll want to v |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential video
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension is one of the most agreeably insane movies ever made. Peter Weller stars as Buckaroo, an acclaimed neurosurgeon, particle physicist, and, of course, rock star. He travels with the Hong Kong Cavaliers, a band of hard-rocking scientists who are also really good dressers. Buckaroo's interdimensional experiments with his Operation Overthruster throw him (and the Earth) straight into the middle of an alien war, and before you know it, he's got just a few hours to save the world. Confused? Hang on, we're only 10 minutes into the movie. Buckaroo Banzai hurls you right into the middle of its comic-book universe and keeps going at a breakneck pace. It's chock-full of overlapping jokes (even as we're trying to make sense of Dr. Lizardo's hospital room, a voice calmly announces that "lithium is no longer available on credit" over the PA system), hilarious throwaway dialogue ("You're like Jerry Lewis: you give me hope to carry on."), and weirdness just for the sheer joy of it ("Why is there a watermelon there?" "I'll tell you later."). You'll want to watch it at least twice--there's just no way to catch everything the first time around. Ellen Barkin has a terrific time doing a dead-on film noir moll parody as Penny Priddy, and John Lithgow turns in a brilliant manic performance as Dr. Lizardo/John Whorfin. There is no reason not to own this movie unless you are cold and dead inside. Laugh while you can, Monkey Boys. --Ali Davis
Amazon.com
Peter Weller plays that Renaissance Man, Buckaroo Banzai, a neurosurgeon, car racer, rock singer, and alien chaser in this overdone sci-fi adventure from 1984. After crashing his nuclear-fueled race car and causing a disturbance in the eighth dimension, Banzai releases some extremely unappealing aliens into our atmosphere. First-time director W.D. Richter (Late for Dinner) pulls out all the stops, resulting in a manic dash that is often incoherent. The intent may have been to re-create old-time serials with a pulp-fiction bent, but the screenplay, full of macho dialogue and cool poses, tries too hard. We could have done with a less complicated story and more character development. Still, consider this flawed fun, because it may be silly, but it is also clever. Originally released as The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. -- Rochelle O'Gorman
Product Description
"The very oddest good movie in many a full moon" Buckaroo Banzai combines "humor imagination a little oriental mysticism and a passel of sharp performances [into] very chic sci-fi" (Time)! Oscar® nominees* Peter Weller and John Lithgow team with Emmy® winners Ellen Barkin and Christopher Lloyd for a fiendishly clever action-packed adventure in an outlandish world you'll want to visit again and again!Brilliant brain surgeon Banzai (Weller) just made scientific history. Shifting his Oscillation Overthruster into warp speed he's the first man ever to travel to the Eighth Dimension and come back sane! But when his sworn enemy the demented Dr. Lizardo (Lithgow) devises a plot to steal the Overthruster and bring an evil army of aliens back to destroy Earth Buckaroo goes cranium to cranium with the madman in an extra-dimensional battle that could result in total annihilation of the universe!*1993: Short Film/Live Action Partners (Weller); 1983: Supporting Actor Terms Of Endearment (Lithgow)System Requirements:Running Time: 102 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG UPC: 027616862785 Manufacturer No: 1002040
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 221
 I've been ionized, but I'm okay now September 29, 2009
C. CRADDOCK (Bakersfield)
'Buckaroo Banzai' is a cult film, and with good reason. In spite of cheap and cheesy special effects it is very entertaining. In fact, the cheapness and cheesiness contribute greatly to the overall effect and create a comic book world, with a great action hero, Buckaroo, who is quite the Renaissance Man: doctor, inventor, speed racer, martial artist, rock star, who is battling aliens from another dimension to save our planet. Ensuring its place in the cult film cannon, it presents this preposterous premise with the proper wit, camp, parody, and panache it so richly deserves.
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Lord John Whorfin: May I pass along my congratulations for your great interdimensional breakthrough. I am sure, in the miserable annals of the Earth, you will be duly enshrined.
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Peter Weller, who plays Buckaroo Banzai, is quite a Renaissance Man himself. In the film he leads a band called the Hong Kong Cavaliers. He caps off his electric guitar solo with a piccolo trumpet solo. In real life, he plays trumpet in a jazz band with Jeff Goldblum, who played New Jersey, the newest member of the Hong Kong Caviliers in the film. Peter Weller holds a master's degree in Roman and Renaissance art and is working toward a Ph.D. He teaches at Syracuse University. He was Robocop in the first two, but not the third, Robocop movies. He couldn't do the last sequel due to a prior commitment to "Naked Lunch." [Let's do "Naked Lunch." I'll have my people call your people.] In "Mighty Aphrodite" he plays Jerry Bender, who is another Renaissance Man who is seducing Lenny Weinrib's (Woody Allen) wife, Amanda (Helena Bonham Carter). Peter Weller was the perfect actor to portray Buckaroo Banzai, who was not only all of the previously mentioned things, but also a philosopher:
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Buckaroo Banzai: Hey, hey, hey, hey-now. Don't be mean; we don't have to be mean, cuz, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
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Jeff Goldblum really shines as New Jersey, a doctor who works with Buckaroo and is asked to join the Hong Kong Caviliers. He shows up for what he thinks is the audition dressed in a red cowboy suit. Goldblum's offbeat humor is really perfect for the Cavaliers, who haze the newcomer and rib him about his outfit. Soon he is off on their latest adventure: saving the world from aliens from another dimension:
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New Jersey: Why is there a watermelon there?
Reno: I'll tell you later.
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John Lithgow is totally over the top, and loving every minute of it, as the criminally insane Dr. Emilio Lizardo, alias Lord John Whorfin.
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Lord John Whorfin: Home... home is where you wear your hat... I feel so breakup, I wanna go home.
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Christopher Lloyd is instantly recognizable even though he plays alien John Bigboote behind a cheap and cheesy rubber mask. How is that pronounced? "BigbooTAY!" he keeps repeating, to no avail. [screaming] "BIG-BOO-TAY! TAY! TAY!"
Dan Hedaya, Vincent Schiavelli, and Clancy Brown are just of few of the talented character actors who add so much to the festivities.
Bottom line is Buckaroo Banzai is a unique film that has to be seen to be believed -- and enjoyed. It has built up a richly deserved cult audience, and I heartily recommend it to fans of bizarre, and funny -- if you have a weird sense of humor -- films.
Mulholland Drive (2001) Dan Hedaya was Vincenzo Castigliane
Man on the Moon (1999) (uncredited) Christopher Lloyd was Actor in Taxi Recreation; and Vincent Schiavelli was Maynard Smith - ABC Executive
Starship Troopers (1997) Clancy Brown was Sgt. Zim
Mighty Aphrodite (1995) Peter Weller was Jerry Bender
The Addams Family (1991) Christopher Lloyd was Uncle Fester / Gordon Craven; and Dan Hedaya was Tully Alford, Addams' Attorney
Sea of Love (1989) Ellen Barkin was Helen Cruger
The Fly (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) (1986) Jeff Goldblum was Seth Brundle
Back to the Future (1985) Christopher Lloyd was Dr. Emmett Brown
Footloose (1984) John Lithgow was Reverend Shaw Moore
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Christopher Lloyd was Taber; and Vincent Schiavelli was Fredrickson
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Buckaroo Banzai: I've been ionized, but I'm okay now.
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 Disappointed and then satisfied September 9, 2009
Joni L. Isaman
I was a little miffed at receiving a DVD that I could not watch! I was very happy however that a label was put on the outside warning me not to open unless I was sure that my DVD player could actually Play DVDs from Zone 2 - who knew? Alas, mine could not and I emailed and received direction on how to return the DVD. I did that and have yet to receive a refund but I am patient.
I went back to Amazon.com and found a new The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai in the Eighth Dimension that was for Zone 1 and I played it and loved it! It brings back great memories - haven't seen it since the late 80's! So nice to see Peter Weller playing intelligent, tender-hearted, rock star!! =) John Lithgow is "crazy" good and John Big Boote!!!! My kids love Cyberchase and I love telling them that "the Hacker" has been in many TV and movie shows - they've never seen Back to the Future - I do love Christopher Lloyd!!!!
 THE biggest waste of time EVER! September 2, 2009
GameFAN HCGamer (United States)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Can't believe I sat through this CRAP!!!!
Complete and utter waste of time... I want my 2 hours of life back.....
I only write this so you can avoid wasting your precious time watching this horrible and BORING piece of feces....
Never have I seen a movie so BORING....
WASTE OF TIME.....
Saw this on TV July 19, 2009
Dean (Newport Beach CA)
And I had viewed it before but it had been awhile and I had wondered because of it's craziness why at the end of it as to why it reads to 'Look for the next edition of Banzai': called Against the World Crime League" but they never filmed it because I did a search and it does not exist as this and a triple feature version of 2 other movies on DVD come up only - I saw that Peter Weller (who is now a professor and did a documentary for the Nat/Geo Channel on Egypt) never bothered to pursue it because I think that he did the RoboCop Series after this but I think that he's too old now and probably is not interested but I had read something otherwise but he is now too old for the role as of this year 2009 and got/is more interested in his professorship.
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There! Evil PURE and SIMPLE by way of the 8th dimension! June 11, 2009
S. M. Robare (Duluth, GA USA)
Out of all the films I saw as a kid, Buckaroo Banzai is one of the ones that has this aspect to it. When I first saw it I didn't love it, probably because of this. There was more there than I could process as an 8 year-old, but as the years went on and I revisited the film I got more and more out of it. It's actually very similar to the Big Lebowski in that on the one hand it's a simple action movie, one of a million in the 80s, that deals with the threat of an alien invasion thwarted by a small band of unlikely humans at the last possible moment. Yet the cast of characters is amazingly rich and the plot is, like Lebowski, unnecessarily complex and weird to a point where it all becomes much more than the sum of its parts.
I want to say that I first saw this film on HBO during the day on either a summer vacation or a weekend sometime in the mid-eighties, and like I said sort of dismissed it. Later on I would keep coming back to it because of the actors, a lot of which went on to star in other movies I loved (Peter Weller in Robocop, John Lithgow in Harry and the Hendersons, Jeff Goldbum in The Fly, Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future). I also love the unexplained "I just started reading in the middle of this comic book" feel the film has. All the unanswered questions. Who is this infamous World Crime League? Why is Perfect Tommy (Lewis Smith) so perfect? Who is Peggy Priddy, twin sister of Penny Priddy, and Buckaroo's first wife who was murdered? Why does New Jersey (Goldblum) have such an affinity for woolly chaps and 50s era cowboy clothing? Etc., etc., etc. In fact, in the film itself Buckaroo and his team, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, are stars of their own Marvel comic book, which was also released in real life by Marvel.
Add to this the dry delivery by Peter Weller of some really obtuse yet hilarious lines such as: "Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are."
There are also a lot of little touches everywhere that make the film really fun to watch. How they manage to tie in the original invasion of the Lectroids to the 1938 Orson Welles broadcast of War of the Worlds is genius. I also love that the character names are silly and funny, breaking the unspoken rule of comedy of no funny names and still managing to pull it off. I mean Buckaroo Banzai? Penny Priddy? All the Lectroids being named John something or other (Christopher Lloyd's Bigboote is a standout.) Tie this together with insanely esoteric concepts like an 8th dimension that allows solid matter to travel through other solid matter, yet also serves as a gateway to either a parallel universe or as a worm hole to another galaxy, and you have a very rich and fun film that manages to mix action, comedy, and pulp nostalgia into one giant roller coaster ride.
I really do love this film, right down to its dated special effects (some much more effective than today's CGI nightmares leaking off the big screen) and corny dialogue. I love this film because it's intentional and crafted to be exactly what it is. I think the scene that sums this up the best is the end sequence, a wacky dance/walking montage set to some awesome 80s synth music that finds all of the characters in the film (except the bad guys I think, but including those who have died) dynamically joining up at a concrete drainage area to just, well, walk dynamically. It really is a beautifully shot scene with plenty of fun zooms, twists and turns that is so upbeat, yet so serious it's almost mind numbing. Wes Anderson made an homage to this sequence in The Life Aquatic at the end when all the crew members and characters meet up and walk to the ship.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 221
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