glennwalsh44

My partner and I watched Blown Away last night because we needed a laugh. I went to see the film in the cinema in Belfast when it was released 30 years ago and the audience roared with laughter the whole way through. Others have rightly compared it to The Devil's Own and Patriot Games, and I'd throw in A Prayer for the Dying and a few others, but those are pitched as serious films whereas Blown Away is just a thrill ride.

Bad accents, dodgy Boston PD vetting and dubious bomb disposal techniques can be overlooked, but that pint of Guinness Lloyd Bridges character drinks in the bar scene is unforgivable. It was like the weird statue, no head!

'Metalhead' is by far the best of the Black Mirror series, but I understand why many people didn't get it when it was first released. I'm watching the BBC 2023 Christmas Lectures on the subject of AI and have just been assured that the manufacturer of a robot dog have strict regulations around their product being weaponised. I don't doubt that, but there are a lot of bad actors in the world so it won't be long until someone does it and the world of 'Metalhead' could be a reality.

In terms of production, the Dartmoor location (why is it supposed to be Scotland?), stark black and white film, and tight editing make for a minor science fiction classic.

If you want an intelligent film about the 'what ifs' of life, watch Krzysztof Kieslowski's excellent 'Przypadek' or Tom Tykwer's 'Lola Rennt', but whatever you do stay well clear of this nonsense. At 140 minutes it is at least an hour overlong and suffers from the worst crime in cinema of being boring. Puerile humour, action pieces straight out of the Marvel playbook and inane dialogue all contributed to making this a very poor effort.

Many reviewers have stated that the central premise is original, which just shows how little science fiction writing they are familiar with. Even 'Family Guy' did a much funnier job with Stewie and Brian's interdimensional antics.

How this mess was worthy of 7 Oscars is beyond me. I'm off to watch 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'The Godfather' and 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' to remind myself that there was a time the Academy recognised craft and talent.

One last thing, this film needs a warning for people with photosensitivity, which was not on Amazon. There are several almost subliminal sequences which could easily trigger a seizure.