Through space and madness. No wonder the films of the 80s in the present time receive remakes or reboots, because filmmakers were not afraid to experiment and show completely unusual things. They weren't afraid to lose an audience or be ridiculed - it was important for them to show the story, no matter how strange it was. The cult picture for the West, but almost unknown to us about the adventures of Bakaru Banzai through the eighth dimension, also received its revival, but already in the form of a television series.
The main character - Bakaru Banzai - is a real Mary-Sue: he is a brilliant neurosurgeon, and a racer, and an adventurer, plays in a rock band, even arcade games are made in his honor. He becomes the first pilot to cross the eighth space barrier. The point of the experiment was that since substances are composed of atoms, then there is empty space between them, then matter split into atoms should pass through another substance without problems. Banzai's machine passes through the mountain this way, but it is discovered that the hidden eighth space is a prison for an alien race known as the lectroids. After learning about the successful experiment, the mad scientist Lizardo, who had previously worked with the eighth space, escapes from the asylum to free the prisoners. In this, a ship of the Lectroid government from Planet 10 whirls above Earth, tasked with either stopping Lizardo or destroying the world. And they are blackmailing the massaged president of the United States by sending a missile to the Soviet Union to unleash a full-scale war on humanity.
This is how you can briefly describe the story. It is also noteworthy that in the film the roles were performed by many cult actors before their “star clock”: Peter Weller, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, Ronald Lacey, Clancy Brown, Jonathan Banks.
It’s crazy, because with such an idea and such actors, success should accompany every frame, but when you watch the picture itself, it becomes clear why the film did not break a decent box office. Despite the interesting plot, makeup, variety of design technologies and excellent for the time special effects, the film is too slow. For a film billed as adventure, there is too little action and action, a lot of unexplained plot offshoots, the appearance of completely left-wing characters such as Penny, and from the acting can be distinguished only by John Lithgow, who played Dr. Lizardo. Even the main character performed by the cult Peter Weller, the same Robocop, constantly walks with a stone face, even at the very end, at the peak of the climax, no wrinkles will shudder on Banzai’s face.
Another disadvantage is that this film is supposedly a continuation of a series of films. You get the feeling that you are watching a sequel or a triquel, and because of this you do not penetrate into the characters of the characters, as if you should know in advance how and what everything happened before, the film from the first frames throws into the heaviness of the plot development, not really revealing your characters. In case of box office success, Bakaru Banzai was supposed to become a franchise, for this the creators even turned the final credits something like a hint of a sequel, but the main feature of the film about endless adventures turned against them. It’s a pity, because with decent directing and proper assessment of its capabilities, Bakaru Banzai could become a treasure of 80s cinema, but now it looks like another thrash film.
6 out of 10