BLAST FROM THE PAST
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
It was during the movie's hilarious and frenzied big dance number that I
came to the full realization that I had grown to love BLAST FROM THE
PAST, a movie that starts off as slow as molasses. The movie is a
delightful romantic comedy starring Brendan Fraser, a gifted actor from
movies as widely varied as GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE and GODS AND MONSTERS,
and Alicia Silverstone, a talented actress whose only notable success
was in CLUELESS. As directed by THE FIRST WIVES CLUB's Hugh Wilson and
written by Bill Kelly, BLAST FROM THE PAST manages to use low-key,
subtle humor to come up with big laughs, no small feat.
We meet the Webbers 35 years ago at a party at their Ozzie-and-Harriet
style house during the height of the Cuban missile crisis. A very
pregnant Helen Webber busies herself in the kitchen while her husband,
Calvin, plies the guests with bad jokes and cocktails. Calvin is an
avowed anti-Communist with a tidy net worth, thanks to his many
inventions. He has plowed his investments into creating a copy of his
house in his backyard bomb shelter and has his own Costco-sized supply
store within it.
Looking like a wild-eyed idiot, Christopher Walken, as Calvin, takes the
only broadly comedic approach of the leads and is the least successful
because of it. Stealing all of her scenes with him is Sissy Spacek as
his mousy wife, Helen. Ever-obedient Helen, protests in private with
screams in locked rooms and the ingestion of lots of cooking sherry and
other inebriates.
The party's plastic festivities are interrupted when a presidential
address comes on television. A gleeful Calvin booms, "Kennedy is going
toe to toe with Khrushchev now on television." Calvin's jubilant mood
turns somber, however, when Kennedy informs the nation that the Russian
missiles are pointed at us and "are capable of striking most cities in
the Western Hemisphere." After that, Calvin sends the guests home and
takes his wife down into the bomb shelter. Thinking, by mistake, that
the big one had struck their LA home, Calvin sets the locks on the
shelter to 35 years -- the half-life of nuclear radiation.
It is with the growth of their son Adam (Brendan Fraser) into an adult
that the movie finally gets its legs. Adult is completely the wrong
term, however. The strength of Fraser's performance is that he plays
Adam as a 35-year-old "boy," a lumbering and lovable hunk of a boy, who
knows his geography and Latin but has never had to mature. With his
impeccable manners, he is every girl's parent's dream date.
The time approaches for them to venture above ground to survey the
damage and see if the area is habitable - their old neighborhood is now
LA at its worst, very uninhabitable. Helen asks her son if he has been
thinking about meeting a girl. "I've been thinking about that a little,
just the last 15 years," he smiles in reply.
His mom, as mom's do, gives Adam a laundry list of do's and don'ts after
he has to go alone on the first trip to the wasteland above. One of
these instructions is to look for a Holiday Inn to spend the night.
Typical of the delicious subtly of the script is his reaction to the
fancy touch-tone, room phone. The bellboy explains that he just needs
to dial 9 to get out. "Get out of what?" Adam asks. "The hotel," the
nonplussed bellboy says as he stares in disbelief.
After Adam meets a cute and sassy young woman named Eve Rustikov (Alicia
Silverstone), he enlists her help in procuring enough supplies for
another decade or so. He also asks her assistance in finding a
non-mutant woman from Pasadena so he can get married. Eve takes Adam
under her wing like a big sister might take care of her mentally
deficient little brother. With their marvelous chemistry together, the
two begin to fall for each other without either of them admitting it.
Both actors give sweet and compelling performances, but Fraser dominates
the movie with his striking comedic grace. In a wonderful supporting
role, Dave Foley, from A BUG'S LIFE, plays Troy, a gay man who is Eve's
best friend. He provides the glue that makes many of the scenes between
the leads work.
The movie hits its comedic zenith in the scene in which Eve and Troy go
in search of the entrance to the bomb shelter. It is the reaction shots
of those around them that will have you doubling over in laughter. The
mark of a good comedy is whether you like to see it again. A couple
more times would be just fine with me.
BLAST FROM THE PAST runs 1:46. It is rated PG-13 for brief profanity
and sexuality and would be appropriate for kids around 11 and up.
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Have I seen this movie: Yes
And what did I think: Blast From The Past had the opportunity to be really funny from the concept, but never really comes through like it. A family lives in a bomb shelter for 35 years after they think a nuclear blast destroyed Los Angeles. In that time they have a son, and he comes out of the bomb shelter in present day L.A. It sounds a little like a cross between Encino Man, which Brendan Fraser also starred in and Pleasantville. Unfortunately the laughs here were few and far between, and the story went nowhere. Alicia Silverstone was ok here, a typical ditzy California blonde. Christopher Walken also gives a good performance here as the ecentric father. The problem with the movie is that its a rehashed script with a weak story. It would have been better if they went the more wacky funny route, but they tried for a sweet romantic story and it didn't really come out that way. It's ok if you're desperate to rent something, and it will make you feel good at the end, but its not much of a comedy or a romance.
I give Blast From The Past 2.5 out of 5 stars
Review written August 5, 1999
