The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984)
75%RT Audience Score: 69%
Awards & Nominations: 5 nominations
Sci-fi parodies like these usually struggle to work, but Buckaroo Banzai succeeds through total devotion to its own lunacy
Buckaroo Banzai is like a wild ride on a rollercoaster that doesn’t follow any of the rules. It’s a mix of sci-fi, adventure, and humor that somehow works together to create a world of its own. Sure, it’s chaotic and incoherent at times, but that’s part of the fun. The characters are loopy, the plot is loopy, and the dialogue is loopy, but it all comes together to make a movie that’s just plain loopy. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re willing to embrace the lunacy, you might just find yourself having a blast.
Production Company(ies)
United Artists Lions Gate Films, Industrial Development Corporation, of South Africa
Distributor
20th Century Fox
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Lake View Medical Center – 11600 Eldridge Avenue, Lake View Terrace, Los Angeles, California, USA
MPAA / Certificate
PG
Year of Release
1984
-
Color:Color
-
Sound mix:Dolby
-
Aspect ratio:2.39 : 1
-
Runtime:1h 43m
-
Language(s):English
-
Country of origin:United States
-
Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Aug 15, 1984 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2002
Genre(s)
Sci-fi
Keyword(s)
sci-fi, Buckaroo Banzai, Hong Kong Cavaliers, red aliens, black aliens, John Whorfin, Emilio Lizardo, Overthruster, Earth, Neil Canton, W.D Richter, Earl Mac Rauch, PG, Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Lewis Smith, Richard Corliss, Geoff Andrew, Variety Staff, Vincent Canby, Marjorie Baumgarten, Joel E Siegel, Jason Shawhan, Matt Brunson, Mike Massie, directed by W.D Richter, written by Earl Mac Rauch, produced by Neil Canton and W.D Richter, reviewed by Richard Corliss, Geoff Andrew, Variety Staff, Vincent Canby, Marjorie Baumgarten, Joel E Siegel, Jason Shawhan, Matt Brunson, Mike Massie, PG rating, 20th Century Fox, Surround sound, Dolby Stereo, Dolby A, Stereo
Worldwide gross: $6,254,148
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $18,314,200
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,742
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 1,997,186
US/Canada gross: $6,254,148
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $18,314,200
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,438
US/Canada opening weekend: $620,279
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $1,816,381
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,217
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
John Lithgow – Doctor Emilio Lizardo, Lord John Whorfin
Ellen Barkin – Penny Priddy
Jeff Goldblum – New Jersey
Christopher Lloyd – John Bigboote
Lewis Smith – Perfect Tommy
Director(s)
W.D. Richter
Writer(s)
Earl Mac Rauch
Producer(s)
Neil Canton, W.D. Richter
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
5 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (42) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (28) | Rotten (14)
A state-of-the-art spaceship flying at the speed of light without narrative coordinates, Buckaroo Banzai is the very oddest good movie in many a full moon.
August 20, 2008
Richard Corliss
TIME Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Richter’s comic genre hybrid comes complete with its own mythology, and team of established superheroes, and is curiously appealing.
August 16, 2007
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
It violates every rule of storytelling and narrative structure in creating a self-contained world of its own.
June 5, 2007
Variety Staff
Variety
TOP CRITIC
Buckaroo Banzai may well turn out to be a pilot film for other theatrical features, though this one would be hard to top for pure, nutty fun.
May 20, 2003 | Rating: 3.5/5
Vincent Canby
New York Times
TOP CRITIC
Wonderfully fun, albeit markedly chaotic and incoherent.
March 10, 2003
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
The movie makes such large demands on one’s powers of concentration and yet, when all of its threads have been followed and its oddities assimilated, all one is left with is a junk construction.
May 2, 2022
Joel E. Siegel
Washington City Paper
Dense and complex, this beloved 1984 cult film hits the ground running with its text-based prelude and just doesn’t stop, never making an expected choice or pausing to hold the viewer’s figurative hand.
September 8, 2021
Jason Shawhan
Nashville Scene
It’s easy to see the appeal, what with its loopy characters, its loopy plot, and its loopy dialogue — it’s just a shame there’s not more lurking underneath all that surface quirk.
August 29, 2021 | Rating: 2.5/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
The story is so incredibly bizarre – a mix of pulpy adventure, British-infused science-fiction zaniness, comic book character designs, dry humor, and awkward romance.
August 31, 2020 | Rating: 2/10
Mike Massie
Gone With The Twins
This is a chaotic, notably unfunny science-fiction spoof.
January 5, 2018
Richard Freedman
Newhouse News Service
Just how much one will be able to jibe with Buckaroo Banzai will hinge on whether or not you’re willing to buy into the movie’s unabashed lunacy.
February 28, 2017
Austin Trunick
Under the Radar
A one-film franchise that never was, too daft and marvelous to expand any further.
August 11, 2014 | Rating: A
Rob Vaux
Mania.com…
Plot
Brain surgeon, rock musician, adventurer Buckaroo Banzai is a modern renaissance man and has made scientific history. He perfected the Oscillation Overthruster, which allows him to travel through solid matter by using the eighth dimension. But when his sworn enemy 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. Along with his crime-fighting team, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, Buckaroo must stop the evil alien invaders from the eighth dimension who are planning to conquer our dimension. He is helped by Penny Pretty, the long-lost twin sister of his late wife, and some good extra-dimensional beings who look and talk like they are from Jamaica.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The film features an impressive cast including Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, and Christopher Lloyd.
W.D.-Richter.jpg
