Buffy ,'Get It Done'
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Anyone else besides Jilli gonna see this? I probably will.
Hey! I resemble that comment. I just hope Tim Burton has come out of whatever fugue state or automatic pilot he was stuck in during the filming of Alice In Wonderland.
I haven't seen Buckaroo Banzai is ages. I should fix that.
It was a miniseries in the 1970s, starring Alec Guinness as Smiley.
Ah. I didn't remember that at all.
Buckaroo may be the ultimate "love it or hate it" movie. I love it, maybe because it came out at exactly the right moment in my life -- "laugh while you can, monkey boy" was a catch phrase in my circles for a couple of years.
There was a campaign for a second Buckaroo movie. I didn't get involved because I didn't think they could pull it off again.
Anyone want to take a shot at explaining the Buckaroo appeal? Or is it one of those things that you just get or you don't?
It's simultaneously dorky and witty, it's very comic-book: Buckaroo is a superhero (neurosurgeon, test pilot, musician, basically Batman with a healthier psyche), there's this whole network of Blue Blaze Irregulars (who are simultaneously comic fans and researchers), he's surrounded by witty eye-candy (Perfect Tommy!). It's full of pop-culture references and the aliens are ridiculously over-the-top.
Plus he's rich and has his own plane, jetcar, and mansion/research labs. But he has his secret angst in how his parents died & his last girlfriend/fiancee did too. It's completely OTT.
Anyone want to take a shot at explaining the Buckaroo appeal?
I suppose it depends on your tolerance for weird things coming out of left field. My favorite parts are Dr. Lazardo and Jeff Goldblum's character. I don't have a good reason that I can put into words.
But it isn't just the over-the-top and coming out of left field. Buckaroo simply revels in being OTT and left-field -- with a straight face.
I realized that they are kind of similar
W.D. Richter co-wrote Big Trouble and directed Buckaroo.
W.D. Richter co-wrote Big Trouble and directed Buckaroo.
I knew there was some actual production link between the two, but I couldn't remember.
Also Buckaroo plays with all kinds of tropes in a thoroughly knowing way. There is a lot of reference to radio programs-- radio heroes always had fan clubs pretending to be part of the hero's story the way Buckaroo has the Blue Blazer Irregulars--but of course in this movie the club actually IS a network of people who help defeat evil, as well as the whole "War of the World" cover story and the president looking like Charles Foster Kane. Also the end is a lovely nod to Sleeping Beauty, only with electricity. The sheer crazy joy the film takes with storytelling and genre and language just delights the hell out of me.