Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

As fans of Dr. Buckaroo Banzai's adventures, some of you may have heard rumors or read in the latest issue of the Banzai Institute's World Watch One Newsletter (10/16) that the original creators of Buckaroo Banzai are engaged in an ongoing battle with MGM regarding the ownership of rights to both The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension and to the entire Buckaroo universe that Earl Mac Rauch began creating a full decade before the actual movie. On the other hand, all this may come as news to you. Many of you perhaps are not aware that any unresolved Buckaroo rights issues actually exist because you have quite reasonably assumed for years that MGM "owned" Buckaroo Banzai lock, stock, and barrel. Others of you, even after having read about the current rights brouhaha on many different blogs, may still be confused about the exact nature of the dispute. And, of course, some of you may just wish the whole problem would go away so that more Buckaroo Banzai adventures might appear. If you're in the last category, ask yourselves, "What would Buckaroo do if something he felt rightly belonged to one person was being taken away by another?" Read more on the Banzai Institute Facebook page.

I heard this was a cool 80s movie, and I was curious because I like a lot of 80s movies and had never heard of this one. It was directed by the same guy that did Big Trouble in Little China, which was great, and I also like Peter Weller and John Lithgow, so I decided to give this one a shot. I also read some positive reviews of the film on this site, and after seeing the movie I had to leave my own review so people wouldn't be mislead by all the positive reviews.Man, was this terrible. The plot was goofy, the effects were bad, and the so many things in it made no sense. It's like they set out to make the silliest movie they could and didn't care if it would be good or not. I grew up in the 80s and have a fond memory of many of that decade's movies, but this is definitely not one of the good ones from that era.

Writer Earl Mac Rauch and debuting director W.D. Richter (himself a writer of such things as the 1978 version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers") present to cult movie lovers a rollicking and memorable tribute to and send-up of the Saturday matinée serials of decades past. It has its heart in the right place while maintaining a completely irreverent attitude, a fair amount of invention, and a goofy unpredictability (even while telling what is ultimately a time-honoured tale of alien invasion). The movie features one of the most eclectic casts you'll see in this sort of thing, right down to the small roles. It's got fun alien makeup (by the Burman studio), an appreciable amount of cheese, some choice bits of dialogue, and a colourful bunch of cool characters.Peter Weller stars as the Buckaroo Banzai of the title, a celebrity and jack of all trades: he's a neurosurgeon, physicist, government troubleshooter, jet car test driver, and rock star all in one. He works with a dedicated team of fellow scientists and musicians dubbed The Hong Kong Cavaliers. They find that it's up to them to save the day when extraterrestrial villains called Lectroids start acting up. Among the newest members of Buckaroo's team are the troubled Penny Priddy (an appealing Ellen Barkin) and jovial "New Jersey" (Jeff Goldblum); the nemesis is Lord John Whorfin, who's taken over the body of a scientist named Emilio Lizardo (both roles are played by John Lithgow, who's in peak hammy form).You know you're in for some good times when you peruse the cast list: Christopher Lloyd, Lewis Smith, Rosalind Cash, Robert Ito, Pepe Serna, Ronald Lacey (the Nazi torturer from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" playing the President of the United States here!), Matt Clark, Clancy Brown, Carl Lumbly, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Bill Henderson, Billy Vera, Jonathan Banks, John Ashton, and none other than Yakov Smirnoff playing the National Security Adviser! Everybody is fun to watch, with Weller thoroughly engaging as the game-for- anything Buckaroo, a man destined from birth to be something special. There's some poignancy here and there, but cast & crew commit to mostly keeping an upbeat spirit while the insanity of this movie plays out.This viewer is glad there is an audience for stuff like this (it *does* have a following); this is the kind of thing that ought to get encouraged more often.The end credits with Buckaroo and buddies marching through an aquaduct is irresistible and ends the proceedings on a true high note.Eight out of 10.

Hate to start a review backward, but I must mention my absolute love of Big Trouble in Little China. Coming from W.D. Richter and hearing of his association with Buck Bonzai, I finally made time to check this one out and see what all the cult fuss was.So if I like BTILC, I can totally understand a rabid fans loyalty to an overlooked classic. Hence, I won't trash on the Buck Bonzai people who adore this, because it had completely the opposite impression on me. A directionless mash-up of chaotic scenes (mostly chase) that involve a multi-faceted nuerosurgeon, a race of reptilian space crusaders, a troubled woman, and a mad scientist. There's lots of action, and pretty pictures to look at, but most of its ambitions lie in intentionally being incoherent. Like, "Hey, this is kind of oddball, maybe the audience will take it for what it is."Now, many have. Buck Bonzai is an eccentric mess of indiscriminate themes and antics involving part space opera and half governmental schtick. But its focus changes too often for the goal to be taken seriously. Though I will agree with the diehards that the end credits sequence is one of the most catchy in film history.