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Non-Review Review: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Darren

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (try saying that ten times fast) is one of those quirky cult movies that has built up a rather large following in the twenty-five-odd years since its initial release. Not withstanding the wonderfully quirky title, the intentionally campy production design, and perfectly awesome cast, it’s easy to see why the movie may have found the niche which cherishes it so much. Unfortunately, it’s also possible to see to see why the movie never found its footing with a larger audience.

Not so fast, Buckaroo...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, buckaroo banzai, Christopher Lloyd, cult film, Doc Savage, Ellen Barkin, film, john lithgow, Movie, non-review review, orson welles, review, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, white house | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: W.

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Darren

Oliver Stone famously rushed just about every aspect of this production in order to get it into cinemas before last year’s November election. Does that affect the movie? It does and it doesn’t. It doesn’t in that Stone seems to have a clear image of the President in his head and it’s perfectly captured on screen. It does affect the movie in that Stone has to choose an arbitrary cutoff point for his movie, since he can’t end it with the end of Bush’s presidency. So he chooses the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004 to serve as the film’s ending. That point arguably suits the central thesis of Stone’s psychological profile of the man, butit also serves to make that thesis seem heavy-handed or forced. The other side of that coin is that I doubt the Stone would have been able to market and sell the film for a few years after the end of the Bush administration, and the fact that so vintage a diretcor as Stone can still make such a raw and energetic film is a testament to his abilities (that some of us may have doubted after World Trade Centre and Alexander).