Blast - Dem Terror entkommt niemand

If you have watched a lot of B movies as I have, you have probably watched your share of "Die Hard" rip-offs. So you might be wondering how the "Die Hard" rip-off "Blast" differentiates itself from others. Well, for one thing, it's the rare rip-off to cast a minority in the hero role. And the screenplay was written by Steven E. de Souza, the screenwriter of "Die Hard"! Maybe de Souza thought that since everyone was ripping him off, he might as well rip himself off.

However, this rip-off falls far short of de Souza's previous glory. For one thing, parts of the script are really inadequately written. Both the heroic lead and the prime villain are pretty thin. The actors don't get enough to aid them, so their characters end up being very uninteresting.

Actually, most of the faults found in "Blast" are not due to de Souza. The movie has one of the most grossly miscast leads I have seen in a movie for a long time. While Eddie Griffin can be funny in comedic roles, seeing him trying to act like an ex Navy SEAL is ludicrous. Another problem is with the look of the movie. While this movie had a budget much higher than many rip-offs of "Die Hard", only a few brief moments look slick and expensive; most of the movie looks like it was done with a television budget. As for action, the action goes wrong in every way you can think of, from its editing to its direction. There's absolutely no excitement to be experienced. The entire movie has a ho- hum feeling to it.

If you want to see a *good* rip-off of "Die Hard", I suggest you watch the Dolph Lundgren movie "Command Performance".

Compared to direct to video-DVD movies made nowadays "Blast" is pretty good. It doesn't pretend to be original. But it does deliver on action and humor. Eddie Griffin maybe not entirely convincing as a serious action hero,he is still better than Steven Seagal on a good day. As a matter of fact this movie is far superior to the stuff that Steven Seagal has made in the last years. So why are people so harsh when reviewing this movie. To be fair there are scenes that remind you that this is a C movie and that the acting is barely passable. Still there are quite few funny interactions between Eddie Griffin and Breckin Meyer that make it worth viewing. You should not see this movie as a serious action movie. It's more of a parody with some serious elements in it. It entertains!

I liked "Blast". You don't take an action film seriously with Eddie Griffin and Vinnie Jones. The plot is about Lamont Dixon (Griffin) who is an ex-fireman\tugboat captain. He is working on an oil rig at Christmas time when terrorists led by Michael Kittredge (Jones)hijack the crew. Kittredge has a electronic device that can destroy California. Now it's up to Dixon to save the day. Eddie Griffin was a pretty good action hero. Vivica A.Fox goes through the motions as the head FBI agent. Vinnie Jones plays the evil villain role well. No one should care that "Blast" is going direct-to-video. If you want an exciting and funny action\comedy, this is it.

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I read the script for this thing while I was an intern at the agency that helped cast it, and it sounded great to me. It was originally intended for LL Cool J, rewritten by Steven DeSouza as ULTIMATUM at one point, but I'm glad to see the BLAST version, which I'm told was predicated on Eddie Griffen taking an interest, saw the light of day. I'm glad they added Vivica A. Fox to the cast - we haven't seen her do a full lead (KILL BILL VOL. 1 was kind of a cameo, I thought) in a long time, and I miss her. MPCA could use a big hit, too, and if executed well, this might do it. We'll see.

-Khan http://rottentomatoes.com/vine/j/akhan41

There are some good points and bad points to the movie.

Good Points:

1. Good special effects 2. Great action scenes 3. Funny at times

Bad Points:

1. Acting at some points isn't great 2. Tries to be like die hard 3. Eddie Grifin ain't an action man

It is a very different film for Eddie griffin. Most of his film are comedy but to be honest action man is not his stile. He does do OK but not good enough. So if you are looking for the spectacular you are looking at the wrong film but if you want to just watch a action film watch it.