These dedicated actors spent hours in the makeup chair to become aliens, monsters, mobsters, and more. Can you guess the actors beneath the layers of makeup?
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Title: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Peter Weller | ... | ||
| John Lithgow | ... | ||
| Ellen Barkin | ... | ||
| Jeff Goldblum | ... | ||
| Christopher Lloyd | ... | ||
| Lewis Smith | ... | ||
| Rosalind Cash | ... | ||
| Robert Ito | ... | ||
| Pepe Serna | ... | ||
| Ronald Lacey | ... | ||
| Matt Clark | ... | ||
| Clancy Brown | ... | ||
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William Traylor | ... | |
| Carl Lumbly | ... | ||
| Vincent Schiavelli | ... | ||
Brain surgeon, rock musician, adventurer Buckaroo Banzai is a modern renaissance man and has made scientific history. Shifting the Oscillation Overthruster into warp speed, he's the first man to travel to the eighth dimension - and come back sane. But when his sworn enemy, the demented Dr. Emilio Lizardo, devises a plot to steal the device and bring an evil army back to destroy Earth, Buckaroo goes cranium to cranium with the madman in a battle that could spell doom for the universe. With the help of his uniquely qualified team, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, Buckaroo is ready to save the world on a moment's notice. Written by MGM/UA Home Video
TAOBBATED, as I will acronymize this film, is neither the stupid low-budget piece of excrement nor the sublimely original cult masterpiece you've been told it is, but it's a lot closer to the latter than to the former. Peter Weller plays Buckaroo, the titular neurosurgeon/inventor/modern-day samurai/Billy Joelesque rocker, and he plays him frightfully well, low-key and distant but with occasional glimmers of genius and intensity. The stellar supporting cast includes Jeff Goldblum, Clancy Brown, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, and Ellen Barkin, and they're all pretty darn good.
I'm not even going to pretend to be rational or unbiased about this movie. It's too utterly offbeat and original and just damned _odd_ to not love. Some favorite scenes: the opening sequence of the Jet Car test run; Buckaroo's phone call with the Black Lectroids, and his subsequent detection of the sinister Red Lectroid agents in his midst; the eerie recorded message from the Black Lectroid leader, the "good guys" who threaten to blow up Earth unless Buckaroo stops their enemy, Dr. Lizardo (Lithgow, in a truly twisted scene-chewing performance). Yes, it looks cheesy and dated, but damn it, you have to take a stand somewhere in life, you have to roll up your sleeves and step up to the plate and put yourself on the line, and have the courage to say, "I don't care what anyone thinks of me, I love this movie." That's the way I feel about old Buckaroo and his Hong Kong Cavaliers, and I still consider myself a loyal Blue Blaze Irregular fifteen years after seeing this film.
As a post-script, I'd like to mention that the novelization of this movie, written by Earl Mac Rauch, is great, and actually contains about 3 times the information and plot that is in the movie. If you can find it on Amazon or at a garage sale somewhere, snap it up, it's worth the search. Also, there's a script for BUCKAROO BANZAI VERSUS THE WORLD CRIME LEAGUE floating around too, which should be made no matter the cost if only to film one priceless scene - the cameo appearance of Jack Burton, Kurt Russell's swaggering truck driver hero from John Carpenter's BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, who appears as a Blue Blaze Irregular and gives Team Banzai a lift!