Blast From the Past MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 1/2 Content: -2

Calvin Webber (Christopher Walken), a genius inventor, and his wife Helen (Sissy Spacek) are expecting their first child. It's 1962 and the cold war is heating up with Russian nuclear missiles in Cuba. When Calvin hears an emergency warning on his radio, it's time to enter their elaborate fallout shelter to wait out 35 years of nuclear radiation. Adam (Brendan Fraser) is born in the shelter, tutored in intellectual and 1962 social skills by his parents. But above ground, society is changing with the decades. When the time-locks open, Calvin emerges into a rainy night he thinks is the aftermath of nuclear holocaust and flees back underground with horrible images. But supplies are low, so Adam is sent to find food and maybe a wife. Amazed by everything he's only heard about from his parents, the naive Adam meets Eve (Alicia Silverstone) who thinks he's probably a nut case. This amusing clash of cultures makes an entertaining romantic comedy.

This film highlights social qualities that seem lost. Adam loves and respects his parents. They also pray at meals. When other characters curse, Adam asks them not to take the Lord's name in vain. One character defines a gentleman as one whose manners make others comfortable and says he thought manners were to make you feel superior. A drunk mistakes Calvin's rise into a bar built on the homesite for a religious experience and builds a cult shrine around the elevator. Some social drinking is shown and Helen becomes a closet alcoholic over 35 years in the shelter. Eve's housemate is homosexual and Adam is taken to a "drag queen" ball game. A transvestite prostitute also propositions Calvin. Some comical sexual remarks are made about a woman's breasts and Eve makes references to "pimping" for Adam. One f word, 6 s words and several regular profanities thoroughly pollute the dialog. So in this culture clash, objectionable language and other questionable features leave BLAST FROM THE PAST needing to clean up.

Preview Reviewer: Paul Bicking
Distributor: New Line Cinema