Disc Reviews

Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension

• 4th Aug 2015

Buckaroo Banzai is the multi-talented (Musician, surgeon, martial arts master, dimension traveller) agent who must do battle with a bunch of rubber headed aliens after he invents a way to travel to the 8^th dimension. Luckily Banzai has a team of ready to rock sidekicks who will do their most to help stave off invasion.

Throw in a mad scientist, a lonely blonde and a cult 80’s name cast to die for and you are off to movie cult heaven!

Rating this film is a tricky proposition as this film is going to divide audiences down the middle. For the pro side there is a nostalgic film here full of cult star power (Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Clancy brown, Christopher Lloyd and more), OTT performances (Lithgow defining the ultimate OTT performance), hilariously out of place dialogue, rubber effects, matte paintings and music that reflects the times.

Essentially it is retro-cult movie heaven. But on the other hand there is a film that some may draw a parallel viewing experience to the likes of Howard the Duck – which again still holds many of the above listed prerequisite items, only with most of them falling flat on their face. Our advice if you have never seen the film is perhaps to check out a trailer first.

Otherwise this is Arrow video doing what it does best. Digging out old classics and/or forgotten about movies. Seeing the picture and sound as best they can and adding in as many extras as they can afford to produce or pull over from previous releases.

Much of the interview material has indeed been recorded by Arrow for this release with the likes of Lithgow and Weller providing fresh thoughts on the film. There is also some extensive interview material (a live Q&A session hosted by Kevin Smith for a few years back is also worth a listen) and directed W.D. Richter provides a commentary for the film.

There is also a featurette from the time, deleted material (including an alternate opening featuring Jamie Lee Curtis) and also a look at the end credits wander with the cast without the credits over it. Throw in decent visual essay and some publicity materials and you are all good to go.

This one is a 4 star for the nostalgic who are into this sort of thing, but likely a 2 star misfire for those that are not. But there is no denying the love and attention given to it by the cast and crew that show up on the extras, those that took the time to organise events and interviews decades after the film’s release or the treatment that Arrow Video have given it.

Steven Hurst