Blown Away

Rating:
Summary: IMO a far better mad-bomber flick than that silly Speed.
Review: Blown Away came out around the same time as blockbuster Speed, both about mad bombers. I personally found Speed so hilarious (actually thought it was intended as a dark comedy) that I was asked to leave the theater because I couldn't stop laughing at the artifice. Blown Away is a solid potboiler with engaging performance and non-stop action. Richard Harris and Tommy Lee Jones are worth the price alone. If you liked Speed, you should love this; and if you don't, ask what's missing in your life. It's a winner.

Rating:
Summary: Better than Speed.
Review: Both movies are about bombs and while this is not as popular as Speed I find it much more interesting in terms of character and mood. While I couldn't care less if Keanu got blown away or not.

Most IRA movies made in Hollywood are always critisized for weak plots and the actors not sounding like real Irishmen. While this is generally true (Brad Pitt in the Devil's Own) it certainly isn't for Blown Away. Tommy Lee Jones is quite convincing as a deranged IRA bomber who goes after Jeff Bridges in revenge for betraying him 25 years earlier.

Stephen Hopkins uses his fave cinematographer and composer Peter Levy and Alan Silvestri to bring some visual style and a powerful musical score to accompany the action and explosion scenes. The final encounter between Jones and Bridges is WAY cool. Trust me. It's one of the best showdowns in history.

A cool use of widescreen photography captures a pleasant and eye-pleasing view of Boston. I only ever saw this city in Cheers previously and now it makes wanna visit. This film was overlooked in the summer of 1994 because the audience was too busy with Keanu foiling Dennis Hopper. But Speed was just about a bomber wanting money. Blown Away is a more personal, character-driven film and definitely the superior of the two.

The DVD is in great looking 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and has an incredible Dolby 5.1 soundtrack. Keep an eye on the bricks in your house. The might just crumble!

Rating:
Summary: I am Blown Away!
Review: Bridges does the best I have ever seen as a crazed good-guy(as in Arlington Rd.). Jones is so much fun to watch as a lunatic. You are put on the edge of your seat the entire movie, trying to figure out where the bombs are. My thumb is up!

Rating:
Summary: Chicka BOOM, Chicka BOOM! I just didn't love it . . .
Review: But "Blown Away" isn't a bad flick either. It has many of the right ingredients. Look at the cast: Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones, Forest Whitaker. Jeff Bridges plays the bomb expert for the Boston Police Department who's been put out to pasture prematurely for taking matters into his own hands once too often. When the mad bomber starts terrorizing Boston, Jeff jams his way back in and has to figure out whether to cut the red wire, or the green wire, or no wire . . . Whitaker plays the cool, by-the-numbers but somewhat cocky replacement to fill that job; naturally, the two form an odd-couple team. Tommy Lee Jones is the mad bomber, and the movie gives us the vicarious thrill of seeing both sides of the game--what Tommy Lee's up to and exactly when he lets the fuzz onto his games.

What didn't I like? Through no fault of his own, the late Lloyd Bridges played such a hideous stereotype of an Irish-American, in white tam-o-shanter and spouting nonsensical maxims, that I'm considering giving up Lucky Charms. The Jeff Bridges character is a nervous wreck. Now: would you rather have a bomb dismantled by someone who's competent and cool or by someone who's competent and a nervous wreck? Me, too. A somewhat labored backstory that I won't reveal gives us some insight into Jeff's irrationality, but at the expense of losing some of the film's credibility.

Riffing off of this, I found the story trite and predictable. Twenty minutes into the film you can make educated guesses about who is going to die, when children are going to be threatened, when Jeff is going to get his old job back (for the nonce), and whether there will be a happy ending. I find it particularly telling that nobody at Jeff Bridges' retirement party asks him what his plans are for the future. It seems that the moviemakers here so took the formula for granted that they forgot the mere pretense of having their just-fired lead character consider his future options! Even the best actors could not redeem this routine material.

So see this flick if you enjoy good acting, particularly of men under pressure. Go if you like big explosions. Don't go if you want a new and exciting story, because you won't find one. That's why I can't give "Blown Away" any better than a middling rating.

Rating:
Summary: Chicka BOOM, Chicka BOOM! I just didn't love it . . .
Review: But "Blown Away" isn't a bad flick either. It has many of the right ingredients. Look at the cast: Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones, Forest Whitaker. Jeff Bridges plays the bomb expert for the Boston Police Department who's been put out to pasture prematurely for taking matters into his own hands once too often. When the mad bomber starts terrorizing Boston, Jeff jams his way back in and has to figure out whether to cut the red wire, or the green wire, or no wire . . . Whitaker plays the cool, by-the-numbers but somewhat cocky replacement to fill that job; naturally, the two form an odd-couple team. Tommy Lee Jones is the mad bomber, and the movie gives us the vicarious thrill of seeing both sides of the game--what Tommy Lee's up to and exactly when he lets the fuzz onto his games.

What didn't I like? Through no fault of his own, the late Lloyd Bridges played such a hideous stereotype of an Irish-American, in white tam-o-shanter and spouting nonsensical maxims, that I'm considering giving up Lucky Charms. The Jeff Bridges character is a nervous wreck. Now: would you rather have a bomb dismantled by someone who's competent and cool or by someone who's competent and a nervous wreck? Me, too. A somewhat labored backstory that I won't reveal gives us some insight into Jeff's irrationality, but at the expense of losing some of the film's credibility.

Riffing off of this, I found the story trite and predictable. Twenty minutes into the film you can make educated guesses about who is going to die, when children are going to be threatened, when Jeff is going to get his old job back (for the nonce), and whether there will be a happy ending. I find it particularly telling that nobody at Jeff Bridges' retirement party asks him what his plans are for the future. It seems that the moviemakers here so took the formula for granted that they forgot the mere pretense of having their just-fired lead character consider his future options! Even the best actors could not redeem this routine material.

So see this flick if you enjoy good acting, particularly of men under pressure. Go if you like big explosions. Don't go if you want a new and exciting story, because you won't find one. That's why I can't give "Blown Away" any better than a middling rating.

Rating:
Summary: Leaving the Past Behind
Review: Director Stephen Hopkins (The Ghost in the Darkness, Under Suspicion) made this terrific action thriller with a fine cast and a very good story about personal redemption. Different than many of it's ilk due to the depth of Jeff Bridges' performance and another great turn from Tommy Lee Jones this one is really entertaining and another perfect example of the critics being wrong.

Hopkins takes his time with the story initially and gives Bridges time to flesh out his character of Jimmy Dove, a top member of Boston's Bomb Squad. Jimmy has been doing this for a long time for reasons no one understands. Liam McGivney was taken off the streets of Ireland as a teen and trained to hate the English, learning the ways of terrorism from Ryan Gaerity (Tommy Lee Jones). In one fateful moment that haunts him, Liam turned his life around and started it over in America as Jimmy Dove.

But the events that brought this about involved an aborted bombing that landed his mentor, Irish zealot Tommy Lee Jones, in prison for years. Jimmy's love for his girlfriend Kate (Suzy Amis in a nice role) and daughter Lizzy (Stephi Lineburg) are more important to him now and when he asks Max O'Bannion (Dad Lloyd Bridges), the only person who knows about his past, if it is time to quit, the fact that he has asked is his own answer.

Gaerity has finally managed to break out of prison though and even as Jimmy proposes marriage and plans his retirement party, who should Gaerity spot on television playing bomb squad hero but old pal Liam. As Gaerity starts killing off members of the squad Jimmy must postpone his retirement, his past life coming back to haunt him in a deadly way. Tommy Lee Jones is charismatic in another great turn as a killer taking delight in his revenge against Jimmy.

Jeff Bridges underplays his character and gives Jimmy some real depth. He has been trying to make up for his past for years and can tell no one how he knows so much about Gaerity and his methods. When things hit close to home however, he is forced to tell Kate and send his family away for their own safety. Forest Whitaker has a good role as Bomb Squad member Anthony Franklin, who suspects Jimmy knows more than he's telling and after uncovering the truth must make a decision on what to do about it.

There are some tense and exciting moments in this film and some great music from Irish bands such as U2. Kate plays violin for the Boston Pops and it plays a part in the climax, as does a dangerous drive through the streets of Boston. This is just an all around entertaining movie with a great ending I can't give away. You need to see this one for youself and ignore the critics. It's a good one.

Rating:
Summary: NONE BETTER
Review: Even though there's only one 1-star review of this movie, I still saw a number of reviews that say that Blown Away has little or no plot and is mainly just action/explosions. Those reviews couldn't be farther from the truth.

Blown Away teaches a valuable lesson: its ok to put a friendship at stake if its for a good cause. When Jeff Bridges left Belfast, Northern Ireland and changed his name, it was after his former friend, played by Tommy Lee Jones, was put away in Castle Gleigh prison in Northern Ireland. It seems unrealistic to see Jones' character ever breaking out AND finding Bridges, but he uses his own talent with building explosive devices to escape prison and he spots Bridges, whose name changes from Liam McGivney to Jimmy Dove on the screen.

Without spoiling anything, Tommy Lee Jones' character, Ryan Gaerity, does kill friends of Jimmy Dove, and the deaths are followed by very well-crafted scenes that seem to convey the emotion, pain and suffering of Bridges very effectively.

Both Jones and Bridges are well-cast and suitable for their roles. They both portray the Irish descent very believably, especially Jones (who, in the same year, 1994, did a pretty bad job of trying to sound southern in the movie "The Client").

I saw this movie for the first time when I was 13, and at that time i wasn't supposed to be watching it because it was rated R, and now, at 20, I still watch it and consider it one of the most underrated movies ever just because critics think that the high presence of explosions takes away from the plot. Its a shame that it didn't get better reviews, but, Tommy Lee Jones went to Harvard to learn how to act, and he sure did a good job in this movie. He won a few awards as best villain, deservedly. Today, movies like "The Matrix," are bringing in millions for not having a plot. Go for "Blown Away." You'll be glad you did.

Rating:
Summary: Blown Away
Review: Excellent movie and well worth watching over again [As I will] Can't pass up a combination of Jeff Bridges and his father Lloyd along with Tommy Lee Jones -- excellent cast - great support - a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat!

Rating:
Summary: A slightly guilty pleasure. 3 1/2 stars.
Review: I can't think of this movie as being truly great, since the plot is a little ridiculous. I can understand why some people love it and others just laugh at it. The title makes it sound like a violent action movie, but it really isn't.. it's somewhat violent (it is, after all, about a bomb squad), but not gratuitously so. It is extremely suspenseful, and has a nice romantic storyline. Tommy Lee Jones' performance is amazing, and to my (non-Irish) ear his Irish accent sounds perfect. The soundtrack is great.. I discovered a couple of great bands (such as Big Head Todd and the Monsters) from it, and although I don't usually like U2, the movie somehow makes me love them for the duration of the movie. The silliest reason I like it is that it's set in Boston and has one little scene on Cape Cod.
It's fun to watch, and definitely worth renting, but it's no masterpiece. Unless your absolute favorite film genre is light action films/thrillers with some light romance thrown in, I would suggest renting it before buying.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat slow but entertaining nevertheless...
Review: I very much enjoyed this film which I consider more of a drama/thriller than a pure action romp. Tommy Lee Jones is very hammy as a sadistic Irish bomber who likes to get things done loudly and violently. Jeff Bridges' Irish accent is terrible but I really enjoyed his character. I consider this one of the few action movies I've seen where I actually care about what happens to the characters and sympathize with their weaknesses. I also appreciate the fact that the movie gives the viewer time to breathe in-between exploding set pieces, (which are all well done). Something isn't going "Boom!" every ten minutes and the violence isn't that bad for an "R" rated movie. Largely an ignored piece of work which is too bad. It deserved better.