Buckaroo Banzai is a wild and bonkers movie. But is it actually a good one? Difficult to say. This is one those films you don't so much watch and enjoy as vibe to.
Physicist, neurosurgeon, crime fighter, and rock star Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) has developed the oscillation overthruster which allows him to pass through solid matter and into the 8th dimension, where the Red Lectroids are imprisoned. Decades earlier, a group of Red Lectroids escaped into our world and are now plotting to steal Banzai's overthruster so they can free the rest of their kind and return to reconquer their home planet.
The first thing that really stands out about this film is the cast. It earns its cult classic status for that alone. Besides Weller as Banzai you have Ellen Barkin, John Lithgow, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Clancy Brown, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Carl Lumbly, and Jonathan Banks. If there's one person who really went above and beyond during the making of this film it was the casting director. This thing is just stacked with familiar faces and by the sounds of it they all had a laugh making it.
Buckaroo Banzai is a knowing riff on the classic pulp adventure heroes from the 1930s, most notably Doc Savage. Savage was probably the most popular hero of his time, appearing in numerous pulp magazines, novels, comic scripts, radio dramas and film serials, as well as a major influence on all those who followed him (Superman writers shamelessly stole the whole Fortress of Solitude concept from him without even changing the name). Over time, as costumed superheroes became more and more popular, Savage and his like soon fell out of fashion and are now mostly forgotten. I'm only aware of him because one quiet Sunday afternoon I stumbled on the 1975 film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze because BBC2 clearly had nothing better to show.
Savage was a polymathic scientist, explorer, detective, and warrior who was regularly aided in his adventures by a group of experts in various fields known as the Fabulous Five. Buckaroo Banzai is the same, but with the added twist that he's also a rock star (gotta appeal to 80s teens somehow). His version of the Fabulous Five, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, also function as his backing band. There are a few Cavaliers in the film, but the most prominent members are newbie Dr. Sidney 'New Jersey' Zweibel (Goldblum), Rawhide (Brown), Reno Nevada (Pepe Serna), and Perfect Tommy (Lewis Smith), named so because, well, look at him:
Imagine a Wes Anderson movie, but a rough, early Wes Anderson movie somewhere between Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, made with little money, about comic book adventure heroes and alien invaders from another dimension. That's a good way to describe Buckaroo Banzai. I assume Anderson himself must be a fan of the film since he did a homage to the end credit sequence in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (which also included Jeff Goldblum). Like with many of Anderson's films there's a troubled genius protagonist along with an oddball collection of supporting characters with distinctive retro fashions, and the whole thing existing in its own little quirky and stylised world that is just across the street and a few doors down from our own, but the signature visual style isn't quite there yet, nor the precision filmmaking.
This is something of a slapdash production with the direction and visuals often being rather flat and unexciting. Much of this is due to the fact the producer fired the original DP, Jordan Cronenweth (best known for shooting Blade Runner) and replacing him with Fred J. Koenekamp several weeks in filming. The few scenes shot by Cronenweth (like the nightclub scene) are often the best looking parts of the movie. Many have labelled Buckaroo Banzai overly complex and difficult to explain, but I think the plot is fairly straightforward, it's just that the film has difficulty in explaining itself. Its approach to exposition is disorientating at times. It's like jumping into an old comic that's already on issue #235. Sure, there's a paragraph on the first page to give you the basic set up, but everything else you'll have to figure out as you go.
Many of those problems are easy to shrug off, but others are not. There are more than a few things about the film that are very dated and rather uncomfortable to watch. Like how Banzai is meant to be mixed race, with the film doing a lot to remind us that he is half-Japanese, while having him played by an actor who most assuredly isn't (Weller is of English, German, French and Irish descent). The Black Lectroids are all portrayed as being stereotypically black with Jamaican accents and the full Rick James wardrobe. And then there's the weird situation with Penny, where Banzai only seems drawn to her because she's the long lost identical twin sister of his dead wife, and she spends the entire second half of the movie being imprisoned and tortured by the bad guys.
Notes and Quotes
--Yoyodyne is a fictional company featured in the novels by Thomas Pynchon.
--In a nod to both Sherlock Holmes and the Shadow, another 30s pulp hero, Banzai also has a vast network of civilian agents to call upon when needed called the Blue Blaze Irregulars.
--Loved Rawhide subtly giving Banzai five during the credit scene, which acts like a curtain call for the movie, as well as Perfect Tommy's sudden, inexplicable, but perfectly in character, costume changes.
--The one sure-fire way to guarantee you never got a sequel in the 80s was to drop a sequel tease right at the end.
New Jersey: "Why is there a watermelon there?"
Reno: "I'll tell you later."
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."
Perfect Tommy: "Let her out?"
Buckaroo Banzai: "That's right, let her out. I'll be responsible."
Perfect Tommy: "But she's a killer."
Buckaroo Banzai: "No, she's not. Now, let her out and give her your coat."
Perfect Tommy: "Why me?"
Buckaroo Banzai: "Because you're perfect."
Perfect Tommy: "You have a point there."
Ed: "President's calling, Buckaroo."
Buckaroo Banzai: "The president of what?"
Ed: "The President of The United States."
Buckaroo Banzai: "Oh."
John Bigbooté: "We've had our chance! Your Overthruster's for shit! We're lost!"
Lord John Whorfin: "One more word out of you, Bigbooty..."
John Bigbooté: "BIG-BOO-TAY! TAY! TAY!"
There are many reason why Buckaroo Banzai has such a large and devoted following. There's that exceptional cast, the many quotable lines, the quirky humour, the way it full embraces how ridiculous everything is without tipping over into complete parody, but there are still quite a few big problems that stop it from becoming something truly great. ⭐⭐⭐
Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig
Here's a tidbit. Many years ago in my flaming youth, I went to a Star Trek convention where one of the guests was Lewis Smith (Perfect Tommy). He had never been to a con before and found it totally bizarre. Buckaroo Banzai was shown at the con and some of the organizers were trying *really hard* to make BB into another Rocky Horror by shouting some of the lines, etc.
ReplyDeleteI remember enjoying the movie at the time, but I honestly don't remember much of the plot. But the cast was amazing.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Mark. :)