Blast from the Past **** (1999, Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, Dave Foley) – Classic Movie Review 265

Director Hugh Wilson’s enchanting 1999 movie is a charming and delightful romantic comedy about the fallout of true love between two children of the nuclear age.

Brendan Fraser stars as an innocent young man called Adam Weber, cocooned since 1962 in a steel-bunker bomb shelter built by his crazy scientist inventor father Calvin (Christopher Walken). Alicia Silverstone plays Adam’s romantic partner Eve, a modern LA woman, afflicted by a series of dead-end job, shallow boyfriends and dashed hopes.

When Walken’s time-triggered shelter finally opens – in 1962 he and his perfect wife Helen (Sissy Spacek) mistook a plane crash in their back yard for a nuclear attack – Adam soon bumps into Eve, who can’t believe this guy who says ‘Ma’am’ and has never seen a colour TV.

Eve’s gay chum Troy (Dave Foley) is entranced by the handsome stranger and encourages them to fall in love. Fraser goes through his lovable dumb hunk act once more with practised ease, Walken and Spacek are simply hilarious, Silverstone is sweet and on her best form, and Foley is funny.

Bill Kelly’s original story and screenplay are just great and the production is ideal.

The result is a special movie, and an irresistible blast of laughs.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Film Review 265 derekinnert.com