Isdale.es@XEROX.ARPA (08/28/84)
From: Jerry <Isdale.es@XEROX.ARPA> I have recently seen both Buckeroo Banzai and Dreamscape and would recommend both. Non Spoiler Reviews: Buckeroo Banzai: Book & Movie Read/see in either order (slight preference for movie first) A great adventure film. Indian Jones updated for the 80's (more intellectual, humanist less macho bigot). However the film does lack a few things. At some points the dialog is difficult to understand (generally when the aliens are speaking english). there was also a continuity problem where the action doesnt flow smoothly. The main character could have used some more development. The effects are minimal and barely up to 80's standards. The BOOK is also good. It has some odd stylistic devices. It is written from the point of view of one of Buckeroo's buddies as a cronicle of events. The writer expects that the reader already knows the basic story (because its been on the news, etc.). The foreshadowing bears more likeness to spoilers. I think the book may have been a rush job since many scenes look like they were lifted right out of the script word for word, without even changing the format. (ie Buckeroo: "...." General XYZ: "..." Penny: "....." etc.) The background info supplied by the book does fill in many gaps left by the movie. It contains some great explainations of Buckeroo Banzai's theoretical physics. In a few short paragraphs he manages to tie particle physics, brain theory, extra dimensionality, and consiousness together and admit that there is probably a rational physical explanation for most events generally dismissed as magic (ie not real: telepathy, etc.). It is most believable and might even be valid. Dreamscape: (slight spoiler) While the effects were hardly spectacular (or even interesting), the movie as a whole was decent. I wont rate it as high as Ghostbusters (rolicking good fun) or BBanzai (good intellectual adventure), but it is worth seeing. Contary to info previously published in this list only short segments of DoD atom bomb detonations are used. They did most of the stuff with new matte paintings. (note that the matte lines are very visible in some sequences but this tended to enhance the dream effect). Also the Snake man is done with BOTH stop motion models and a man in a rubber suit. It works ok. The treatment of the main idea (psychic projection into someonelse's dreams) is pretty good. The main characters were well portrayed. It is good entertainment. (there is a rumor in the industry that Dreamscape may soon be appearing as part of a double feature, it might pay to wait a week or two). ~ Jerry
ecl@hocsj.UUCP (10/08/84)
BUCKEROO BANZAI
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
The phenomenon of the midnight audience cult classic has given rise to
a number of films trying to outdo each other for weirdness. It seems that
to capture this highly profitable audience the filmmaker has to create a
film unlike the kind of fare that one usually sees when common work-a-day
people can get to a theater. In nature the majority of mutations are non-
viable, and the same principle applies to films that try to be different to
catch the after-midnight crowd. Most are films everyone should see at most
once. And that isn't the idea at all. Rare is the person who sits through
ERASERHEAD repeatedly. In any town big enough to make showing midnight
films profitable, people who would see ERASERHEAD more than once will find
other establishments to cater to their masochistic tendencies.
More light-hearted than most attempted classics is BUCKEROO BANZAI:
ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION. This film bears roughly the same relationship to
comic books that head cheese bears to meat. It is a very strange dicing and
throwing together of many very odd ideas. It is sort of DOC SAVAGE crossed
with THE MONITORS dones in the style of THE LAST DAYS OF MAN ON EARTH. It
seems that we really were invaded the night of the famous Orson Welles
broadcast of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS on October 30, 1938. (The scriptwriter
and most of the rest of the world think the date was the 31st, but the
correct date was really Sunday the 30th.) There are two groups of battling
aliens, the red Lectroids and the black Lectroids, with Earth caught in the
middle. The only person who can save us is super-scientist/rock-
singer/neurosurgeon Buckeroo Banzai. This over-achiever leads a band of
loyal compatriots and an army of child confederates. On the side of evil is
B.B.'s arch-enemy Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow) and the nasty red Lectroids.
Allied with Buckeroo for good are the black Lectroids. The aliens are all
around but without special glasses, the red Lectroids look like AT&T
executives and the blacks look like Rastafarians. Does that sound odd?
There is more to come. B.B. has a new device that lets him move through
solid matter by projecting him into the eight dimension which turns out to
be the subway tunnel the Lectroids use to get here from Planet Ten (of
course!). If that sounds confusing, don't worry. You now have a concrete
advantage over the rest of the audience toward understanding this film. It
may even give you a fighting chance to assimilate what is going on. Maybe.
Confusion, camp, bad acting, strange action, rock music, and homilies
like, "No matter where you go, there you are" combine to make this
film,...well...odd. Not too bad, but a long way from perfect. Rate it +1
(on a -4 to +4 scale).
(Evelyn C. Leeper for)
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!lznv!mrlecl@hocsj.UUCP (10/08/84)
The problem with a movie where anything can happen is that *anything* can happen. Evelyn C. Leeper ...ihnp4!hocsj!ecl