Stars: Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek
Los Angeles 1962. The onset of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Calvin Weber (Christopher Walken), an eccentric inventor believes WW111 is imminent. He rushes his pregnant wife Helen (Sissy Spacek) down into their bomb shelter where he has calculated that radioactive fallout will last at least 35 years. A moment after entering the shelter, a huge blast rocks the ground above and both Calvin and Helen believe they’re in it for the long haul. The massive steel door is sealed.
Days later, Helen gives birth to their son who they decide to name Adam. What follows are extremely well played scenes of Calvin enjoying life down below, Helen going quietly insane and both parents doing their very best to educate Adam with schooling and in the ways of the world. The shelter is not just a hole in the ground. It is a house, yard, supermarket, storage facility, fish farm, greenhouse, schoolroom and more. Adam thrives for 35 years. Brendan Fraser plays the adult Adam.
Above ground, Los Angeles moves from the malt shop era to punk rock vibrancy and the set up for the one day in which Calvin decides to check things out up top. His conclusion: survivors of the horrible war (that never was) abound; unfortunately they are all either insane, sick, derelicts or they have become sexual mutants. Even the now desperately crazed and bored Helen won’t chance leaving the shelter. That is left to son Adam who must risk the outside world to keep them supplied for another few years (presumably until the mutants die off). And if he’s lucky enough to find a non-mutant girl while he’s up there, he’s welcome to bring her down to meet the folks.
All this is the set up for a reasonably funny, quaint, cute story about Adam in 1995 Los Angeles, coping with realities and discovering wondrous things. When he views the ocean it’s as a blind man who gains sight for the first time in his life. It’s a beautiful moment of which there are far too few. He discovers Alicia Silverstone (Eve) and promptly falls in love. The problem here is that the best of this movie is its underground sequences driven by two top notch veteran actors, Spacek and Walken.
Sissy Spacek as the mom is absolutely marvelous. I’ve never seen her in a role like this: wacky beyond all belief; Walken, always the strange one, adds just the right touch of oddness to what is essentially a comic role and he’s terrific. Fraser is extremely capable of playing the little boy who never quite grew up and he fits the part like a glove. Silverstone handles herself well in her cutesy part of the tough on the outside girl who falls hopelessly in love with the big goof from the past. But, I really don’t know what the big deal is about her. She’s actually quite funny looking when you taske a good look. Keep an eye out for Dave Foley from TV’s “News Radio” as Troy, Eve’s gay roommate.
Lotta says: “Blast From The Past” is cute; original, wacky and fun but could have been a lot better in presenting Fraser as the ultimate fish out of water.