Review: Blown Away (1994)

Not to be confused with the 1992 Blown Away (in which Corey Haim and Corey Feldman go head to head with the hot chick from Charles In Charge), this movie lets a delightfully psycho Tommy Lee Jones loose with explosives, then has the Big Lebowski chase him down. It's pretty fun to watch... especially on mute.

Bad accents are our common complaint, but this movie ranks up there with Kevin Costner's Robinhood. Did they even bother with a dialogue coach? Several of the characters are Irish born, living in Boston, which results in a lucky charms mangle of rolled and dropped Rs. Nobody sounds right here.

The other somewhat offensive thing is the implied terrorism connection between Boston and Ireland -- that IRA bombers naturally retire to Boston (we're their Florida?). Yes, we acknowledge our city's is historically bound to Ireland in many ways, but come on: this movie has IRA members selling concessions at Fenway Park.

We like this movie, though. Tommy Lee Jones runs amuck, trying to blow up major Boston landmarks with MacGyver-like creativity and Rube-Goldberg machines. He listens to U2 for irony's sake. His villain is so crazy and relentless that it reminded us of Heath Ledger's Joker for a little while... if the Joker had a bad Irish accent.

Jeff Bridges's character is not quite Batman, but he has his dark past. He rides a motorcycle and diffuses bombs wearing Hawaiian shirts -- what a cool guy. Forest Whitaker plays the cocky bomb squad member in gigantic shorts -- the annoying new guy who gradually grows on you. Lloyd Bridges appears too, in an Irish tweed cap, to give a few cliched toasts. Looks like he picked the wrong day to give up drinking.

Blown Away isn't a great movie, but it's entertaining. It has explosions, and people running in slow motion yelling, "Noooooooooooo!!" It's definitely worth watching for the murderous Tommy Lee Jones. They're always after his lucky charms. Kill the bastards.

There's a shout out to Father Mahoney of Charlestown in the end credits -- we thought that was a nice local touch.

Final Score = B