Blast from the Past

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

Blast feels positively timely if not downright positive about the human race's ability to endure. Forget radiation. Fraser and folks actually survive three decades-plus of Perry Como music. [12 February 1999, Life, p.8E]

San Francisco Examiner Jane Ganahl

Spacek and Walken are pure comic energy.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

As a date movie or for a solo night out, Blast from the Past offers more than standard romantic comedy fare.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is funny and entertaining in all the usual ways, yes, but I was grateful that it tried for more: that it was actually about something, that it had an original premise, that it used satire and irony and had sly undercurrents.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

It would be nice to say that Blast From the Past is, but it ain't exactly. Half-blast is more like it.

Newsweek Ted Gideonse

Spacek is brilliantly funny, slowly transforming Helen from a nervous 60s housewife into a liquored-up one. I could have watched her in the vibrating fat-burner, eyes closed, lazily gripping a martini glass, for hours.

Entertainment Weekly Troy Patterson

As pleasantly plastic as its retro-chic sets.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Like last winter's "Pleasantville," this movie juxtaposes classic virtues against modern mores. The former did so with far more invention.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Fortunately, the Webber shelter is a jaunty monument to kitsch, and the Webbers themselves are an appealingly batty crew.

Variety Dennis Harvey

A time-warp comedy that starts out kinda "Pleasantville" and gets pretty Tepidsville, Blast From the Past expends scant imagination or style on a fun premise that seems an open invitation to both.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Demands that we see as coincidental if not ironic the ease with which Fraser cuts a rug at a swing club when he's hopelessly naive about everything else that's being revived in the 90s when he emerges.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A mediocre comic romance.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Intermittently appealing movie romance.

Village Voice Gary Dauphin

Most fun when it's locked up with daddy.

Austin Chronicle Hollis Chacona

It was sweet, but it should have been better.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This bizarre hybrid of romantic comedy cliches and less-than-subtle social commentary defeats their best efforts to make it sparkle.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Blast is just shooting blanks. [12 February 1999, Friday, p.A]

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

A flimsy premise to begin with, it’s been punctured beyond repair by an amateur script from Bill Kelly and director Hugh Wilson (The First Wives Club), and by Wilson’s shocking ineptitude with dialogue, framing and pace.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

The first 20 minutes of Blast From The Past, in which the film actually does something with its central concept, aren't that bad.