About this episode

The episode reviews the 1994 action thriller 'Blown Away', discussing its strengths and weaknesses.

This week on Forgotten Cinema, Forgotten Summer continues with "Blown Away", the 1994 action thriller starring Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones. Both Mike Butler and Mike Field find pieces of the film to enjoy. The practical explosions deliver, the final confrontation between Bridges and Jones has plenty of energy, and there is the foundation of a tense revenge thriller buried somewhere beneath all the chaos. Unfortunately, "Blown Away" is also a complete mess. The timeline is never properly established, the shared history between its hero and villain desperately needed a clear flashback, and several characters make choices that are difficult to understand. The questionable Irish and Boston accents do not help, nor does a badly miscast Forest Whitaker in a role that never makes much sense to begin with. Tommy Lee Jones certainly commits to the madness, and Jeff Bridges does what he can to hold everything together, but the film never develops its characters or central conflict enough to make the spectacle truly matter. Released in the same summer as "Speed" and shortly before "True Lies", this uneven action thriller was always going to struggle to stand out. With better…

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