The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Adventurer, brain surgeon, rock musician Buckaroo Banzai and his crime-fighting team, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, must stop evil alien invaders from the eighth dimension who are planning to conquer Earth.
johnr339 reviewedOctober 19, 2025
I’m not entirely sure what The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is supposed to be, but I can confirm it exists. It’s part sci-fi, part action, part rock concert, part fever dream, and somehow it all just… works? Or maybe it doesn’t. Hard to tell.
Peter Weller plays Buckaroo Banzai—a brain surgeon, physicist, rock star, and all-around overachiever who makes everyone else in the 1980s look like underachieving mall employees. He delivers every line with the seriousness of a man who truly believes he’s saving the world from interdimensional aliens and late-stage hair metal.
Then there’s John Lithgow, who walks straight out of another universe (possibly the 9th dimension) and steals every scene with an accent that defies both geography and sanity. His wardrobe seems to have been designed by a mad scientist who also moonlights as a circus costumer. It’s glorious.
Ellen Barkin, meanwhile, embodies 1980s femininity like she’s auditioning for a Duran Duran video while holding a philosophy degree. And Jeff Goldblum—well, he’s a cowboy. Literally. A cowboy in a sci-fi movie. He doesn’t need to make sense; he’s Jeff Goldblum.
And then there’s that end-credits scene: the entire cast power-walking down what appears to be the Los Angeles River, looking deadly serious while doing absolutely nothing fast. It’s one of the most unintentionally iconic moments ever filmed.
W.D. Richter somehow directed a movie that feels like it shouldn’t exist but must. It’s messy, chaotic, confusing, and unforgettable—like finding a VHS tape labeled “Cool Dreams I Had Once” and realizing someone had the budget to film them.
In short, I’m not sure what I watched. But I know I liked it. Sort of. Maybe. Definitely.