World famous Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) is a true renaissance man: a scientist, surgeon, rock star and adventurer. Leading his band, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, he tries to save the world from being drawn into an intergalactic war.
W.D. Richter and writer Earl Mac Rauch came up with this eccentric science fiction caper as a ready-made cult movie. But when it was first released, it flopped badly and it took years for it to gather the cult audience that was intended. Its fans recognised that it was worth persevering with.
What is most off-putting about this extremely complicated movie is that it makes no attempt to draw you in. It just babbles away merrily, throwing up plot twist after plot twist until you are truly baffled. It takes more than one viewing to really make sense of what exactly is going on.
The film has a love of jargon and gadgets, and an off-kilter sense of humour. The details are amusing: the unexplained watermelon, the feet-operated spaceship controls, the little trumpet that Buckaroo plays, the "keep out" sign on a door. Some of the dialogue will have you laughing out loud, monkey boy.
There is a good cast, who at least have the ability to look as if they know what's happening, but Weller is too cold when he should be cool. John Lithgow, as Dr Lizardo, reaches heights of crazed villainy, with his weird accent and hair sticking up, and the supporting players are peppered with noted screen oddballs like Christopher Lloyd and Vincent Schiavelli as aliens, and Jeff Goldblum as one of the Cavaliers.
We're still waiting for the proposed sequel, Buckaroo Banzai Against The World Crime League. But some of us are keeping our fingers crossed. Watch for: the great end credits sequence. Music by Michael Boddicker.
