So bad it’s Good
#1 : Blown Away (1994)

Guilty Pleasures that we enjoyed – even though we don’t quite know why.

Movie Title : Blown Away
Released 1994
Starring Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones, Suzy Amis, Forest Whitaker
Directed By Stephen Hopkins

What is it? Not to be confused with the Corey Haim/Corey Feldman turd of the same name (remember that one? It had Nicole Eggert in it; bumping uglies with both Corey’s … sheesh, sure she lives to regret that, let alone most of her post “Charles in Charge” career!), “Blown Away” was a cheesy (funny thing is, didn’t realise just how cheesy it was until I revisited it for the sake of this column) action thriller that pits a Boston Bomb Squad Vet named Jimmy Dove (Jeff Bridges) against an old enemy, Irish hound (Tommy Lee Jones). Gaerity believes Dove did him wrong back in the day – Dove, back when his name was ‘Liam’, used to be a naive Irish patriot; thing is, Gaerity was the one who got caught and sentenced to many years in a dark and sweaty prison - and as payback decides to blow up all of the hyper Dove’s bomb unit comrades (and old Lloyd Bridges). To the score of some welcome but unnecessary U2 music, Dove finally tracks his old friend down - and boy do the sparks fly. Well, literal ones do anyway.

What’s wrong with it? A lot. The performances are so over the top you’d think Bridges and Jones came straight from the bar to the set – Jones, for one, seems to be tapping into his ‘Two Face’ persona a little too early (“I've come to create a new country called chaos, and a new government called anarchy”, he utters in one scene. Tell me that’s not something you’d expect Two Face from “Batman Forever” to say!?).. As for Bridges, it’s hard to say what he’s trying to do with his character… at times Jimmy Dove comes across as, well, retarded. Check out the scene in the spa bath where Dove accidentally lets his loaded weapon fire - -- his mannerisms are reminiscent of someone who shared a cell with the Chief in “Cuckoo’s Nest”. Just plain strange. Not surprisingly, it’s Forest Whitaker, who only has a very small role here as one of Bridges’s co-workers, who grounds the film. He’s definitely in a different movie than his other co-stars.
Also, the script is as sloppy as heck… everything’s either very cliché or way too coincidental. Unlike the other ‘Mad Bomber’ film of that year, Jan de Bont’s “Speed”, there’s just no stroke of intelligence at work here – its pure popcorn entertainment driving on fumes…. I mean, there’s no way Gaerity could come up with such intricate plans in the amount of time he’s working on (and that’s only the beginning). But lets by honest, filmmaker Stephen Hopkins isn't exactly well-known for his brainy blockbusters (see "The Reaping" and "Judgement Night" - another guilty pleasure of mine - as examples of some of his other dumb but fun efforts).

What’s right about it? There has to be something right with it, because I’ve watched it near twenty times – including when I saw it day of release at the cinema. I love Jeff Bridges, I’d watch him in anything – even when he is on crack. In this, he has some great moments (in addition to the awful moments) and they’re mainly with Suzy Amis, who plays his love interest, and Lloyd Bridges (his real-life father), who plays his buddy, an old retired cop. Its also well paced – some of the action sequences, no matter how dumb they are, are very entertaining to watch; especially the one at the end where Dove has to prevent his beloved from pressing down on the car brake because a bomb has been wired up to go off as soon as she slams them, the brakes, on. And did I mention the U2 music? (Sounds great in 5.1).

Why is it so bad it’s good? I think it’s the combination of the wacky performances, reasonably-well executed explosions and the fabulous U2 music – it doesn’t need to be in there, but it still helps – that’s kept me coming back for more. It’s also very easy to watch – which is exactly what you want from a no-brainer. Probably not a good idea to watch it in a double-header with “Speed” though (like I did) because you’ll see from the get-go just how better, and more entertaining, a film the Keanu Reeves starrer is. This is something you watch after “Cliffhanger” or some other dumb Stallone or Schwarzenegger movie.

- CLINT MORRIS