I watched it yesterday and it was my first time seeing the movie. It's hard not to repeat a lot of the things that have already been said in here, since there were already quite a number of points made, to which I can't really add a lot anymore, but I'll try.
First of all the sheer amount of talent on display in the cast is astounding and it is by far the movie's saving grace. Now, okay, I don't mean "saving grace" as in this movie would be bad if it weren't for the cast, but if it weren't for the cast, I'd probably consider this film for my personal "it's bad, but fun bad" drawer. The cast (and a few snippets of the story) made me care about quite a few of the characters, which elevates it for me to be quite an entertaining, even though sometimes pretty messy, piece of media. Plus... and maybe some people see this as a negative, but I don't... the whole movie and cast gave me that feeling of a group of actor friends, which had an idea for a script and they chose to just run with it and have a damn good time while doing so. They knew they aren't making a masterpiece, but went all in just for the fun of it. (I love the end credits sequence btw, which just underlined the feeling I got from the movie...)
The last thing I wanna say about the cast is that, though Peter Weller is great and I think he's also a pretty interesting fit as Buckaroo Banzai here (especially put against Lithgow on the antagonist's side), he was in the end maybe a bit too stiff for the role. I would love to see the exact same version, but with a... I don't really know how to put it... more animated actor who's a bit more "out there" so to speak in that role as well. Maybe it would have been too much in the end though.
The story and movie was, like I said, quite messy from time to time. I didn't mind being thrown into the story without much explanation and having it pretty much getting turned to 11 right from the start, without ever really giving the viewer much of a break. That can be really captivating and in this case, it definitely fit the overall tone of the movie. Booty told me to "enjoy the ride" and that was basically what the movie is for me. It's a rollercoaster ride that throws you from one side to the other, without really slowing down a lot. I wouldn't say it has a lot of really exciting high impact moments, but it's far from being a bore and keeps you on the toes for the whole 100 minutes of ride time.
Honestly, I think this is exactly the kind of movie that works the best when you put it on, while having buddies over and get some pizza and drinks into your body. For me personally, if I had buddies to invite for that, I'd put this one and the first Police Academy movie on and it would be a heckin' good ass time of an evening.
I'd give it a 7.5 outta 10. If you don't want half stars, Booty, then I say it's an 8 for me as well.
