Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Blu-ray Movie Review

No matter where you go, there you are.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 11, 2016

Unlike the titular character he portrays in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Peter Weller may not be a musician, pilot, surgeon and scientist, but I wouldn't put it past him. Weller is certainly one of the more accomplished folks to have called “acting” at least part of his career during his life, and the fact that acting is in fact only part of Weller's life speaks volumes about his range of interests. Weller is probably remembered largely today for his turn as RoboCop , but in the film and television industries he has a rather impressive list of credits, including performance turns in such notable outings as Naked Lunch and Sons of Anarchy. Weller has also moved into directing, including helming several episodes of Sons of Anarchy. But one of the more unusual and fascinating aspects of Weller’s life has nothing to do with traditional show business — Weller has both a Masters and Doctorate in Art History, and is a recognized expert in certain niches of Renaissance art. That intellectual acuity has tended to inform Weller’s work as an actor, and his seemingly inherent intelligence helps to ground The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, a film which often rambles pretty haphazardly across a swath of content that doesn’t always hang together in an overly convincing way.

Considering the film’s early emphasis on a souped up car able to transmute the laws of physics and the name of Christopher Lloyd passing by in the credits sequence, it might be easy to assume that The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was meant to be some kind of prescient analog to the Back to the Future Trilogy, but rather than a prophetic vision of a film franchise that was probably only in pre-production at the time of Buckaroo Banzai’s shoot, as the new feature length documentary included in this new Blu-ray and DVD set mentions, it was actually Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark that initially drew the now infamous David Begelman to the project. Director W.D. Richter evidently realized early on that writer Earl Mac Rauch’s approach was not going to be anything like the George Lucas — Steven Spielberg collaboration, but Begelman, who was evidently one of the prime money men on Buckaroo Banzai, didn’t—at least until it was too late. And in fact The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai really has very few antecedents or successors, either in terms of content or even style. This is a living cartoon that is part Chuck Jones, part Erwin Schrödinger, and the result is one of the more bizarre “casseroles” imaginable.

A text crawl actually helps to provide a little background that a planned (and evidently filmed) prologue was going to, but the upshot is if there’s a skill in either art or science, chances are Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) has it. That aforementioned car is part of the film’s first sequence, where we see Buckaroo defying the laws of physical matter and penetrating into the eighth dimension, where he sees various sights, including what look like “residents” of the realm. Buckaroo’s efforts only rile the ire of Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow, completely and hilariously out of control with this performance), a guy who back in 1938 also attempted to crack the eighth dimension, failing spectacularly, but coming back replete with a multidimensional possessor of his psyche, an alien known as Lord John Whorfin. Insisting that he’s not Lizardo and is in fact Whorfin has relegated the mad doctor to an insane asylum, where (in one of the film’s goofy but undeniably funny conceits) he like to attach electrodes to his tongue in order to get “high”.

I’m not going to pretend that the rest of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension makes a lot of sense, because it frankly doesn’t. There’s a typical alien invasion scenario, but the film is stuffed to the gills with interstitial bits and character arcs that just kind of waft through the main storyline like (alien?) pollen. Some of these involve the so-called Hong Kong Cavaliers, Buckaroo’s acolytes but also his bandmates (yes, folks, Buckaroo is a fantastic musician, as well). There’s also a silly sidebar involving a woman named Penny Priddy (Ellen Barkin) whom Buckaroo singles out at a concert he’s giving when she’s the only one not having a good time (something the ultra empathetic Buckaroo realizes from the stage). The film is just a wild collage of material, and those wanting a tightly constructed screenplay that offers thoughtful riffs on science are probably not going to be overly convinced by Buckaroo Banzai’s kind of shaggy dog story approach toward everything.

However, those who are willing to cut the film's haphazard tendencies a little slack and simply go with the flow are in for a largely entertaining ride. Weller's almost inherent gravitas plays extremely well against the lunatic proclivities of a truly unhinged Lithgow, and the film's production design is often extremely inventive. While probably too convoluted for its own good, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is at its core silly fun with probably unsupportable ambitions toward science fiction "meaning".

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout Select, a new imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. A sticker affixed to the shrinkwrap on this release states "the cleverly crazed cult classic is on Blu-ray for the first time", which may come as a surprise to owners of the UK The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension release from just a little over a year ago, which was reviewed here by Svet Atanasov. I couldn't find any authoritative information online detailing the provenance of the master Shout used, but it looks similar if not outright identical to the Arrow release, at least when judging by the completely unscientific method of screenshot comparison. I've tried to recreate several of Svet's screenshots for his review, and a cursory comparison will show that detail levels, grain structure and overall color temperature are nearly identical (screenshot 1's apparent brightness difference is simply one of different frames being captured as the "blue apparation" in that scene gains power, resulting in a different look for Weller from second to second). As Svet noted, there are some minimal issues with flecks and the like, but elements are in generally excellent condition, and there are no issues with image instability. The film is rife with opticals and "old school" visual effects, and an understandable uptick in dirt, grain and softness attends these many sequences. I'm not quite at the 4.5 score that Svet afforded the Arrow release (I'd probably grant a 4.25 if I were able to), but this is a solid effort and one which should please the film's devoted fan base.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 options, which I assume more or less recreate the original 6 track presentation for the 70mm blow up theatrical showings and the standard stereo presentation for 35mm showings. Michael Boddicker's synth heavy score spills quite effectively in the surround track, and there are also good moments of LFE and some nice panning effects in the surround track as well. The 2.0 mix sounds slightly less dispersed at times, as should probably be expected, and in some noisy effects sequences, I actually preferred the prioritization of the stereo track. Again, I'm not quite at the 4.5 level that Svet was in his review, but these are problem free tracks that should please audiophile fans of the film.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One (Blu-ray)

• Into the 8th Dimension (1080p; 2:08:16) is a superb in-depth piece that gets into almost picayune detail about everything from pre- production and casting to SFX and the film's release. Interviews abound in this well done documentary.


• Audio Commentary with Director W.D. Richter and Writer Earl Mac Rauch


• Audio Commentary with Michael and Dennis Okuda

Disc Two (DVD)

• Buckaroo Banzai Declassified Featurette (480i; 22:41) is a fun archival piece that features some good interviews.


• Alternate Opening (480p; 7:12)


• Deleted Scenes (480p; 14:11)


• New Jet Car Trailer (480p; 2:25)


• Theatrical Trailer (480p; 1:17)

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm not sure The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension ever had a "real" first run showing in Portland, because I remember seeing this film shortly after it was released at the Baghdad, a "little" neighborhood theater in Portland's Hawthorne neighborhood. I was literally the only one in the audience that night, and I had a hard time figuring out why, because (perhaps due to my already obviously skewed sense of humor), I found the film incredibly ingratiating despite its manifest weirdnesses and narrative hiccups. The film is often rather hilariously sly (a ton of humor just flits by in odd little referents like scrawls written on the walls or passing references to irrelevant tangents), but it's also undeniable that it probably tries too hard to do too much. This new Shout Select release has both new and previously released supplements, but those with Region B players are encouraged to look over Svet's list of the supplements on that release to see if they prefer them to the ones on this release. Technical merits are strong, and at least for those with a skewed sense of humor, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension comes Highly recommended.