Although such occurrences are becoming more rare with each passing year, it used to be that you'd occasionally hear on the news about the discovery of some grizzled old Japanese soldier holed up on some remote island who believed that WWII had never ended and was still raging on. Completely removed from society, the poor guy had lived for decades without knowing of any historical or societal events and facts that had occurred and changed since his "disappearance."
While the topic of "temporally challenged" characters has been explored in movies such as "Awakenings" (where a previously catatonic individual suddenly "comes to life" and realizes that the years and society have passed him by), one has to wonder if any other individuals or groups are holed up somewhere, unaware that life, history and time have moved on without them.
That's the fun, high concept notion behind "Blast From the Past" where a family from "down under" (the ground, not Australia) resurfaces after spending three decades waiting out the radioactive half-life of a presumed nuclear attack. Playing off the "duck and cover" paranoia that pervaded the early '60's, "Blast From the Past" is the epitome of a simple, but powerful concept, and for the beginning of the film it works wonderfully well.
Although the Cold War has long since thawed and the Cuban Missile Crisis is a long forgotten memory -- and probably isn't much more than a brief historical footnote to most anyone under eighteen -- the first half hour of this film is literally a blast to watch as the societal and cultural mores of that bygone era are fabulously sent up.
With the rather large fallout shelter -- designed to appear like a home, complete with windows and a "backyard" -- and the behavior of the family inside serving as a microcosm of that time and society, the film's first third is nothing short of delightful and funny to watch.
Unfortunately, the characters -- and the film -- have to come up for air, and as the story steps into the present, much of that fun escapes like air from a punctured balloon. From that point on, the film turns into a version of yet another Hollywood favorite -- the "fish out of water" story. From the likes of "Back to the Future" to "Crocodile Dundee" and many other similarly based films where a character is lost or misplaced in a "foreign" world, such plots are almost always sure-fire audience pleasers and this one has a great deal of potential.
As such, and with their humor originating from pointing out the societal or temporal differences between two places or times (that we often unquestionably take for granted or have simply overlooked as quaint or outdated), the films are often social statements buried within grand entertainment.
Yet this picture lets a great deal of the comic potential and societal commentary slip through its celluloid fingers. Although it does contain some rather blunt jabs at the decay of our norms with the degeneration of a malt shop over the years and the overall notion of "utopian" suburbia falling prey to urban sprawl, the lack of fully exploiting such comedic potential is both surprising and frustrating.
Just like its failure to maintain the near brilliant execution of the splendid first thirty minutes throughout the rest of its runtime, the film also fails to fully exploit the seemingly endless array of comic possibilities provided by the "out of water" scenario. With our protagonist's knowledge of the world ending with history as we know it in the year 1962, what we have is essentially a modified time travel movie with our hero arriving from that era unaware of the societal, and other important changes that haven place in the intervening years.
Yet while writer/director Hugh Wilson ("The First Wives Club," "Guarding Tess") and freshman co-writer Bill Kelly occasionally use this material (such as an underwear joke featuring the Ralph Lauren label that was already similarly done in "Back To The Future" with Calvin Klein), they seem more intent on showing Adam dancing to the song "YMCA" and in a fun and peppy jazz club number (or mistaking the use of the "s" word and thus occasionally repeating it), than fully and cleverly using or exploring the comic "fish out of water" material inherent to this particular setup.
For example, after a bellhop tells Adam that he must dial 9 to "get out" of a hotel (make a phone call), the film abandons what might have been a quite funny scene that could have unfolded in the slapstick tradition of "I Love Lucy." With that and other moments being missed, the film loses much of its momentum as the story progresses and clearly would have benefitted more by playing up (and off) Adam's isolation-based, naive viewpoint.
Speaking of which, and apparently not worried about playing yet another character who's not quite "there" or up with the times, Brendan Fraser ("Gods and Monsters," "Encino Man") is perfectly cast as the somewhat befuddled, but good-natured protagonist. To his credit, in this film and in 1997's "George of the Jungle," Fraser doesn't play the complete and/or simple idiot, but instead manages to give his characters enough personality and charm to make them endearing instead of annoying.
However, Alicia Silverstone ("Excess Baggage"), who's never quite regained her stride after starring in the perfect vehicle for her, "Clueless," doesn't fare nearly as well. It won't come as much of a shock to state that she's got something of a limited acting range, and that, coupled with a weakly constructed character, doesn't bode well for her performance here.
Despite occupying comparatively short time on the screen and considering and the nature of their supporting roles, Christopher Walken ("Mouse Hunt," "The Dead Zone") and Sissy Spacek ("Affliction," "Coal Miner's Daughter) all but steal the show. With Walken delivering a fun variation on his standard wacky/demented character and Spacek completely playing against her normal acting type, the two obviously had fun shooting this picture and the result clearly shows on the screen.
Unfortunately, they're forced into the backseat when the main thrust of the plot takes over, and no matter how attractive and charming Fraser and Silverstone may be, they simply can't compete with their more seasoned co-stars and their performances that give the picture a fun kick-start.
While the film moves along a good clip throughout, and is an enjoyable enough diversion, it's too bad that it can't sustain the comically maniacal pace, witty charm and overall goofiness that pervades its first half hour, and that it overlooks most of the fish out of water potential that naturally follows such a high concept set-up. Something of a letdown after its buoyant and funny beginning, the film is decent, but certainly not as good as it should have been.
Regarding the technical merits of the DVD, both the picture and sound are quite good, with the former often looking exceptional. The supplemental materials are decent -- notwithstanding a stupid and useless "love meter game" -- but offer more for those with DVD-ROM drives on their computers than those with just standard DVD players hooked up to their TVs.
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