ROVIN’ & RAVIN’ WITH MIKE

Copyright © 1999 by Michael Segers

All rights reserved

BLAST FROM THE PAST –

NOT QUITE!

~~~ There they are, the Clueless Alicia Silverstone and Brendan (George of the Jungle) Fraser in a screwy comedy about a boy-man emerging from thirty-five years in a fallout shelter. This was a review I could write with one hand tied behind my back.

~~~ The problem is, director Hugh Wilson didn’t play by the rules or at least my expectations. He has given Silverstone and Fraser a chance to expand their predictable screen images. With Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken (who has already appeared with Silverstone in Excess Baggage) as the shelter-bound parents, he has added an element of pathos that making this one-joke comedy a meditation on parents and children, and their mutual expectations and responsibilities.

~~~ But, not to put too heavy a hand on it. This is fun, but, surprisingly gentle fun, like last year’s homage to the fifties, Pleasantville. There is an inevitable car crash, as Adam (Fraser) learns to drive, but most of the humor is more subtle than one would expect from a vehicle for Fraser. Adam has, literally, led a sheltered life with his parents, who for all their short-comings, have produced a well-mannered lad who knows how to dance, speak several languages, and pray before meals.

~~~ The more complex scenes, involve his parents. His mother Helen, played by the always convincing Sissy Spacek, is a bundle of fifties-style neuroses and clichés, swigging cooking sherry and suffering the useless vibes of an old-fashioned weight loss machine. As Calvin, the head of this California Family Robinson (uh, Webber), Christopher Walken brings an edge of obsession, even danger, to his role.

~~~ Convinced that the United States has been bombed, Calvin and his pot-roast-obsessed pregnant wife Helen seal themselves into a spacious, well-stocked fallout shelter—"Not a bomb shelter, there is a difference."

~~~ A son is born, significantly named Adam. In a few minutes the film skirts thirty-five years of the best templates of the fifties’ nuclear (no pun) family. But, the egg cracks, the time locks open, and Calvin ventures into a not so brave new world, followed by thirty-five year old Adam, in search of—guess who? Eve (Silverstone), a hard-edged, even hard-boiled lass with an uncanny knowledge of baseball cards and an equally uncanny ability to choose the wrong man until….

~~~ There’s no suspense. This is not a plot-driven film. In fact, the plot has holes in it big enough for novice driver Adam to get his refrigerator truck through. Surely the scientist would have equipped his shelter with a radio? If so, he would have equipped us right out of a pleasant film.

~~~ Silverstone is growing into a consistently fine young actress. Frazer, even in serious roles, as in last years Gods and Monsters, can’t get cast very far beyond his hunk image. Although this is a richer role than his human cartoon turns in George of the Jungle, Encino Man, and Airheads (he has Dudley Do-Right on his dance card), he is still limited to the emotional range of a cute puppy in a stranger’s yard. Walken and Spacek, by comparison, show what a few years can do for a performer. Poor Dave Coley, of Talk Radio, is wasted reprising a character from his Kids in the Hall past.

~~~ Don’t go looking for anyone to swing from a tree, but don’t expect too much either. Blast from the Past, despite its title, is a quiet little diversion that might be just what you need onFriday night after a hectic week.

Despite appearances, Alicia Silverstone and Brendan Fraser

are not all wet in Blast from the Past.

~~~ Someone asked me the other day about the illustrations for this column, which gives me a chance to share a trick with you. When you are rovin’ on the web and find an image you like, move your cursor over it, and click the right button. You will get a menu offering you the chance to "Save as.…" Click on that to file the image for word-processing or graphics. Click on "Set as wallpaper," and the image will be on your "desk top," when you first go into Windows.

~~~ Another trick: check out the shopping options that Peanut.org offers you. When you order a book or CD or other merchandise, if you log on to the seller’s site from Peanut, your free-net gets a commission.

~~~ While doing my research for this review, I learned that Brendan Fraser studied at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where a friend of mine is now on the faculty. I haven’t yet asked my friend if he knew Fraser, but most likely he knows someone who did. In other words, I am at two or three degrees of separation from Fraser. It is said that, statistically, each of us is within six degrees of separation from any other person currently alive on this planet. Explore the possibility at www.sixdegrees.com, and you may end up singing the old novelty song, "I’m My Own Grandpa."

~~~ It was no trick, in fact, it was quite a treat, to discover this not at all blasted Blast. Till next time, keep your feet dry and your heart full of noble thoughts.