W.D. Richter and Earl Mac Rauch's Buckaroo Banzai is hard to explain and was challenging to market.
Facing box office competition from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Ghostbusters, and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the off-beat, complicated science-fiction comedy action film washed out of theaters.
But after slipping onto home video, all the weirdness that made the film fail with its theatrical release won it fans.
Starring Peter Weller (RoboCop), John Lithgow (3rd Rock from the Sun), Ellen Barkin (Diner), Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Clancy Brown (Highlander), and more, the film brings a knockout cast and care-free creativity.
But does its screwball hi-jinx add up to a great watch or a middling mess?
In this episode, I look into why the film divides opinion, where it lands for me, and discuss its legacy.
Connect with us on Bluesky:
@not-ni-theaters.bsky.social
And to read more of Will's writing or check out more podcast episodes, you can visit him at: willturntale.com
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