The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

 "Evil! Pure and simple from the Eighth Dimension! Grab them!"

Um, what did I just watch?

This is one of those films I've heard things about over the years but never seen. I knew it was sci-fi, I knew it ewas comedy, but... this is literally the sort of B movie I love to watch, except with a proper Hollywood budget and stars. How on Earth did that happen?

I love how straight the whole thing is played, as this sort of comedy should be. Peter Weller, years before RoboCop, is superb here, almost Leslie Nielsen-esque in playing a square-jawed character who may be a top neurosurgeon, quantum physicist, martial artist and rock musician but has no idea he's in a comedy.

None of this applies to John Lithgow, of course, who quite rightly hams it up with aplomb. This is, it's fair to say, not the sort of part he usually plays.

I love how this leans into the absurdity. The Johns! An otherdimensional Planet 10 where the good Letroids are all somehow Rastas and the bad Lectroids are racist white people! The medically challenged President of the USA! Buckaroo randomly findng love with the long-lost twin sister of his late wife! Yep, this is bonkers. I wish they'd actually made the sequel. I also wish I'd started drinking this wine before I started watching, but never mind.

There is, incidentally, lots of actor-spotting to be had. An unrecognisable Christopher Lloyd. A very young Jonathan Banks, decades before Breaking Bad.