MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:46 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right
Blast From the Past
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, Dave Foley |
| MPAA Rated: |
PG-13 |
| Released By: |
New Line Cinema |
| Release Date: |
1999 |
| Kiddie Movie: |
It’s kinda cute, but more a teen/adult film. |
| Date Movie: |
Bring her along. |
| Gratuitous Sex: |
Nope. |
| Gratuitous Violence: |
A funny fight in the bar between Adam and Eve’s old boyfriend. |
| Action: |
Nope. |
| Laughs: |
Some funny things, but there could have been more. |
| Memorable Scene: |
Adam swing dancing and picking up chicks in the bar. |
| Memorable Quote: |
Adam to Troy as he’s leaving: “Thanks for always being happy.”
Troy: “Huh?”
Eve to Troy: “Gay.” |
| Directed By: |
Hugh Wilson |
Sometimes a movie is hilarious, sometimes a movie makes you cry, and sometimes a movie is just cute. “Blast from the Past” had the potential to be all three, but unfortunately didn’t hit on any of them.
The story kinda goes like this: back in the ’60s, Calvin (Christopher Walken), an offbeat scientist, and his wife Helen (Sissy Spacek), who was pregnant at the time, headed to their fallout shelters of all fallout shelters when Calvin thought that the world was being attacked by the Russians. Oddly enough it was just that a plane had fallen onto their house. Adam (Brendan Fraser) is born and spends 30ish years growing up listening to Perry Como, watching “The Honeymooners,” and living in a world constantly stuck in the traditions of the early 60’s. Well, 30ish years later, when they figure all is better, Calvin heads up to the surface to see if things are safe and maybe get some provisions. Well, Calvin gets the shit scared out of him because where their house used to be there’s now a very scary bar, hookers, an adult bookstore, people eating out of the garbage, and people throwing up on the street. Heading back to the security of his fallout shelter, Calvin relates the scary-ness of the world above him to his family. But Calvin gets sick, and mom knows that they need supplies, so she sends Adam up to the surface to find a grocery store and hardware store to get enough food and supplies for the next 30 years. Adam wants to go up their too, but basically to find a chick.
So, up on the surface, armed with 30 year old baseball cards and stocks that are worth millions, Adam gets to experience a world of the ’90s when he grew up in the ’60s. Well, he finds a friend in Eve (Alicia Silverstone), who agrees to help him get the supplies he needs, for little bit of cash, and she ends up falling in love. Adam falls in love, too, but he doesn’t think that Eve loves him, so he still needs to find a wife. Well, Eve takes him to a bar, where one of the funniest scenes in the movie takes place. Oddly enough, this scene has Adam living his 1960s life in the 1990s, but dancing in a bar based on the ’40s.
Well, that’s about all I’ll bore you about the plot. It’s pretty simple, and can be pretty funny, and could probably make you cry, and could be really cute, but no, the movie I think tried to do all three instead of concentrate on one.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’d be a nice matinee film, or a nice one on the couch on video, but the movie didn’t click for me all of the way through. Adam didn’t seem that impressed that Eve’s radio had a digital display and could change channels at the push of a button, we didn’t get to see Adam amazed at the personal-computer in Troy’s (Dave Foley as Eve’s gay, roommate), room, let alone search the Internet for porn. No, a lot of those jokes were just hinted at, and sort of left up to the imagination, but on this afternoon I didn’t want to imagine, I wanted the comedy thrown right in my face.
Brendan did a good job as Adam, with the goofy grin and quirky attitude, not really understanding the ways of the ’90s, and Alicia as Eve, well she wasn’t bad either (and I just love her smile). But, for me, the movie took too long for Adam to get out of the fallout shelter and into the world above him, and in doing so, there wasn’t the time left in the movie to develop the love story as good as a could have, hit on as many of the jokes as it could have, or maybe even teach Adam that the world of the ’90s can be just a little bit more dangerous than the world of the ’60s.
So, should you spend your money? Well, I give the movie 2 1/2 stars out of 5. I think it could have been a lot better, but it was kind of cute.
That’s it for this one, I’m The Dude on the Right! L8R!
