My Review of "Blast from the Past"

Blast from the Past is a romantic comedy from 1999. It's not very well known despite the star power in its cast. At the time these stars were very popular and you can tell that the studio was trying to cash in on their popularity. This was party the downfall of this movie because at the core of this movie we have a pretty interesting concept. There are a lot of fun ideas that they added to this mix but they never reached it's potential.

The movie starts off with a description of what it was like to live in the 60s. There was a very tense relationship between Russia and the US. This tension was brought up after the second world war and created a nuclear arms race called the Cold War.

We then get introduced to Calvin and Helen who on the outside seem like a mild mannered American couple. Though this quickly takes a turn when we realize that Calvin is paranoid genius. He's secretly created a nuclear safe shelter for him and his pregnant wife Helen.

Calvin's peak paranoia comes when the Cuban missile crisis is talked about on TV. He takes Helen into the shelter and coincidentally a plane crashes and destroys their home. The couple mistakenly believe that there's a nuclear attack on their country. Calvin puts in all safety precautions and sets the timer of their habitation to 35 years to wait out possible radiation.

They have their son Adam in that bunker and live out their days as normal as they can. Of course Helen is going crazy being down there with no social interactions but Calvin and her son. There honestly could have been a lot more comedy in this but they don't really do much. Instead, they chose to establish their 60's Leave it to Beaver personalities. They didn't really need to take so much time in this portion.

Meanwhile in the outside world we recognize that their idealistic neighborhood has deteriorated into a slum of Hollywood. All of this could have been explained through a montage but instead they tried to add a little bit of levity to it. It doesn't really work but I can appreciate the effort.

It's kind of long joke telling because the fun starts when 35 years is finally up and the family is able to emerge from their shelter. I thought they should have done more with the fact that they think they're coming out into a post apocalyptic world.

We do get some interesting fish out of water moments with Adam their son. This isn't the primary focus of this movie however. It soon quickly devolves into a romantic comedy when Adam meets Eve. The naming is quite on the nose but that's to be expected from a comedy. When the movie goes into this relationship direction it becomes a new movie altogether. It's kind of weird because it takes so long to get to this point that I felt that this should have been different movies.

I was really more fascinated at the fish out of water interactions than the romantic side of the story. There were some potential fun scenarios placed here and there but the potential was never realized. I loved how they made these wild realizations of the changes from the 60's to the 90's. The movie goes into some interesting areas as well but they only touched on it which is a big shame. I'm so disappointed because there could have been so much more because it's a hell of an idea!

Overall, I had an okay time but ultimately this movie fails in a lot of areas. The pacing and focus of the movie were totally off and the didn't hit the notes that I think they could have hit hard with. It's such a shame when such a good idea doesn't get realized properly. I could tell there was a lot of focus marketing that affected this movie because I remember the time when this happened. They definitely hit on a lot of the things that were popular at that time. I have to give this movie a 4 out of 10. I'm sorry I can't really recommend this to anyone.