Rating: 
Summary: Great, but Annoying at the Same Time
Review: Having heard before hand, that Brian DePalma's "Blow Out" was like a tribute to Antonioni's "Blow Up", i was definately intreagued. "Blow Up" is one of the greatest art films I've ever seen, and knowing that tributes are never as good as the original, i knew not to expect too much.Basically, "Blow Out" involves a sound man (Travolta) recording sounds in a park at night, when a speeding car has what seems to be a blow out, crashes through a fence and into a lake. Travolta is able to rescue the woman, but the man behind the wheel was dead before he could be helped. Upon listening to the tape he'd made that night, Travolta recovers what he believes to be two sounds. Naturally, he can't help but get involved, and try to solve the case. I Enjoyed Blow Out for the obvious reasons; good acting, complex script, lots of well-drawn suspense. And, if you've never seen or liked Antonioni's "Blow Up", the review can end here for you. You'll probably enjoy this version. Despite my complaints in the next paragraph, i really liked this movie. However having seen and enjoyed "Blow Up", it looked to me like Brian De Palma did what everyone was tempted to do, but that no one should have done. Made "Blow Up" a Hollywood movie. "Blow Up" actually has a lot a great suspense and intreague, but the end is sure do disappoint those who need a clean-cut ending, which is to say, most theatre goers. Basically, they smushed the plot of "Blow Up" down about 30 minutes, added some more murders and people skulking around shadowy rooms, and then gave it a conclusive ending. Needless to say, it's frusterating to see a great piece of art turned into a decent Hollywood movie. But hey, if you like a good suspense thriller, this works.
Rating: 
Summary: I Couldn't sleep until I knew the ending!!!!
Review: I first saw Blow Out a long time ago. It was like, one A.M., and I couldn't shut off the television until the movie was over. The way that Brian DePalma kept the suspense going throughout the entire movie was great. John Travolta was awesome, he made you feel like it wasn't a movie. The ending left you feeling a little sad, though. I could watch that movie a hundred times in a row!
Rating:
Summary: De Palma's most personal work
Review: I love this film on so many levels, but there is a common criticism I tend to see about it which is that the John Lithgow character is useless to the plot. I strongly disagree because without knowing his part in the story, all we're left with is a lame attempt to rip-off Antonioni's Blow-Up.
Instead, De Palma created an incredibly fun play on irony. Part of the joy of watching this film is knowing what the protagonists don't know in the last two thirds of the story. De Palma uses this as a vehicle to explain how exactly a conspiracy could be implemented. If anyone know's De Palma's feelings on the Kennedy assisanation, they will see just how personal and revealing Blow Out is. Not just with conspiracy theories, but also in the John Travolta character and his attraction to the nympho-qualities of Nancy Allen. Personal, powerful, fun, and downright cynical--by far my favorite work from both Travolta and De Palma.
Also worth checking out is Casualties of War, Sisters, Greetings, and Dressed to Kill among many others.
Rating:
Summary: I can sum it up in one word. GREAT!!!
Review: I loved it. John Travolta was amazing in it. Besides, anything with J.T. in it has got to be great.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Drama
Review: I must have seen this movie about 10 times in my life. I keep comming back to it because the action and drama in this particular film is so captivating and intriguing. While watching John Travolta's character in particular on screen, you cannot help but want him to solve the murder. The processes he uses and insite he gains from his own profession as a sound technition are very interesting to say the least. You are left with a heavy heart at the end of the film, but will always remember it. 4 stars in my book.
Rating:
Summary: Solid
Review: I saw this when it was first released and loved it. I was recently telling my mom about it, and then tried to rent it at the library for her. It wasn't there. Since John Travolta's come-back with PULP FICTION, I thought this video would be made highly available again. I went to a bunch of Blockbusters and THEY did not have it. Finally I had to buy the darn movie itself from Amazon.com. I showed it to my mom and she loved it. Why such a fanstastic movie directed by a top director, and starring a revived movie star, is not that available, is a mystery to me. Because I think it is really an orginal film and suspenseful film: well-written, well-acted, well directed. A friend of mine took a film class in college, and the professor showed this movie to the class, considering it of that high quality. It's a first-rate Hitchcockian type film. (I will complain that the quality of the video itself leaves something to be desired. It's not terrible. But with a film with so much striking imagery, they really should have made sure the video quality was tops.)
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't forget it
Review: I saw «Blow Out» for the first time when I was 8. Couldn't forget it.
I saw «Blow Up» for the first time when I was 10. Couldn't forget it.
I saw «The Conversation» for the first time when I was 25. Couldn't forget it. The reason these movies stay in your mind is simple. See the three of them and you'll understand.
Rating:
Summary: Worth checking out, at the least
Review: I'm not sure what I can say about the movie that hasn't already been said. I bought the VHS many years ago and watched half of it, I was still pretty young, and one night in seeking a break I decided to check it out. I have to say that I was surprised. I'm not sure how Blow Out (directed by Brian De Palma) will fare among the casual movie audience, I believe you would have to have at least a mild interest in the art of film making to draw any true greatness from it as the plot seems to break down a few times, but for those who do have that interest, you may see a diamond in the rough. There's a few times when something would fall short (be it dialogue, etc.) in the movie but usually right after that, great film making would come in to place. After viewing the movie, in all it's failures, mundaneness and glory, it made me think:
Doesn't a diamond seem alot more precious when it's still in the rough, though.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing
Review: Interesting but derivative thriller concerning a sound-effects guy (John Travolta) who becomes involved in a murder mystery when he accidentally records a car crash killing a would-be candidate for governor. He befriends the candidate's mistress (Nancy Allen) and they team up to provide evidence as to whether he was killed or died by accident. DePalma borrows heavily from other, superior sources ("Rear Window" and "The Conversation"), but he still makes this film fun to watch. It drags in some areas, but you're always intrigued and you're left wondering what's going to happen next. However, while DePalma's other 2 films, "Carrie" and "Dressed to Kill" got loaded with features, "Blow Out" only has a trailer. I guess this is because it was the least successful of the three films, but movie buffs and casual viewers should still check out this one. (Trivia: Travolta and Allen already appeared together in another DePalma film: "Carrie.")
Rating:
Summary: THOUGHTFUL AND MULTI-LEVELED - ONE OF HIS BEST
Review: It's a flashy bit of work glittering with directorial skill, BLOWOUT, and proved to be too downbeat for audiences in '81 after the pop-fun-flash of the dizzy, funny, scary DRESSED TO KILL. The ending screamed "Be MINDFUL of what you ask for - You might get it", and folks rarely want to hear that. I mean, '81 was very different from '66 when its inspiration, BLOW-UP, hit these shores - folks, then, were open to speculation and reflection. In '81, everyone was dialing for dollars and watching soap-operas about the rich on Prime Time TV. DePalma's cautionary tale about 'projection making perception' was too 'deep', too dangerous for a culture obsessed with getting a "lifestyle, lifestyle!" I suppose the underlying message of this perceptual thriller, modeled as it is on BLOW-UP (1966) is that one eventually sees what one is looking for. One may even inadvertently CREATE it in the process of seeking IT out. In BLOW OUT, Travolta loses his object of affection because his TRUE affection is for putting together film and creating a coherent storyline out of fragments and clues. The subtext, of course, would presage DePalma - the filmmaker - getting a divorce from his wife of that time - Nancy Allen (who plays the victim in BLOW OUT). The surface story is, pointedly, a cursory political thriller modeled after Ed Kennedy's Chappaquidick episode, cursory because the surface story is NOT the point. Travolta plays a sound man who thinks he hears something foul in his ambient tapes, the starts toying with still photographs - and the emotions of a woman - as he seeks a thread in a mystery that may or may not even exist. Nevermind he has forgotten that he has been sent out on assignment to find a "real good scream" for the low-budget slasher film for which he is doing the Sound Editing. He forgets and suppresses his original motivation and cloaks it in a higher purpose, and begins projecting his own "personal effects" (the film's original title) onto the situation around him, thus inviting trouble. Tragedy and Mockery await. On another level, one could say DePalma was also having fun with the idea of someone from the low budget world of film having aspirations to create "highbrow cinema", and being sabotaged by his origins along the way. While I agree with the film's psychology and view of things quantuum, the surface story of political intrigue is a tad thin for the director's giant canvass and directorial flash. Pino Donaggio's lovely score is thrilling, even if at moments it seems to overpower the film, and, in the end theme, tilts too close to being maudlin. It's a pity this score was never released in toto on CD - just excerpts (see the DePalma/Donaggio collection on Milan records - a nice CD that includes tracks from DRESSED TO KILL and CARRIE, too) I liked BLOW OUT immensely when it appeared in '81 on the heels (ha) of DRESSED TO KILL. Time and maturity, and a deeper appreciation of the quietude of films from which it borrows (the aforementioned BLOW UP and THE CONVERSATION), have lessened its importance to me, but I still recommend it as an stunning display of directorial skill - one the dePalma's best moments - and a provocative comment on how consciousness might work... and even kill what it thinks it loves.
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