![]() This oversimplified method of distinguishing the good guys from the bad - tough, good-looking gents versus the zany, kid-friendly villains with the requisite booing and hissing by the audience - is a product of its time. However, Lithgow's cartoonish but genocidal leader, determined to return to home and break his army free from their eighth dimension prison, is a raving lunatic with the hair, outfit and goofy walk to match, making him one of the movie's hilarious highlights. In their human form, they hunt for a strange device called the "oscillation overthruster," their hair puffs in curly tangles, giving actors like Christopher Lloyd (a year before sporting another wacky hairdo) an outlandishly kooky charm. Emilio Lizardo, who is possessed by the alien Lord John Whorfin, the creatures called Lectroids dress like grandpa on his way to church - stuffy, plain-colored business suits that lack personality and style. Commanded by a wildly over-the-top John Lithgow in an unconventional performance as Dr. ![]() While our versatile hero and his misfits of multidisciplinary experts embody the height of fashion, their rivals, a reptilian bug-like alien race from the mysterious Planet 10, are the polar opposite. None of this is meant to disparage the beloved cult classic - it's a treasured favorite of this viewer - but rather to celebrate the cleverness behind its production and Earl Mac Rauch's script. Then, there's the stylized hair, as in Ellen Barkin's Penny Priddy, puffed up by Aqua Net, like Clancy Brown's Rawhide, or simply sporting the permed mullet while rocking the saxophone on stage. Of course, Jeff Goldblum's cowboy character named New Jersey stands out with his ten-gallon hat and cow-print chaps, but his fashion faux pas is forgiven because he's the new member. Most hilarious is the clothing - turned collars, vibrant pastel colors, loose neckties accessorized with Members Only jackets - which is wonderfully hip and stylish for the period but conveniently only worn by our protagonist and his riffraff band of assistants/men-at-arms known as the Hong Kong Cavaliers. From start to finish, the movie screams 80s, opening with a yellow text crawl giving unsuspecting viewers background information on the eponymous hero, played memorably by Peter Weller (' RoboCop'). 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!,' commonly simplified to 'Buckaroo Banzai,' is an odd production that is very much of its time.
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