One Word Movie

You may have noticed that it is nostalgia month in leafy Finsbury Park; I clearly remember watching Barry Norman reviewing Buckaroo Banzai on Film '84, thinking that it looked A-mazing, and my mum giggling at the dialogue. And then, because straight-to-video hadn't properly been invented, I never got to watch it. But the injustice of it all has always smarted.

Well, thanks to the wonders of online DVD rental, I finally got to watch this film last night. It's completely warped and incomprehensible, and I'm pleased as hell I never got to watch it when I was 13, because it would possibly have taken over my whole life, and maybe I would have thought that Jeff Goldblum's fluffy chaps (far left) were a laudable fashhion statement. It's a bit like David Lynch directing an Ed Wood, and there are more than enough authentic 80's moments to make it very engaging - check out the shoes on the geezer standing next to Jeff Goldblum in the photo. The sound engineering was pretty rubbish on the DVD I watched, so you couldn't hear them doing the very complicated explanations of the plot, which is a bit of a shame. And apparently there is a deleted scene available on the US DVD which has Jamie Lee Curtis playing Buckaroo's mum. Which isn't on the region 2 disc. Bummer.

If you like inexplicable deadpan retro-SF then you'll think this is good. And if you don't, I genuinely feel sorry for you.