The script by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon is more clever in the small details than in the broad strokes, and it’s fascinating to learn that one of Beethoven’s favorite albums was Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet.īlu-ray extras on The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension include audio commentary by director W.D. Wayne’s World, Dumb and Dumber, The Stupids), but few turned out to be as ingratiating as Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, thanks to the likable turns by Reeves and Winter. ![]() The upcoming decade would witness a high number of dum-dum characters in dum-dum movies (e.g. While the 1991 sequel Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey contains the series MVP - William Sadler, hilarious as the Grim Reaper - Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is overall the better film, as high school dudes Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves), with the help of the futuristic Rufus (George Carlin), employ a time-travel phone booth to enable them to kidnap historical figures (Lincoln, Freud, Genghis Khan and others) in an effort to avoid failing their history class. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (Photo: Shout! Factory) Love the shout-out to Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast, though. ![]() Buckaroo Banzai offers some off-kilter pleasures, but its players are maddeningly shallow: Jeff Goldblum’s entire character is defined by his cowboy hat, while Ellen Barkin is given precious little to do as a suicidal woman repeatedly rescued by Buckaroo. Lizardo (John Lithgow) and aliens known as the Red Lectroids (Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli and Dan Hedaya all sporting heavy makeup) with the help of his team The Hong Kong Cavaliers (Lewis Smith, Pepe Serna and Clancy Brown) as well as a Black Lectroid (Carl Lumbley). Peter Weller stars as a physicist/neurosurgeon/rocker/celebrity who combats the insane Dr. 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. Two titles previously released by Shout! Factory are now being reissued by the company as limited edition steelbooks.Ī movie that dares call itself something both as imaginative and as cumbersome as The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is clearly bucking for some measure of cult status, and this picture managed to acquire it almost immediately after it bombed at the box office. ![]() THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION (1984) / BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE (1989). Ratings are on a four-star scale.) Peter Weller in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (Photo: Shout! Factory) (View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, DVD and Streaming. Chadwick Boseman in Black Panther (Photo: Marvel & Disney)
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