Explosive
Summary
Released in the heat of the summer of 1994 a month after the smash hit (and somewhat similar) Speed made a blast at the box office, Blown Away is a stylishly directed film from Stephen Hopkins, who gives the film a classy feel and an urgency that is never overblown or overstated. Kino’s transfer is so clean and sharp you’d think the movie was made yesterday.
Plot: A mad bomber terrorizes Boston, and the only one who can stop him is the man who once trained under him.
Review: An Irish terrorist named Gaerity (Tommy Lee Jones) escapes his hellhole prison cell in Ireland and ends up in Boston with a one-track mind to get revenge on the man who destroyed his life: Liam McGivney, a former terrorist turned bomb squad specialist living under a different name – Jimmy Dove (Jeff Bridges) – who is on the cusp of retirement as he prepares to marry and settle down with the woman he loves, Kate (Suzy Amis) and their young daughter. Dove’s replacement (played by Forest Whitaker) is already working with him to take over his position, but with Gaerity targeting the bomb squad specifically with elaborate and clever bomb devices that kill members of Dove’s own unit in spectacular public displays of terror, Dove and his team are going to have a hell of a time tracking down the terrorist before he’s done an incredible amount of damage. When Dove’s beloved mentor (played by Bridges’ real father Lloyd) is target and killed, Dove cracks down and hunts Gaerity before the mad bomber kills his family, leading to a final confrontation at Gaerity’s secluded lair in an abandoned ship in a burned out shipyard.
Released in the heat of the summer of 1994 a month after the smash hit (and somewhat similar) Speed made a blast at the box office, Blown Away is a stylishly directed film from Stephen Hopkins, who gives the film a classy feel and an urgency that is never overblown or overstated. It’s a well-cast and well-shot film (and scored by Alan Silvestri), with Bridges always on the verge of losing his mind on screen as he races to find his crazy nemesis before he can do more damage. I remember seeing this theatrically on the Fourth of July, and I liked it then, and I’m happy to say that it’s aged pretty well, but it still somehow lives in Speed‘s shadow.
Kino Lorber has just reissued Blown Away on a 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray combo pack (it’s also available on just a Blu-ray), and special features include two audio commentaries: One by Hopkins, and the other by Mike Leeder and another film historian, as well as a making-of feature, a music video, and a bunch of bonus trailers. The transfer is so clean and sharp you’d think the movie was made yesterday.