This is probably one of those movies that gets made as part of a contract fulfillment . . . not because it is a story that _must be told._There is nothing really new nor groundbreaking here. Competent performances portraying only mildly "attractive" characters. Time- filler at best.

Blast From the Past is a breezy, charming story of joie-de-vivre in unfortunate circumstances. Or, rather, its introduction is. But don't worry - it's not long before it plunges into the predictably dull, slapstick romance it's destined to be, right down to a deus-ex-base-machina anchored by vintage baseball cards. Yeesh. For a movie toying with the stagnation of time, there's an exquisite irony in how adorably dated the film is, from its earnestly trendy soundtrack to its luridly antiquated gender politics. It's got a fairly engaging premise - life in a nuclear fallout bunker, and the process of reintegrating above ground – recently explored by titles like The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and 10 Cloverfield Lane. Naturally, writer/director Hugh Wilson (veteran of the daft Brendan Fraser Dudley Do-Right) under-explores the heck out of the conceit here. Unpacking the social complexities of adjusting after decades of cultural isolation (2015's Room excels at this, as an antidote)? Nah. How about endless sequences of Fraser's perennially chipper man-child gawking at cleavage, splashing around in the ocean like a puppy, or yelping sentences like "Heather? I have NEVER heard that name before!" It also devolves into a dopey, saccharine romance? Sure.That's not to say the film is entirely devoid of merit. Fraser's career was built around elevating lazy comedies with his doe-eyed doofus routine, and his work here demonstrates there's mileage left to milk in his irrepressible goofy charisma. He gets to show off his rubber-limbed dexterity in a dance club sequence that rips off The Mask with bare-faced audacity, and even manages to land some of his slew of tired 'fish out of water' gags to impressively enjoyable effect (particularly a distressingly literal reading of the word d*ckhead). He's not done many favours by his scene partner, though. Alicia Silverstone can do many things with her face at once, but few of them resemble any conventional emotions. Caustic, petulant, and unable to act her way out of a paper bag, her slipshod take on a quirky Gen-Xer is by far the film's low point. Cameos by Nathan Fillion as her sleazy, hunky ex and Dave Foley as Silverstone's sweetly gay roommate help somewhat. Even still, we're caught in a quagmire of mediocrity.None of this is particularly surprising. What is surprising is the film's introductory third. There's the sense that Wilson, mid-film, realized that the prospect of Christopher Walken as a wacky inventor stuck in a bunker was simply too good to pass up. Dutifully, we get more time with him and Sissy Spacek's stir-crazy, alcoholic wife raising baby-Fraser past the cursory montage we'd normally expect. This sequence feels like an entirely different movie. It's charming, wholesomely 50s, and even flirts with a character study of family dynamics under the strain of confinement (Walken appears delighted with their quarantine, while Spacek increasingly frays).Walken lives up to the opportunity, perfectly blending shades of exuberant, suave, and bonkers without flying off the handle into self-parody. Whether cracking jokes in the face of nuclear holocaust ("A duck walks into a Pharmacy to buy some chapstick. Do you know what he says to the pharmacist? Put it on my bill."), giving impromptu sex-ed lessons to Fraser, or being propositioned by a drag queen while wearing a hazmat suit, he's as joyously watchable as ever. It's worth undertaking a fan edit, and trimming out all of the extraneous surface Fraser/Silverstein rubbish. Behold: Blast From the Past 2.0 - a delightful little short film of Walken, Spacek and Fraser hunkering down in a bunker, being frustrated by Fraser's inability to understand baseball. Enjoy - perhaps with a mug of hot Dr. Pepper.-5.5/10

Released in 1999, "Blast from the Past" is a dramedy about a couple in 1962 who mistakenly think a nuclear war has started and so lock themselves in a bomb shelter for 35 years until the radiation dissipates. Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek play the couple. The latter has a baby almost immediately and, when he's grown-up, he's sent to the surface in the late 90s where he (Brendan Fraser) experiences serious culture shock.This is an entertaining fish-out-of-water dramedy highlighted by Fraser's innocent and wide-eyed antics and Alicia Silverstone as his potential girlfriend. The bomb shelter sequences are generally dull, but the film picks up whenever Fraser or Silverstone are on screen. The film's quite good and could've been great if just a little more effort was put into fleshing out the potential of the plot and actors. Silverstone is gorgeous and effective, but somewhat underutilized. Nevertheless, "Blast from the Past" is a must.The film runs 112 minutes and was shot in the Los Angeles area.GRADE: B

This movie is fun. Fun in the late 90s sense where you can have a ridiculous concept and go with it. It's the same type of humor as "The Wedding Singer" and the same buoyant energy. Thanks to a really committed Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek as doting parents of a different era.I love this movie for its non-cynical approach to making a movie. Hugh Wilson relies heavily on the two leads chemistry AND good-nature to carry us through. And I enjoyed the cultural evolution, or in this case de-evolution of humanity. A kind way to say we've lost our manners and civility.What would you take from this movie? Absolutely nothing. Maybe that you should be kinder to people. And that manners count. And that, when put into a vacuum and later exhumed from a different generation, we'd see how much we'd degenerated in our treatment of each other.To me, it's just fun. I think it defines the late 1990 era romantic comedy movies.