The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai

If Peter Weller, Ellen Barkin, John Lithgow, Jeff Goldblum, and Christopher Lloyd were to all star in one movie, would you go see it? How about we add Dan Hedaya, Vincent Schaivelli, Carl Lumbly, and a bit of Yakoff Smirnoff, John Ashton, and Billy Vera? Then you'd want to see The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

The film is about Peter Weller's character, Buckaroo Banzai, son of Japanese and American parents (hence the eclectic name), comic book hero, rock star, brain surgeon, scientist, and all around cool guy. With the help of a scientist (played by Robert Ito, the guy who played Jack Klugman's assistant in Quincy (I wonder if he's related to the judge?)), he has discovered a way to drive through solid matter. Unfortunately, this is where a bunch of alien bad guys have been stashed, and when the Alien stashers find out that Buckaroo can go where the alien stashees are, all heck breaks loose. It seems that some of the alien bad guys had escaped when Buck's scientist friend was helping Dr. Emilio Lazardo (John Lithgow in a wonderfully psychotic role) do the solid matter stunt years earlier. Lazardo didn't quite make it through, and is possessed by John Worfin, the leader of the bad guys. The aliens are (for some reason) all named John, and work for a company called Yoyodyne, where they've been trying to rescue their friends so they can return to Planet 10, and take over. When Banzai succeeds where he failed, Lazardo breaks out of the insane asylum he was locked up in, and tries to steal Banzai's Oscillation Overthruster (the device that allows him to drive through rocks). When they can't find the gizmo, they take Ellen Barkin (who plays the romantic counter point, the tragic Penny Priddy) and hold her hostage. Banzai is contacted by the good aliens (who are also all named John, and all seem to be Jamaican), and one of them helps Banzai stop their evil plans, rescue Penny, blow up the bad guys, and live happily ever after.

This movie seems to be one of those overlooked Sci-fi gems, that gets more attention from people in the business (the crew of Star Trek seems to know the movie quite well) than from viewers. It's an enjoyable film, with some great quotes (one being 'No matter where you go, there you are', and my personal favorite, 'Home is where you wear your hat'), and enough fun to keep sci-fi fans coming back again.