BLOWN AWAY
A film review by Mark Takacs
Copyright 1994 Mark Takacs
MGM / rated R
Starring: Jeff Bridges Tommy Lee Jones Suzy Amis
Lloyd Bridges Forest Whitaker
Tak Classification: Drama / Action
Tak Rating: watch it on cable
One-Line-Summary ---------------- A vengeful mad-bomber torments an old friend, now on the bomb squad.
Tak Plot Summary ---------------- Jim Dove (Jeff Bridges) has been with the Boston bomb squad for quite awhile. He's a hero. But now he wants out. He wants to settle down with Kate (Suzy Amis) and her daughter Liz. However, a figure from his obscured past comes back to haunt him in the form of Mad Bomber Ryan Garrity (Tommy Lee Jones).
Tak Thoughts ------------ BLOWN AWAY sucked. I wanted to see lots of things blowing up. Hoards of things. And, to be fair, they did blow up a bunch of stuff--a toilet, a truck, a man, a bridge, and a boat-of-eternal- shrapnel-that never-hits-anyone. They could have blown up more stuff but our hero, played by Jeff Bridges, has this annoying tendency to disarm the damn things. And they missed a damn fine destruction chance in one scene, where they imply that some lurking news and police choppers were in for serious shrapnel. But alas, no chunks-of-truck- in-the-rotors. A bomb's just not a bomb if it doesn't blow up, as pointed out by Dennis Hopper in SPEED.
Action. That's what I wanted. I've got a soft spot for mad bomber movies, and SPEED hit the spot. But BLOWN AWAY just didn't do it for me. Instead of lots of action, all sorts of PLOT gets in the way. Jeff Bridge's character is haunted by his past, he's the best but he doesn't like it, he accidentally blew up some people he loved, he's in Bomb squad to repent, blah blah blah.
And the mad bomber? The angry, insane IRA bomber is kinda old, and the U2 soundtrack playing in the background is a little much. Plus, Tommy Lee Jones is now robbing his own crazy man skit from UNDER SIEGE.
Oh, yeah. And there's BLOWN AWAY'S idea of suspense. It's called "extreme closeups" and slow-motion. Dunno about you, but I though Jeff Bridges' face looks awful stupid in extreme slow-mo. And although there are no spring-loaded cats (as horror movies are fond of for a cheap scare) there's a kitchen scene where they'd have you believe everything possible is gonna blow. It works for the first grab at the fridge, but the second? Then the stove? Then the light? And the phone? And all five dials on the stove? one by one? There was laughter in the theatre on the third extreme closeup of the stove dial hitting "lite."
Any good stuff? Yea, I guess so. Let's see--the mad bomber has a preference for Rube Goldberg type bomb triggers which make some pretty neat scenes. The bomb lore is pretty fascinating--"bouncing betty's," and distilling explosive crystals with coffee filters. They killed a dog. I dunno. Read some other reviews for good stuff. I don't wanna spend too much time remembering BLOWN AWAY.
Tak Rating system: ------------------ Bah. BLOWN AWAY took itself too seriously and got bogged down in needless plot that didn't add anything to the experience. Go see SPEED again if you want a mad-bomber action flick. Go rent IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER if you want an Irish/IRA flick. But don't spend your summer movie cash on BLOWN AWAY.
avoid at all costs see several times (w/friends) as matinee X watch it on cable see once at full price watch it on videotape see it several times - full and/or matinee see once as a matinee see many times at full price
-- Mark Takacs mtakacs@netcom.com Pasadena,CA WWW HomePage
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