This week Netflix unleashed a whole slew of streaming movies made in the 1980s. That decade often gets a bad rap as one in which superficiality and glitz ruled the day, but if you dig deep, you'll find untold treasures. There were subversive cult movies that raged against the emptiness of the day, movies that looked deeper and more lovingly into relationships between men and women, and paranoid movies that feared the threat of nuclear war with the Russians. (And yes, there was a lot of hair spray.) And sometimes, great art emerged.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
★★★★☆
The great screenwriter W.D. Richter—whose resume ranges from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Home for the Holidays—made his directorial debut with the cult movie The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984); its motto was probably "everything but the kitchen sink." Peter Weller stars as Buckaroo Banzai, who is a race car driver, surgeon, rock star, stunt man, kung fu master, and—in his spare time—an all-around hero. Though the story is awfully busy, it boils down to this: Buckaroo and his faithful team (including a young, skinny Jeff Goldblum) must stop a mad scientist (John Lithgow) from causing alien invaders from the eighth dimension to take over the Earth. All this, and the amazing Buckaroo still finds time to romance the sexy Penny Priddy (Ellen Barkin). If nothing else, it's worth it to watch Lithgow devour the scenery like he's never had a meal in his life.
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