BLOWN AWAY
A film review by Rober A. Rubio
Copyright 1994 Rober A. Rubio
Starring Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones, Forrest Whittaker, and Lloyd Bridges Directed by Stephen Hopkins
I'll say the explosions in this movie are breathtaking. But the rest of the movie was lacking something. Hopkins tends to direct his movies too much like music videos (don't know if he was a video director before, but it seems like it), and this movie is not immune. And maybe I'm too used to Tommy Lee Jones in other movies, but I couldn't see him as an Irishman (let alone that accent). BLOWN AWAY could have been better, but wasn't.
I would assume the bombs are the main focus of this film, because I had a hard time finding exactly what the focus was. These intricate, somewhat confusing contraptions are supposed to be intimidating and frightening, are to some extent they are, but there is too much to be really plausible. I can understand cutting the right color wire, determining the type of explosive, etc. I think everyone can understand the reasoning behind that. But when the bombs reach the type of complexity they did in this movie, it's hard to feel any suspense because you don't know if Bridges is really in over his head or just does this thing everyday. I know that was the point--the audience is not supposed to know if the bombs are being disarmed correctly, but it's hard to feel tension when there's a million wires, switches, traps, connections, and contraptions. In reality, nothing could help you figure out which wires to cut or which switch to disable.
Do you see my point? If there were four wires of different colors, you would know that cutting one or two of them might disarm the bomb. If there are 50, well, I can't believe even the best bomb disposal expert would know which one to cut in that instance. The best use of suspense this year would have had to have been SPEED, because the bombs in that movie were a little more plausible. But BLOWN AWAY is just too complicated.
Tommy Lee Jones does his best with what is essentially a madman, but Jeff Bridges seems a little confused. He even lapses into an Irish accent midway through the film that threw me off (I know why he did it, I just think it wasn't necessary). The history between these two was presented at a breakneck pace, which led me to believe that it was only presented in the first place so that there would be some motivation for blowing things up. In SPEED, the relationship between Keanu Reeves character and Dennis Hopper's is established early in the film, in BLOWN AWAY it's scattered all over the place.
BLOWN AWAY needed some more organization. It has it's good points, like the explosions, some of the bombs, and a grueling sequence where any household item could be a trigger for explosives. But I believe the movie lacked focus. Were we here to see the explosions, the drama, or the whole movie as something neat to look at? I don't know. I would have to say this is a good dollar flick, but paying matinee or regular prices would be questionable.
THE SNAPMAN
rsnappy@vesta.unm.edu
(Roger A. Rubio)
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