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Rating:

Review

On the surface, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is not a good move. I would not disagree if you though it was, in fact, a terrible abysmal film. Yet Buckaroo Banzai does something few films have managed to do well- it was brilliantly spoofed the entire science-fiction genre. it has played on the cliches and basic ideological bullshit stuffed into them, while being engrossing and entertaining throughout. The film is smarter and better than most its peers, and stands as just a ridiculous example of film making. Everything about this film cries out as being the last calling card for all sci-fi byproducts. None are greater than the one that single-handedly mocked all the cliches of the times in one fell swoop.

Reason to Watch

Buckaroo Banzai might kick your ass if you do not. Personally, I like my ass intact and have ordered a new copy of Buckaroo Banzai Across whatever through Amazon.

Context

It’s like Dune, except not as pretentious and bloated and more streamlined and awesome.

Most Memorable Quote(s)

• Perfect Tommy: Pictures don’t lie. 
  Reno: The hell they don’t. I met my first wife that way. 
• John O’Connor: They’re only monkey-boys. We can crush them here on earth, Lord Whorfin. 

What You Need to Get Through This Movie

An awesome open mind and appreciation for Banzai, the Chuck Norris of his time.

Trivia

• The latitude and longitude recited by the technicians during the “alignment” of the Oscillation Overthruster are the coordinates of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
• President Widmark is clearly intended to look and sound like Orson Welles, who directed and starred in the radio presentation of “War of the Worlds” referenced in the film.

Educational Content

Well, for starters, there is an 8th dimension

Science fiction films as a whole are sort of dumb, no matter how many dimensions they add

Justification for Rating

However you spin it, this science fiction spoof is smarter, wittier, and basically superior to any legitimate science-fiction film ever made. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy holds its own as a film, but this came out decades before and stands the test of the time as the final capstone on terrible science-fiction, and what a way to bow out.

Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NG8Ipk9CnU

Rating:

Review

There aren’t many things that have involved both Weird Al Yankovic and David Bowie. One known more for his quickly dated parody songs, the other as the experimental pop mastermind, these two men have made a calculated risk with UHF and over 20 years later, I’m still not sure if it did much of anything. UHF has both musicians playing “sort of” archetypes as themselves as George and Bob. George earns, through a series of events, the ability to run a quickly declining television station. he hires his friend Bob to help, and through a host of unrealistic and obnoxiously prototypical characters, we have chaos and “humour.” UHF isn’t all that funny, but it does show you that when a musician acts, it more often than not fails miserably. Sting tried it, Bob Dylan tried it, just doesn’t work unless your black.

Reason to Watch

If you are a fan of Weird Al or David Bowie, you may get a kick out of watching them pretend their not themselves by basically acting how they would act as musicians in the spotlight. Also, the Rambo scene.

Context

UHF is silly and harmless, and instead of hurting the career’s of those involved, it essentially kept everything completely and utterly neutral. Yay for film moving forward.

Most Memorable Quote(s)

• George Newman: Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs… all next week on Town Talk. 
• Stanley Spadowski: I’m thinkin’ of something orange. Something orange. Give up? It’s an orange. 
  Stanley Spadowski: Ok, now I’m thinkin’ of something blue. Something bluuuuuue. 
• Bob: I don’t know about this, George. We don’t know the first thing about what goes on in a television station. 
  George Newman: Don’t worry, Bob. It’s just like working in a fish-market. Except you don’t have to clean and gut fish all day. 

What You Need to Get Through This Movie

You may need Keanu Reeves from Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey to help out. I believe he’s a fan of both Weird Al, David Bowie, and arbitrary stupidity.

Trivia

After extremely positive feedback from test screenings, Orion Pictures concluded that this film was their sure-fire summer blockbuster. Unfortunately, the film was released during the summer of 1989 against huge films like Lethal Weapon 2, Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  It did turn a minor profit but wasn’t enough to save Orion. Following a string of box-office flops, Orion went bankrupt in the early 1990s.

The first cut of UHF was over 2 and a half hours, and where Weird Al still insists on not releasing the director’s cut, saying there was a reaosn those scenes did not make the film

During film, Weird Al had moles on his face removed. Some scenes they are visible, and others they are not

Educational Content

Even as an actor in a comedy film, Weird Al barely qualifies as funny

Justification for Rating

UHF is reminiscent along the lines of Wayne’s World, but ends up being only partly funny, because the whole time you are never attached to a character or itnerested in the paperthin spinning wheels recycled scenarios plot. Clever ideas tossed and turned around…

Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n1hKQULa9Y

Rocky Horror Picture Show

One of the greatest bad movies of bad movies, the cult film of cult films, Rocky has lived on in the hearts and minds of the alienated, marginalized, and gay youth of each generation since its 1975 debut. The Picture Show has become a right of passage for those who will one day become fans of the cult movie, the bizarre musical, and eventually, possibly, even sex. Of all cult movies, no other has a following quite like the sexually confused, camp-horror followers of the late night, double feature picture show. There is nothing quite like seeing a 200-lb Janet, complete with white underwear, dancing and singing in front of two-hundred overly-Zima’d virgins – if you have never been to a modern screening of Rocky, go. Go now. Take a camera – and a change of underwear – it will be the scariest Halloween experience you’ve ever had. Read the rest of this entry »