Blast from the Past (1999)

This is a cute, albeit forgettable comedy romance about a man who comes out in the real world after living in a nuclear fallout shelter all his life. Strange to see both Alicia Silverstone and Brendon Fraser completely fall off the face of this Earth now but back in 1999 they were as big a stars as one could be. The chemistry is lacking to be honest and the film sort of just plods through though there are some cute moments scattered about. Blast from the Past is a decent watch if there is nothing else to see. Otherwise you're better off renting Clueless or The Mummy.

This movie begins with a nutty scientist named "Calvin" (Christopher Walken) who is convinced that the Soviets are about to launch a surprise nuclear attack on the United States. So in order to prepare for it he abandons his academic work at Cal Tech and secretly builds a fallout shelter in his own back yard. Then, during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, he and his pregnant wife, "Helen" (Sissy Spacek), relocate into it as a precaution. As luck would have it, a jet just so happens to run out of fuel and subsequently crashes right above them. This causes Calvin to believe a nuclear strike has occurred and because of that he locks himself and Helen into the fallout shelter for a period of about 35 years. And then he opens the doors…Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, despite some obvious weaknesses here and there, I found this movie to be extremely hilarious! Not only does Christopher Walken perform in an exceptionally superb manner but I also liked the acting of Brandon Frasier (as "Adam") along with David Foley ("Troy") and the "Arch Bishop" (Joey Slotnick). Likewise, the presence of Alicia Silverstone (as "Eve") certainly didn't hurt. In any case, I liked this movie and I recommend it to anyone looking for a first-rate comedy of this type. Definitely above average.

"Blast from the Past" is pleasant and amusing, while delivering an interesting commentary on social values and the deterioration of manners, education and other aspects of society. Brendan Fraser is perfect as Adam, a Renaissance man with superb theoretical social skills but inexperience, so initially comes off as nothing more than a likable doofus, but gradually grows into the gentleman he was trained to become. His character's innocence, naïveté and tendency to view issues as B&W dichotomies represent society's world view in the 1950s and 1960s. Christopher Walken delivers an unusually understated performance and steals the film in the very last scene. Alicia Silverstone does as well as can be expected with the material she was given, but her Eve character is underdeveloped. She seems like an okay sort of girl next door, but doesn't offer enough to justify Adam's fascination with her to the exclusion of several other girls who superficially seem more obvious choices. She has a competing love interest in Cliff, but it never seems clear why she loved him before and doesn't love him now but is still a bit fixated on him. The relationship seems a bit contrived. He's there when the plot needs a low point for Adam but conveniently absent at other times. And it doesn't make much sense that alpha male Cliff would have moved in with her rather than inviting her to move in with him, or that he wouldn't park in front of her house. Eve's entire character also seems contrived. She doesn't seem the type who would frequent the trendy nightclub they visit or to have a gay roommate. While the film is amusing, it falls short of hilarious. Much of the humor is fairly subtle. Many jokes and gags require lengthy setups. The writers don't fully utilize all of the comic tools in their arsenal. There aren't many sight gags other than Adam's unstylish suit. Recurring and 1-2-3 gags aren't used very effectively. The baseball cards and baseball game don't escalate the humor. There are a few verbal gags and double entendres, such as gay/happy, but there's room for many more. The foreground and background aren't used effectively. At one point Eve and her gay roommate Troy enter a porn shop looking for Adam. They jump up and down on the floor, to determine if there's a basement, but it's done very seriously. Cut twice to a customer clutching an armload of VHS tapes and backing away as if they are weird. The Pakistani shop owner approaches, wearing a lot of gold jewelry in what may or may not have been intended as a politically incorrect commentary on the influence of immigrants growing rich by peddling porn. They have an exchange that includes one of the best jokes in the movie, then ask about a rear entrance. Including the setup, the scene lasts for about eighty seconds. It could have been shortened by showing the customer in the background instead of in separate shots. The customer is overweight and looks a bit nerdish or borderline weird. There are a number of things they could have done to make the scene funnier. He could have dropped a tape at Eve's feet and she could have picked it up for him only to have him deny it was his. He could have hurriedly replaced a movie and asked the shopkeeper if he carries any historical documentaries. He could have approached Eve and asked her if she was Dixie Normous, the famous porn star, and asked if she would autograph the box for him. Troy does a little dance step in an effort to see if the floor sounds hollow. He could have gotten on his knees and put his ear to the floor. That could have led to a sight gag and physical comedy. Except for the one joke, which was admittedly one of the best in the movie, the setting could have been changed to a barbershop or grocery store. They didn't push the envelope or try to squeeze every laugh they could out of the scene. In part, they seem to have tried to be inoffensive, going as far as to blur the images of bare breasts on the video jackets, possibly trying to maintain the tone and sensitivities of the 1950s and 1960s. For their efforts, the film still got a PG-13 rating. But what's the point? Viewers who would be most likely to appreciate the references to manners, mores and cultural references of that period would have been in their forties or fifties in 1999 when the film was released. Much of the humor would have made no sense to younger viewers. Some aspects of the movie are simply not funny. A character becomes alcoholic. Another character goes stir-crazy. A plane crashes in a residential neighborhood. While they take pains to suggest there were no casualties, including having the plane go vertical before nosediving, plane crashes simply aren't funny. Consequently, the film has an uneven tone. But the trade-off is a cinematic billet doux to a lost age of innocence.

Blast from the Past is a relatively entertaining 1999 comedy that could be considered the final installment of the Brendan Fraser "Fish out of Water" Trilogy, following Encino Man and George of the Jungle.The film stars Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek as a 1950's couple with a child named Adam, who hide out in a bomb shelter during the 50's and what happens when a grown-up Adam (Fraser) decides to venture out of the shelter in 1999 Los Angeles because the family needs supplies.Fraser's effortless screen charisma and his experience with this kind of character makes this movie seem a lot better than it really is. Walken and Spacek are wonderful as his parents and Alicia Silverstone is adequate as the obligatory romantic interest.Hugh Wilson's direction is exuberant and keeps the story somewhat believable but it's really the performances of Fraser, Walken, and Spacek as the family caught in a time warp that make this film worth sitting through.