One of the most 80s things ever and an entertaining specimen of the “sci-fi/action movies that make no sense at all” genre. It’s right up there with Big Trouble in Little China in that regard. Deadpan humor and non sequitur moments fly freely in nearly every scene of this film that stars Peter Weller as a famous particle physicist who also happens to be a brain surgeon and a rock star AND who figures out how to build a machine that lets people move through solid objects. From there, he has to fight off evil space aliens who come to steal his invention Just a few of the head-scratchers here: Why does Jeff Goldblum dress in a bright red Halloween costume cowboy outfit for most of the film? Why does the President of the United States look exactly like Orson Welles in Citizen Kane and is depicted in traction for back problems in a giant hamster wheel? Why is the President’s National Security Adviser a Russian who sometimes fumbles with his English? Why is Buckaroo Banzai’s terrible band famous? And what exactly is the deal with the watermelon in the lab?
It’s a crazy comic book world and there’s no “fish out of water” character here to be confused along with us. Writer Earl Mac Rauch and director W.D. Richter drop you right in the middle of it and then expect you keep up. That’s probably one reason why this was a big bomb-a-rama in its original theatrical release. As with a lot of offbeat 80s films though, this picked up a cult following through frequent cable TV showings.