Speed mk2? (Blown Away (DVD))

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Blown Away (DVD)
Date:	20/10/01 (26 review reads)
Rating:

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Blown Away is the title of this movie and thats exactly what happened to it after it had the unfortunate honour of being released in the same summer period as the wonderful Speed. Speed got raved abut almost universally and Blown Away...well we all went to watch Speed didn't we. By the time it came to a video release most of us had forgotten about its existence and it was only by chance that I stumbled across it a couple of months ago languishing in a video store's £1-a-night rental section...ever on the look out for cheap entertainment it found its way onto my video recorder(along with the attrocious Terminal Velocity I might add...one to miss).

Ok, no prizes for guessing that this is a no-brainer of an action movie with lots of big explosions and little in the way of scripting or plot for that matter - the title ought to tell you that much. If however you thought that Speed came across as being a little contrived and unbelievable then trust me - you ain't seen nothing yet. It is a shame that two movies so similar to each other had to come out so close together - this one following from Speed by around about a month which meant that Zemeckis' movie was called a 'copy' amogst other things - and yes there are a fair number of scenes which do look as if they hae been lifted from that other movie - tall order to do that in a month though folks! The general plot is as simple as you would expect it to be although there is at least some attempt made to expand upon it at some points - shame they do not work though. Jeff Bridges plays a US cop - an explosives expert, who migrated to that country some 20 years earlier from his native Ireland. He does however hold a dark secret to his past and one which is about to catch up with him when ex-IRA terrorist Tommy Lee Jones escapes from prison there. You see, both these two used to be in the IRA together, but Jones got too crazy and wanted to blow up women and children as well(of course the IRA n
ever did such things, tsk of course not!) so Bridges turned him into the police and then fled to America to build a new life, marring a violinist and joining the police force. Well Jones is out, and wants revenge and the best way he can see of doing this is by holding the city to ransom by playing a series of cat and mouse games with Bridges which basically means that he has to run around all over the city stopping his friends and family from being blown up...

The plot tries to be more than just a clothes peg upon which to hang a bunch of explosive scenes but this does more harm than good. Blown Away ends up being a movie which is STILL all about the action scenes, but which finds its pace slowed by some poor attempts to develop its characters and explain away some of the plot. Of the rapidly expanding group of movies to which the 'action' tag can be applied, Blown Away ends up being one of the more slower paced of the bunch and therefore one of the less enjoyable. Its still fun, but not as much fun as it could have been if this were otherwise - but then I would probably be complaining about the complete lack of character development instead...lol. As I mentioned, if you thought Speed was more than a little contrived then you have to see this movie. Tommy lee Jones sets traps to blown people up in a variety of different manners, but you end up asking yourself the question of whether he is trying to blow people up or going for some award for design and innovation! One scene at least comes across as being like a bizarre Wallace and Gromit cross over with balls rolling down chutes to trigger levers, which operate switches to make lights flash which lead to something else happening...and so on until maybe ((((boom))) to shock you back from perusing the video cover to see if Nick Park was involved somewhere. Exciting it may be in some parts but this is a movie which perhaps asks you to dumb yourself down a little TOO MUCH to be able to truly enjoy it. r>
Of course with Tommy Lee Jones as the bad guy and Jeff Bridges in the other lead role, the acting is top notch. Jones has the bad guy role down to perfection, but feels a little under-used because he is so remote from all other kinds of human contact. Bridges is...well his usual self, looking pained and harrassed as he races across town one minute and the next is involved in some tense defusion situation. These two are supported by a cast which is not great but performs their tasks adequately. The script doesn't give anyone that much to work with but its far from the worst you'll ever see and manages to steer away from the kind of cheesiness which it could otherwise have easily sunken into...well most of the time. Action sequences are good enough to please the general action fan although they are too often spread out between areas of plot mumbling which will have most drumming their fingers waiting for something to happen. But then, if you want to see more explosions etc. and do not mind sitting through the attempts at drama which litter the inbetweenie bits then this movie is for you.

Overall then, its not the best movie in the world but the two main actors are top notch and for the general action fan there are plenty of gloriously contrived set pieces and big exposions to keep you happy. The pacing does let this movie down quite bad and if Speed is still fresh in your mind then you'll see the cracks in this movie all too clearly. Were it released one year earlier, then Blown Away would probably have been a success at the box office and Speed seen as the advancement and 'perfection' of its ideas. As it stands, it seems like a weak substitute for that movie.