Blast from the Past Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

Blast from the Past Blu-ray Movie Review

A Different Kind of Clueless

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 4, 2015

Taking a man out of his era and putting him into another is a comic device at least as old as Mark Twain, who famously sent a Connecticut Yankee back to the time of King Arthur. Director Hugh Wilson's 1999 Blast from the Past (or "BFTP") jumps over a much shorter period of time, thirty-five years of American history, to be exact, but they were such eventful years that anyone who missed them might as well be an alien. At one point, the incredible naivete of the man who seems frozen in time is explained to others with the excuse that he comes from Alaska, but Mars would be a more plausible point of origin.

The original story for BFTP came from writer Bill Kelly, who would later create an even more extreme tale of disparate worlds colliding in Disney's Enchanted . Director Wilson collaborated with Kelly on the screenplay, pushing the story to heights of comic exaggeration that prevented its darker elements from undercutting it. No stranger to caricature, Wilson had already created a franchise with the broad farce of 1984's Police Academy and a successful sitcom in WKRP in Cincinnati (followed by its less successful sequel, The New WKRP in Cincinnati). He also directed the surprise 1996 hit, The First Wives Club. In BFTP, Wilson risked creating something that didn't conform to any obvious formula. Part rom-com, part Cold War satire, part fish-out-of-water story, BFTP generates a pleasant vibe on the strength of winning performances, clever production and a plot that doesn't stoop for the obvious. The film has aged well, and Warner's new Blu-ray displays it to good advantage.

In 1962, a brilliant but eccentric scientist named Calvin Webber (Christopher Walken, perfectly cast) has retired to the San Fernando Valley with enough money from various patents to build an extensive and fully stocked fallout shelter deep below his suburban home. When the Cuban Missile Crisis occurs, he retreats to the shelter with his pregnant wife, Helen (Sissy Spacek, who is Walken's equal in every quirk). An odd turn of events conspires to make the Webbers think the world has been devastated by nuclear war, and they remain underground for the next thirty-five years, raising the son they name Adam. He is played by a series of child actors and eventually by Brendan Fraser.

The passing of time aboveground is marked by changes in the commercial area built on the site of the former Webber home, which evolves from a Sixties malt shop through disco, punk, a biker bar and eventually a derelict structure suitable for a crack house. The only constant is the original owner's son, played by Joey Slotnick and known only as "Soda Jerk", whose steady decline is a visual satire on everything that's changed for the worse since the Webbers went into hiding from the nuclear devastation that didn't happen. So desperate are "Soda Jerk's" circumstances that, when the Webbers finally emerge from below, he mistakes them for gods and creates a religion around them. It's one of several subplots milked for laughs, then casually tossed aside.

Spacek and Walken dominate the extended first act of BFTP, as Calvin and Helen try to provide Adam with both a home and a makeshift society, which is based, of course, on the world as they remember it. It's an ideal situation for Calvin, who wants nothing to change, but the eternal sameness wears on Helen's nerves. Calvin can laugh at the same Honeymooners episodes no matter how many times he watches them; Helen can't, which is why she secretly takes to the bottle. Adam, though a devoted and dutiful son, would like nothing more than to meet a girlfriend of his own, because, let's face it, when a man reaches his mid-thirties and the only people he knows are his parents, he's getting dangerously close to being a forty-year-old virgin.

The film shifts gears when Adam must venture to the surface to secure much-needed supplies, of which his mother has provided a list. Warned by his father that the world is inhabited by a mutated sub-species created by fallout, Adam is unsurprised by anything he encounters, but everything, from the sky to the ocean, strikes him as wondrous. Most wondrous of all is the appropriately named Eve (Alicia Silverstone), whom Adam meets while trying to sell his father's vintage baseball cards to raise cash. He ends up hiring Eve as his assistant and local guide, which he badly needs to navigate modern L.A. and accumulate the truckloads of supplies he's been sent to acquire. Concealing his true origins from Eve and her gay housemate, Troy (Dave Foley), Adam finds them as curious as they find him. When he asks Eve to help him obtain a wife, what follows is Romantic Comedy 101, as Adam's uncomplicated openness proves irresistible, and Eve can only burn with jealousy while women buzz around him. Troy can see what's happening, even if neither Adam nor Eve can.

Brendan Fraser is best known for The Mummy series, the first of which was released in the same year as BFTP, but it was his gift for physical comedy that first brought him acclaim in George of the Jungle. His performance in BFTP isn't cartoonish so much as comically inappropriate, because Adam's social skills are those of a well-behaved child. His reactions swing wildly between the decorously formal manners he learned from his parents and the enthusiasm of a kid in a candy store, which is how Adam sees this brave new world that he's finally able to explore. Fraser holds nothing back and gives such a committed performance that he really does seem like the son raised by Spacek and Walken. Much of the attraction that Adam holds for Eve is his directness, and much of the reason she resists for so long is her inability to believe that any man could be so honest. Her doubts aren't surprising, given the kind of guy she's used to, of which a prime example is ex-boyfriend Cliff, played by a pre-Firefly Nathan Fillion. He's no match for Adam, as either a man or a fighter.

Blast from the Past Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Blast from the Past was shot by Spanish cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, a frequent collaborator with Pedro Almodóvar and the DP on Brian De Palma's most recent film, Passion. Alcaine's knack for stylized lighting was well suited to a film in which much of the action is set in an idealized version of 1962, "sweetened" by memory. Warner's MPI has newly transferred the film for this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray.

Alcaine's lighting, together with the inventive production design by Bob Ziembicki (Hot Tub Time Machine), provides an entire spectrum of vivid colors, from Helen Webber's late Fifties checks, plaids and pastels to the richly colored urban styles of the late Nineties, plus everything in between—and all of it shines vividly through this new Blu-ray image. As the action shifts between above ground and below, the palette instantly lets you know where you are without jarring you out of the movie. The blacks are solid and stable, and shadow detail is excellent, an important element in the extended sequence inside a jazz club where Eve and Troy take Adam in his quest for a wife. BFTP's version of sunny L.A. is never too bright and sun-drenched, because Alcaine prefers a diffused and softened light (note that his shots of the L.A. sky always feature a thick layer of smog). BFTP's image is a tribute to the ability of advanced film stocks and lenses to capture a detailed but fine-grained image without harshness or sharp edges. Digital cinema is still working toward achieving the same effect (though it's getting close).

As with its two other catalog releases this week (Innerspace and Free Willy), Warner has placed BFTP on a BD-50 and has achieved an average bitrate above the range where it usually aimed in the past: in this case, 27.92 Mbps. It's a good rate and an excellent sign.

Blast from the Past Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

BFTP's original 5.1 track has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, and it's an enjoyable experience, though not especially showy. The opening sequence that results in the Webber's underground sojourn has some interesting directional effects relating to a U.S. military airplane with mechanical trouble and one spectacular explosion (which is what causes Calvin Webber to think the worst has happened). There are various mechanical sounds of the elaborate shelter's devices and environment and, after Adam emerges, noises appropriate to L.A. freeways, shopping malls and a Holiday Inn. Still, by far the most important element of the soundtrack, other than the dialogue (which is always clear), is the beautifully reproduced selection of songs, which are period-specific. They include a generous helping of Perry Como (a Webber family favorite) and Dean Martin, but then, for contrast, R.E.M., Soundgarden and The Village People. Randy Newman's mordantly hilarious "Political Science" plays over the closing credits. The instrumental score was supplied by Steve Dorff (Honkytonk Man).

Blast from the Past Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only extra is a trailer (480i; 1.85:1, enhanced; 2:34). New Line's 1999 DVD included additional DVD-ROM content, such as the screenplay, "bomb shelter" games (trivia, bingo, poker, etc.) and print-out swing dance steps. The DVD's special features also included a "love meter", but it was little more than a gimmick.

Blast from the Past Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It may just be me, but BFTP has acquired more charm with age, as we've moved past its version of "the present", which was just as artificial as its portrayal of 1962. Like nearly all comedies, BFTP simplifies the world, stylizes it and reduces its characters to caricatures that its cast has to make credible with their performances. The film is blessed with two supremely talented actors in Spacek and Walken and one who is frequently underrated in Fraser. Silverstone's range has always been limited, but she's perfectly suited to the character of Eve. As this quartet passes their versions of old times and new times between them, they create a timeless (and sweetly innocent) chat between generations, with a happy ending. New extras would have been nice, but Warner's presentation is solid and highly recommended.