My ongoing efforts to see some of the "classics" has also led me to pursue a few cult classics here and there. Recently, that led me to see for the first time The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. But I must confess, the experience left me utterly confused. Ultimately, I felt a sort of zen-like question at the core of this movie and my opinion of it. If a movie seems specifically crafted to be "bad," isn't it still a bad movie when it succeeds at that?I ask this because Buckaroo Banzai seemed to me just as campy and ridiculous, as badly produced, shoddily written, and altogether hokey as any of the films you might see in any given episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. So why all the fan love here?
Could it purely be for the joy of the few good one-liners tossed off by skilled actors? I'll grant that the movie does have that going for it at least. You've got Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, and early appearances by Clancy Brown and Carl Lumbly. None of them are giving Oscar-worthy performances, of course... though a certain amount of praise is certainly due for taking lines like "laugh-a while you can-a, monkey boy" and making them indelible parts of geek pop culture.
Could it be simply the novelty of a hero who is an engineer/brain surgeon/rock star/adventurer/comic book character/celebrity? Or the fact that the entire script somehow feels as though it's the sequel to some other film that we never actually got to see? I don't know... to me, these all felt like jokes that wore thin pretty quickly.
I know there are regular readers of the blog here that are probably not going to understand me trashing this movie. But for my part, I honestly just did not understand this movie. I rate it a D-. If someone wants to step in and explain it to me, I'm all ears.
3 comments:
There is a novel that explains more of the details. But I can't imagine that it would make you like the movie any more. It's just quirky and weird in its own peculiar way. I think it appeals to a basic "crazy bunch of multitalented hero guys" formula that goes way back to Doc Savage and Tom Swift.
Thank you for being the second person I know to hate this movie. (Note that I said "I know"). I don't really go polling folks on it, but every time I've heard this movie mentioned it was in a good light and I HATED it.
My only beef is that you liked that mess more than Watchmen??? :o)
Ok, I'll admit that it's one of my more favorite movies. Just because it *is* so random. But allow me to give you this bit of thought.
I believe that Buckaroo Banzai falls into the same category in many respects as Rocky Horror. When many people see it for the first time, the response seems to be "Huh? What the hell is the big deal?" and at which point you're looked upon as a heathen.
To a great extent, I think that both movies benefited from being out of print or unreleased to home video for SUCH a long time. In that time, many people only got to see them for the first time with a group of cult fans, complete with atmosphere and energy. When watching either one of them at home by yourself...yes, they both mostly suck.
So while it is one of my more favorite movies, I don't besmirch either you or Snarky Smurf for disliking it. I can understand the reasons behind the dislike on a basic level.
But I'm still with Snarky...you still rated Watchmen lower? ;-)
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