The ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION

   Film (1984). Sherwood Productions. Dir W.D.Richter, starring Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd. Screenplay Earl Mac Rauch. 103 mins. Colour.

   The crazed but incoherent tale of rock-musician-neurosurgeon-particle-physicist Banzai (Weller), a kind of imaginary 1930s pulp hero with a distinctly 1980s ambience. In this episode Banzai defeats an alien INVASION which began in 1938 (as described by Orson Welles, who pretended it was fiction) led by frantically overacting John Lithgow. The film is ill directed and badly photographed, and appears to have been made by underground junk intellectuals who accidentally stumbled over a fairly big budget. REPO MAN, from the same year, is a wittier and better organized example of what might be called designer cult movies.

   See also: ANDROIDS; WAR OF THE WORLDS.