This reviewer sets up a howl for BLAST FROM THE PAST at its screening in the frozen north land. Read and find out why...
I'm in Calgary and once again my roomate gave me a pass to a movie - gotta love it!! She works at a record store and gets me almost one a week. The last one I got from her was for She's All That, and I thought that one was a piece of shit. I would have called it Can't Buy Me Love Part2, except it sucked and doesn't deserve to be associated.
Anyways, BLAST FROM THE PAST was good. Basic premise is that in 1962 the pregnant mom and dad (Christopher Walken plays the dad and I really should remember the mom's name but I don't) think there is going to be a nuclear war and when a plane crashes on their front lawn they lock themselves into their fallout shelter for 35 years. They raise their kid (Brendan Frasier) to be the perfect 60's gentleman in 30 minutes that actually is quite entertaining. After 35 years the dad leaves the shelter and discovers modern-day L.A. and, when he doesn't like what he sees, he locks the doors again. He falls sick and Brendan has to go find food and a girl (Alicia Silverstone). He falls for her and she eventually falls for him...not quite believing his predicament.
I had not heard anything about this movie and I still don't know when it is supposed to be released. All I knew was the cast and it looked good based on that. The movie didn't have any surprise plot twists or revelations, but was enjoyable. I'm not sure what this movie is going to be rated, but there was almost no swearing, and no you don't get to see Alicia naked (I know that will be the second post in Talkback). Oh yeah, this movie had the mandatory dance sequence, but at least it wasn't to Fatboy Slim's RockafellerSkank (great dj, overplayed track).
Speaking of Alicia - she's got a face for movies, but it was hard to picture her as anything but that whiney rich girl in Clueless. They don't give any background on her, and when she tells Brendan's mom that she'd from Pasadina I wasn't sure if she was lying or not (not critical to the movie really, but its supposed to be one of those "cute" parts) Oh well, she looks good in this movie and you can understand why the guy falls for her. I really think every guy in the theatre had a crush on her by the end of the film.
Brendan Frasier did a great job in this, hard to believe he is supposed to be 35 though he really looks to be more about 25 (this is even mentioned in the movie, but NEVER explained - Alicia looks like she is 20...I heard a lot of people talking about this after the movie ended...what would she see in some old guy who had never seen outside a fallout shelter???) Major laughs when he deadpanned "wow, a negro!".
Dave Foley makes a pretty good movie gay-guy and got good laughs from most everyone whenever he was on the screen. He does the "its ok to feel your love" bit to get the two together.
Had fun watching this one, but I'm still looking forward to seeing Hurlyburly and Payback this weekend. I'm going to recommend this one to my friends who don't want a movie with lots of cocaine use and violent, bloody deaths - it's a happy movie.
Oh yeah. I won a pair of Gap khakis before the movie started, but I don't think I'm a sellout.
bitchass.
