Other content includes his mom drinking heavily to cope with life underground (which is played for laughs), and other colorful language, including 2 uses of the "F" word - one from Eve's boss and one mumbled by Eve while Adam and Troy are talking in the foreground. There isn't anything too explicit shown, but in a family viewing setting, I can imagine this would just add to the awkwardness that comes with some of the sexual themes in the film. At one point, Eve and Troy find themselves inside the bookstore and many of the video covers (yes, they were still VHS tapes in 1999!) are blurred out to keep the movie within the PG-13 boundaries. There's a running gag throughout the film about Cal telling Adam not to go into "the Adult Bookstore" because of poisonous gas, and Adam using the store as a landmark for where his family's bomb shelter is. And finally, when Cal does run off in that same scene, he ducks into an "Adult Bookstore," not knowing what it is, and he screams in horror from behind the closed door. Overall, there's some sensuality and stuff like Adam's father Cal coming in contact with a prostitute on the street who tells him she can be a boy or a girl, whatever he'd like, to which Cal flees in terror (again, played for laughs and also used to show the decline of society). Some sexual topics come up fairly frequently, the most obvious being when Eve gets mad at Adam, telling him he should be having "unprotective sex" with a "slut" named Sophie-which she says out of jealousy-and then later asks Adam if he's ever had sex before, to which he says no and then tells her the story of living in a bomb shelter for 35 years. The film plays it up a bit with how awkward it is for Eve and the humor that comes with it, but it still feels endearing when coming from Adam. I pointed out in the original review for this film how refreshing it was to have Adam's character hold his spiritual beliefs close to the chest-from reprimanding those who use blasphemy to making sure to say grace with Eve in a public diner setting before they started eating. You can't help but laugh at the Webber family's ideals in today's context, yet you value them in a way where you kind of long for things to be like that again. They're all things that illustrate how different the world has become, and how "mutated" it'd seem to someone transplanted from the early 60s, but it also makes you realize how depraved society has become overall in that span of time. As such, there's plenty of language in the film-including blasphemy (which Adam objects to)-the presence of a prominent gay character, and stuff like adult bookstores and transvestite prostitutes. To help paint Adam Webber's fish-out-of-water story, and play off of it comedically, director Hugh Wilson doesn't hold back within his PG-13 limits, pushing the envelope a bit to show how different a sheltered young adult raised on 60s values fares in 1999. It's all shown in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way, and meant to be funny, but it's hard to escape the realization of how drastic things changed-and declined-in 35-years time. What's most interesting to note about the theme of the film is how it takes 1962 values and drops them in the more modern 1999 setting, showing you how much the idealism of the 60s has been tainted by the progression of our culture. Some of my feelings penned originally by my late-teenage self do still stand when revisiting this comedic venture. But upon having the opportunity to review Warner's new blu-ray debut for the 1999 romantic comedy Blast From The Past, I thought it'd be fun (and a great reason to rewrite a review that badly needed it). The review alone for this movie is a "blast from the past" for me. It's funny revisiting reviews you've written over a decade and a half ago. Movie Reviews (Main) > Movie Reviews (Main).Indie Reviews (Main) > Indie Reviews (Main).
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