Buckaroo Banzai: The VHS TV Edition

This was awesome! It hits all the plot points, in a convenient, travel-sized 1 hour episode. Honestly, it felt exactly like a TV episode. And the commercials were amazing too.

What a fun experiment, 10/10 would recommend!!

Although from the wrong era and continent, seeing this presentation brought me right back to watching programs recorded on VHS twenty-odd years ago. The style of the film is adapted so well into the new format that you would not know that is started out as a widescreen film, in-fact I think the short format helps in a way to make the story more digestible (not the greatest fan of the original). The only issue is that now I wish there were more episodes!

If i could turn back time.... if I could find a way... I would get Bionic Bob to go back and actually complete a full Buckaroo Banzai TV series. This edit is a pure joy, from start to finish. It's like a big hug of nostalgia for anyone growing up in the 80's like me - the kind of hug that leaves you wanting to tune in for next week's episode.

Initially, I must say that it took me a few minutes to adjust to the nature of this edit. The degrading of the picture, the inconsistencies in the audio levels... I started to get all critical, with my fanediting brain saying, why is the hiss that's been added a bit too loud, why do the commercials sound loud one minute and then quiet the next. Then, I just relaxed and got totally drawn in - after all, the varying quality here is kind of the point of this VHS style edit.

The great thing here is that it's not overdone. I have seen some edits of this kind try far too hard to make it feel "old", or as if it's been sourced from an old VHS tape that's suddenly been discovered, to the point where it just doesn't work. This is not the case here however. Bob has done an excellent balancing job, and by half way through I genuinely felt like I had been transported back to watching TV back in the 80's. That's the ultimate success of this edit. The advert break transitions work a treat, the choice of adverts made me smile (even though most of them I'm not familiar with, as I'm from the UK and we didn't get all these adverts back in the day) and I particularly loved the NBC indents.

As for making Buckaroo Banazai a TV series? It actually works far better than I thought. The idea of landing us half way through a story, and then have no ending as such... it could be seen as a bit much, but you know what? It's brilliant. Indeed, the concept of this whole edit is pure genius in my eyes. It kinda should not work... but it does. It works beautifully.

Scoring this kind of edit is very difficult... perfect 10's across the board for me, as it's not an edit that is trying to obtain the perfect quality... but when you judge it on what it's setting out to achieve, it does it perfectly. All in all, highly recommended for anyone wanting to take a trip back to watching TV in the 80's.... now, if only I could uncover the VHS tape for the next episode.

This is my first fan edit ever and it is the best ever! The way BionicBob adds ad breaks in between is genius. If I could, I would put this on blu-ray to own forever.

This was a very fun edit! I understand it was done as an experiment, but I wish Bob had made 3 or 4 episodes of the full movie and not just part of it... again, I get what he was going for and absolutely achieved! the editing of the commercials is just awesome & reminded me of my childhood... if you are a fan of the movie, def check it out!