Skip to main content

Movie Review: Blast From the Past

   Hey, everyone. One of my favorite movies is Blast From the Past. You know how it is. Some movies just seem to be made for you. Or perhaps, they just had a perfect storm of acting, directing and writing that made the endeavor almost perfect.
    Brendan Fraser stars as Adam Webber. He has spent the first 35 years of his life living in a bomb shelter. His nearly crazy father, a genius, played by Christopher Walken, mistakenly believed that nuclear war had broken out. Mr. Webber, a paranoid scientist, has built a bomb shelter because of the Cuban missile crisis, an event I remember quite well from the early 1960's. In reality, a small plane has crashed in his back yard but Mr. Webber has sealed the shelter for 35 years because he feels that the zombies will have mellowed out by that time. His long-suffering wife, played by Sissy Spacek, is pregnant and Adam is born underground.
     When the time locks open, Mr. Webber goes to the surface and finds that a bar has been built over his house. The once placid residential neighborhood has deteriorated into a seamy area filled with porn shops and streetwalkers. Webber thinks that the inhabitants are mutants and can change their sex at will. Don't ask. When he goes back to the shelter he seems determined to set the time locks for another 10 years. Here is the point that he finally steps over the line with Mrs. Webber. The idiot has already turned her into an alcoholic with his delusions. Now she refuses to allow him to keep their son underground. The result is that Adam must go topside to get supplies and hopefully find himself a woman.
     One can imagine what it would be like to see the sky for the first time, at age 35. Adam has never seen a car, never had a job, never done much of anything. Yet his folks have prepared him well for certain things. Obviously, values have changed in three decades. When he meets Eve (Alicia Silverstone) it is love at first sight. When he discovers that she is not a mutant, it only reaffirms that she is the girl for him. But when he mentions taking her 'back down in the shelter' she thinks he is a serial killer.
    This movie is funny. It is charming and gave me a rush because of all those memorable things from the era in which I grew up. I am afraid that the delusional Mr. Webber reminded me of myself and Mrs. Webber reminded me of Carley, with her patience. The whole thing is just plain good and I have watched it a dozen times. I like it more each time. There is a lot of adult language but I don't recall any nudity. Not that I would notice. All the acting was superb, which normally indicates wonderful directors. Don't miss this one. I bought it for $4.99 at Amazon. (DVD)
From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Shadowgun: Crushing The Driller On Level 4

      Hey, everyone. Let's talk about the game called Shadowgun, the I-Pad game with which I have a love-hate relationship. Most of you who made it past the evil Cyber Lobster are doubtless locked in a death struggle with the Driller at the end of level 4. At this point you have been in the cave for a long time. The Driller breaks through the rock wall and chases you through the tunnel as you try to shoot out the green lights which slows the Driller down. If you are slick enough to shoot out all the lights and emerge from the cave, a rolling door crashes on the Driller and crushes his aggravating carcass. I have tried and failed to beat the Driller at least 250 times. I hate the Driller to the heights and depths my soul can reach. I hate it like a plague. I hate it with intensity of feeling. I hate it like a rich man hates taxes. Excuse me, I got carried away.       We had a big dinner here at the green retreat and my friend Trevor was ...

Faerie In a Glass Jar

    Hey, everyone. Sometimes gaming can be high-pressure. Take tonight, for instance. I was playing the excellent puzzle game titled 4 Elements #2. I have already done a review of it so I won't attempt to do so again. You have to match symbols and use 'power-ups' to get molten lava to flow around a board and bring life back to a faerie world. Cool. That's what I do. I'm into it. There are also a variety of mini-puzzles such as hidden objects and even putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Hey, when I get in trouble I call Carley.     Anyway, tonight, Carley wasn't around when a crisis struck. I was confronted with a faerie in a glass jar. She was crying for help. She said that she was running out of air. Every minute or two she would rattle the jar. In order to free her, I had to find all these objects and use them. Like there were some missing books. Then there was the pieces of a torch. When I found them I could light all the candles. I found the pieces of ...

Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour

    Hey, everyone. I have been playing the newest shooter game from Gameloft and it pretty much rocks. Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour is running #4 on the app store against the stiff competition of Angry Birds and Vice City. I have had it for 2 days now but I have just now started to play it. I chose 'no gyroscope' on the controls and 'easy' level of difficulty. The file size is a huge 1.44 Gigs, the biggest game file I've ever downloaded. The price is a healthy $6.99. The in-apps, if you have to have them? They run all the way up to $99 (dollars, not cents). Are they out of their minds? I hope I can play at least most of it without the additional buys. Wouldn't bet on it.      The graphics are superb and it plays okay on my I-Pad 3. Here's how the story goes. A lot of dignitaries are assembled in Hawaii and a guy named Page launches an assault on the hotel and takes a noted captive, utilizing a band of mercenaries. This Page guy has a screw loose in h...