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Sci-fi parodies like these usually struggle to work, but Buckaroo Banzai succeeds through total devotion to its own lunacy.
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All Critics (39) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (12)
This is a chaotic, notably unfunny science-fiction spoof. January 5, 2018 | Full Review…
This is a chaotic, notably unfunny science-fiction spoof.
Richard Freedman
Just how much one will be able to jibe with Buckaroo Banzai will hinge on whether or not you're willing to buy into the movie's unabashed lunacy. February 28, 2017 | Full Review…
Just how much one will be able to jibe with Buckaroo Banzai will hinge on whether or not you're willing to buy into the movie's unabashed lunacy.
Austin Trunick
It's easy to see the appeal, what with its loopy characters, its loopy plot, and its loopy dialogue -- it's just a shame there's not more lurking underneath all that surface quirk. September 17, 2016 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…
It's easy to see the appeal, what with its loopy characters, its loopy plot, and its loopy dialogue -- it's just a shame there's not more lurking underneath all that surface quirk.
Matt Brunson
A one-film franchise that never was, too daft and marvelous to expand any further. August 11, 2014 | Rating: A | Full Review…
A one-film franchise that never was, too daft and marvelous to expand any further.
Rob Vaux
There are fun fripperies to be found on the fringe of "Buckaroo's" free-for-all. But like the bells and whistles of a garish pinball game, they are but momentarily enjoyable distractions on a machine that was destined to tilt from the get-go. July 31, 2014 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…
There are fun fripperies to be found on the fringe of "Buckaroo's" free-for-all. But like the bells and whistles of a garish pinball game, they are but momentarily enjoyable distractions on a machine that was destined to tilt from the get-go.
Nick Rogers
Off-the-wall and incoherent but colorful and eccentric, this satire, benefiting from a great cast, became a cult item. July 8, 2011 | Rating: C+ | Full Review…
Off-the-wall and incoherent but colorful and eccentric, this satire, benefiting from a great cast, became a cult item.
Emanuel Levy
It's a whole lot of thought put into a movie in which not very much happens. June 24, 2010 | Full Review…
It's a whole lot of thought put into a movie in which not very much happens.
Luke Y. Thompson
A state-of-the-art spaceship flying at the speed of light without narrative coordinates, Buckaroo Banzai is the very oddest good movie in many a full moon. August 20, 2008 | Full Review…
A state-of-the-art spaceship flying at the speed of light without narrative coordinates, Buckaroo Banzai is the very oddest good movie in many a full moon.
Richard Corliss
A genuine cult movie: imaginative and endearingly naff. May 6, 2008 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
A genuine cult movie: imaginative and endearingly naff.
Film4 Staff
Buckaroo Banzai is like decades of escapist pulp filtered through the skeptic's shrug of the mid-'80s. March 3, 2008 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…
Buckaroo Banzai is like decades of escapist pulp filtered through the skeptic's shrug of the mid-'80s.
Rob Gonsalves
Richter's comic genre hybrid comes complete with its own mythology, and team of established superheroes, and is curiously appealing. August 16, 2007 | Full Review…
Richter's comic genre hybrid comes complete with its own mythology, and team of established superheroes, and is curiously appealing.
Geoff Andrew
Punch lines appear without set-ups and set-ups without punch lines. Characters come and go with such bewildering speed that it is virtually impossible to keep track of the story, which jumps around enough to induce motion sickness. June 5, 2007 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…
Punch lines appear without set-ups and set-ups without punch lines. Characters come and go with such bewildering speed that it is virtually impossible to keep track of the story, which jumps around enough to induce motion sickness.
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