Buckaroo Banzai (tv series)
- Thread starter ghostryder
- Start date
Just saw that and was about to post it. I'm... guardedly hopeful...? I hope he brings in Rauch and Richter to at least consult, if not help with the writing. Rauch still has that knack for the absurd-as-commonplace vibe of the original film and novel down, and I feel like the show would be missing something without that kind of cadence to it.
That said, Dear Kevin Smith: I've been around BB fandom since the early days of the proto-internet, including many years on World Watch OnLine, having acquired the Institute sobriquet of "Paladin", in the sort of double-meaning that Dr. Banzai tends to inject into most things -- it was a reference to both my inclination to help others like the noble knight of high fantasy, but also evoking his own Old West sensibilities by referencing the main character in "Have Gun, Will Travel". All this to say, I've been immersed in the lore for so long, I'd practically saw off limbs to be a part of this, after enduring all the real-world legal crap that's prevented us getting another film or any TV series for over two decades...
--Jonah
That said, Dear Kevin Smith: I've been around BB fandom since the early days of the proto-internet, including many years on World Watch OnLine, having acquired the Institute sobriquet of "Paladin", in the sort of double-meaning that Dr. Banzai tends to inject into most things -- it was a reference to both my inclination to help others like the noble knight of high fantasy, but also evoking his own Old West sensibilities by referencing the main character in "Have Gun, Will Travel". All this to say, I've been immersed in the lore for so long, I'd practically saw off limbs to be a part of this, after enduring all the real-world legal crap that's prevented us getting another film or any TV series for over two decades...
--Jonah
CB2001
Master Member
Hey, if they can make From Dusk Till Dawn into a TV series, why not make Buckaroo Banzai into a TV series? I'd totally check it out, especially if Smith and the original writers and director were also involved in the series as well!
Seriously, hearing this makes me want to walk!
Seriously, hearing this makes me want to walk!
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I am not sure which makes me more sad, this or the Rocky Horror travesty.
CB2001
Master Member
If I had to guess, the Rocky Horror travesty. At least with this and Kevin Smith being involved, you are at least getting something that is going to attempt to stay true to the original (if he's a serious fanboy of the film as he is with the comics he's worked on, we've got nothing to worry about).
Egon Spengler
Master Member
Won't be as good as the original.
CB2001
Master Member
I say let's wait and see how it goes first before making judgements.
I always felt like this was a movie that I should have loved.
It had all the elements that should have made it a cult classic. But somehow I don't find myself revisiting it like, say, Big Trouble in Little China.
Maybe it's simply too consciously crafted to make it become a cult film. It's almost a parody of itself. And it's lacking a certain ... cult spirit more apparent in even bad cult films crafted with passion.
I like the film but I don't love it. But I feel like I should have loved it.
So, for me, the TV series might prove to be better than the film.
It had all the elements that should have made it a cult classic. But somehow I don't find myself revisiting it like, say, Big Trouble in Little China.
Maybe it's simply too consciously crafted to make it become a cult film. It's almost a parody of itself. And it's lacking a certain ... cult spirit more apparent in even bad cult films crafted with passion.
I like the film but I don't love it. But I feel like I should have loved it.
So, for me, the TV series might prove to be better than the film.
Whereas the other way round or me. I like Big Trouble, and enjoy re-watching it from time to time, I like the comics that continue the series... But I love Buckaroo. *shrug*
--Jonah
*shrug*
I must admit that I think I have to re-watch it. My "emotional movie memory" tells me that the movie was not as good as I expected it to be, despite its interesting premise and comic book characters. Speaking of comic books, wasn´t there a comics adaption?!
Comic continuations, as with Big Trouble.
The big difference, to me, between those two, for instance... In Big Trouble, Jack is an ordinary guy trying to deal with really weird stuff going on. In Buckaroo, they treat the absurd as commonplace. Jeff Goldblum's character is the audience's perspective into the film -- the only one who really looks around and wonders at the things he sees (teams searching the Institute for the bad guy, Reno and New Jersey pass a watermelon in a hydraulic press; New Jersey: "Why is there a watermelon there?"; Reno (waving it off): "I'll tell ya later..." Never seen or mentioned again in the film), but for just about everyone else, they're wonderfully blase about it ("President's on the line. He wants to know is everything okay with the alien spaceship or should he just go ahead and destroy Russia?" "Tell him yes on one and no on two.") It's the same thing I love about the Hitchhiker's series. Ford's out of his depth, but "responding like an Englishman ("This must be a Thursday -- I never could get the hang of Thursdays..."). For everyone else, it's business as usual. Including the narrator. If having the absurd treated as commonplace isn't your thing, it won't land. If you like that sort of thing, it will.
--Jonah
The big difference, to me, between those two, for instance... In Big Trouble, Jack is an ordinary guy trying to deal with really weird stuff going on. In Buckaroo, they treat the absurd as commonplace. Jeff Goldblum's character is the audience's perspective into the film -- the only one who really looks around and wonders at the things he sees (teams searching the Institute for the bad guy, Reno and New Jersey pass a watermelon in a hydraulic press; New Jersey: "Why is there a watermelon there?"; Reno (waving it off): "I'll tell ya later..." Never seen or mentioned again in the film), but for just about everyone else, they're wonderfully blase about it ("President's on the line. He wants to know is everything okay with the alien spaceship or should he just go ahead and destroy Russia?" "Tell him yes on one and no on two.") It's the same thing I love about the Hitchhiker's series. Ford's out of his depth, but "responding like an Englishman ("This must be a Thursday -- I never could get the hang of Thursdays..."). For everyone else, it's business as usual. Including the narrator. If having the absurd treated as commonplace isn't your thing, it won't land. If you like that sort of thing, it will.
--Jonah
Egon Spengler
Master Member
Okay. Gotta admit, up until recently I only saw bits and pieces of the movie. I never watched it all the way through. Well, the other day i did and I take back what I said. The tv show could end up being better. The film has a lot of cool stuff to it, but over all it felt like it dragged on and I hate to say it, it was pretty boring to me.
