Blast From the Past Review

by Susan Granger (Ssg722 AT aol DOT com)
February 21st, 1999
Susan Granger's review of "BLAST FROM THE PAST" (New Line Cinema)
What would the world look like to you if you had grown up in a plush, multi-room suburban bomb fallout shelter that was supposed to be a refuge from the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis? That's the premise of this genial comedy that begins underground. Raised with only his paranoid parents - dutiful yet frustrated Sissy Spacek and brilliant scientist/inventor Christopher Walken - as role models and completely isolated from outside information, Brendan Fraser ("George of the Jungle") has a decidedly wholesome '60s value system. When he comes to the surface of modern-day Los Angeles for supplies - and, perhaps, a bride - he must keep his history a secret, which causes lots of complications when he meets beautiful but hard-edged Alicia Silverstone, who doesn't know what to make of this gentle, impossibly well-mannered and archaically dressed hunk of adorable naivete. Nor does her platonic room-mate, David Foley, whose overt homosexuality Fraser never quite picks up on. Directed and co-written by Hugh Wilson with Bill Kelly, it's conceptually the opposite of "Pleasantville," which threw two contemporary teens into the monochromatic world of a '50s sitcom. But, while "Pleasantville" addressed some serious issues, this frothy fluff is heavy into sheer silliness - and far too much time is clumsily wasted on the elaborate set-up for the actual story. Once again, Brendan Fraser proves his adroitness as a lovable, innocent goofball in a fish-out-of-water situation and, if you're intrigued by this young actor, I highly recommend you see him spar with Ian McKellen in "Gods and Monsters." On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Blast from the Past" is a sweetly satirical 7. Frothy fun.

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