Blown Away - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Almost 10 years ago, Kino Lorber Studio Classics Blu-ray of Stephen Hopkins’ slick thriller Blown Away was one of the first discs I got to review for HDD. Now it’s the latest 4K disc I get to review. In that time we get to see a nice upgrade to the visuals and the film holds up. It’s not a brainless “don’t think about it” actioner, but it’s also not so complex or thematically layered that you can’t just have fun with what you’re watching. This isn’t one I pull off the shelf very often, but I enjoy it every time I sit down to it. As such, my thoughts and feels about Blown Away haven’t aged in ten years so here’s my 2015 Blu-ray Review: 

"According to the report, the guy can build bombs out of Bisquick."

It seems like the early part of the 90s was chockful of serial killers and mad bomber movies. Often these two genres collided, creating explosively mixed results. 1994 alone saw two such genre convergences in the form of 'Speed' and 'Blown Away.' Where 'Speed' played off a hook about a commuter bus that must stay above 50mph or blow up, 'Blown Away' is a much more straightforward serial killer revenge thriller. Where Dennis Hopper is demanding a big payday from the city, Tommy Lee Jones is out for revenge against Jeff Bridges and is more than willing to kill anyone and everyone associated with him. Where 'Speed' is fun and creative with its tense setups, 'Blown Away' relies on old-school red herrings and Rube Goldberg mechanics to make sure each explosion is more thrilling than the one that came before.

In a secluded Irish prison rests IRA bomber Ryan Gaerity (Tommy Lee Jones) who has been rotting in prison for over 25 years. Rather than sitting on his hands, he's stayed busy plotting his escape. After forging a powerful explosive out of common ingredients, Gaerity escapes into a surging storm. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Jimmy Dove (Jeff Bridges) does what he does best - diffuse bombs for the Boston police department. As a natural at the job, he seems to be able to deactivate any device that's put in front of him. While he may be good at what he does, he hates it. He's also madly in love with a single mom Kate (Suzy Amis) and daughter Lizzy (Stephi Lineburg). After marrying Kate, he retires from active service and takes a teaching position. This would be great, only Ryan Gaerity has other plans.

As it happens, Jimmy is more than what he seems to his coworkers and family, his real name is Liam McGivney, he wasn't born in Boston, and was in fact Gaerity's protege in the IRA. 25 years ago Liam attempted to stop one of Gaerty's bombs that was set to go off in a crowded market square. Gaerity got caught and Liam was able to flee to the United States, set up a new identity for himself, and live with his uncle Max (Lloyd Bridges). Now Gaerity is in town and hell-bent on revenge. Only he doesn't want to simply kill Liam, he wants to destroy everything he knows and loves in a gigantic ball of fire. Liam must figure out a way to thwart Gaerity's explosive plans while avoiding the suspicions of his partner Anthony (Forest Whitaker). 

'Blown Away' is one of those movies that is an unfortunate victim of timing. By the time it was released, 'Speed' was already dominating movie screens across the country, so the idea of another movie about a "mad bomber" wasn't on audience's minds. On top of its release date issues, 'Blown Away' has the look and feel of another IRA madman out for revenge film - 1992's 'Patriot Games.' In fact 'Blown Away' is so similar to 'Patriot Games' that it even goes so far as to crib the same opening credits design, similar Irish-themed music, and even Alan Silvestri's score feels like it's cribbing movements from James Horner's compositions. Thankfully for 'Blown Away,' it still manages to stand on its own two legs despite these similarities. 

From a script by Joe Batter and John Rice under the direction of Stephen Hopkins, 'Blown Away' skews much closer to being a serial killer thriller than any kind of political thriller or action film. There is a killer on the loose, he has a particular motive and a unique way of killing people. Rather than skinning people like Buffalo Bill or using the seven deadly sins, Gaerity uses intricately constructed explosive devices that are designed to cause massive amounts of damage. In fact, most of the fun of this film comes from these setups and watching Jeff Bridges struggle to figure out how to disarm them. His character may have been trained by Gaerity, but that doesn't mean he knows all of the man's tricks. The bombs are the real strength of the film as each setup is more elaborate than the last, to the point that the big grand finale juxtaposed against a performance of the William Tell Overture is a gigantic fireball of fun and suspense.

Performances all around are pretty good, not amazing but good enough to get the job done. Jeff is committed to his part as to be expected. Forest Whitaker plays the suspecting junior detective role well and offers a nice counterbalance to Jeff's stern and determined Jimmy/Liam. Tommy Lee Jones is basically playing a version of his character from 'Under Siege' but with a really thick and very troublesome Irish accent. While it's fun watching Jones camp things up and he does play evil well enough - that accent can be so forced in some scenes that it's just distracting and oftentimes hilarious. Jeff tries an accent here and there with that particularly unique Boston lilt, but most of the time he doesn't and lets that aspect of his character slide. Suzy Amis does well enough as the concerned single mom, but she's not given a whole lot to do other than to provide Tommy Lee Jones's character with another target.

20 years later and 'Blown Away' is still a good piece of fun. Parts of it haven't aged too well - an early scene involves a bomb set to go off when the hard drive fills up as a woman types out the same message over and over again. Today, that same bomb would have taken years to go off - but it's still a pretty decent suspense setup offering an alternate take to the usual ticking timer. Even with small character gripes, this movie proves to be two solid hours of entertainment. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
Kino Lorber Studio Classics gives another of their early releases a 4K upgrade. Blown Away detonates its first two-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray set. The 4K is pressed on a BD-100 with a Region A BD-50 holding up the 1080p end with the bulk of the bonus features. The discs are housed in a standard black two-disc 4K case with identical slipcover artwork. The discs load to static image main menus with traditional navigation options.

What a difference 10 years can make! Looking back at my old review, I gave that transfer pretty high marks. At the time it was pretty damn good and it was the first time seeing this film in HD. A new 4K scan of the negative and Dolby Vision HDR grade later, the film looks refreshed with tighter, cleaner details and a more robust and healthier color pallet. Details are nice and sharp, with facial features and textures looking cleaner than before. Film grain is retained and is better managed without signs of unsightly smoothing. Bitrates sit nice and high in the upper 80mbps range. 

As for the Dolby Vision grade, the disc’s color pallet is notably brighter and vivid. The big immediate I noticed was how much more “green” the image looks. That's because all of the colors are refreshed, blues and yellows are stronger so greens look more lively. Not a big teal blast or punched oranges or anything like that. Given its Irish theme clean clear greens makes sense! The rest of the colors look great. The skies are a more natural blue. Reds are more appropriately crimson. Skin tones are healthy and human. Black levels are on point without crush issues giving the image a nice sense of depth and dimension. Likewise the upgraded Blu-ray witnesses a lot of the same improvements over the old Blu-ray. In the annals of 4K releases, this isn’t probably the greatest disc of all time, but visually a welcome upgrade over the old Blu-ray.

Now on the audio front, we have what sounds like the same DTS-HD MA 2.0 and 5.1 audio tracks from before. And for some fans, that may well be a bad thing - more on that in a second. First, again clean and clear without issue. The 5.1 spread through the surrounds sounds terrific and is even better when employing my system's DTS Neural:X function. The explosions rattle the subs beautifully and the imaging on the mix is terrific.

But now for the “however.” What I didn’t realize when I reviewed the film 10 years ago was that MGM lost clearance on some of the songs, namely Aretha Franklin’s All Night Long when Forrest Whitaker’s headphones have a bomb in them. So they overdubbed the original with a version that sounds like Aretha by way of a Nina Simone impersonator. As such, a line from Whitaker also had to be changed to drop the reference to Franklin, and that slightly cumbersome overdub of dialog is still here. Where it gets complicated is this film is streaming on Max, Franklin's original recording is preserved and Whitaker's line read is correct. So at some point, MGM resecured the rights to the song.

I don’t know the what-all of how that went down or why this audio master didn’t get the upgrade too. Near as I can figure that’s the only song that got swapped. I did a quick scan through this disc and the streaming version to listen for differences in the songs I knew were in the film, but nothing else stuck. U2 still sounded like U2. The biggest difference I noticed between this 5.1 mix and whatever was on Max is that the Max audio is obnoxiously front-heavy without any imaging or channel spread so some songs sound different due to channel placement but they didn't sound like replacements. In the history of bad music swaps, this is nowhere near as bad as something like Northern Exposure, but I can get why some fans might be irked and refrain from purchasing. Everything else about this mix is dynamite - no pun intended.

On the bonus features front, everything from the 2015 disc returns with a little extra. The new addition to the set is a new audio commentary featuring historians Mike Leeder and Arne Venema which is a nice listen without sounding dull or too mechanical.

4K Disc: 

• Audio Commentary featuring Stephen Hopkins
• Audio Commentary featuring Mike Leeder and Arne Venema

Blu-ray Disc:

• Audio Commentary featuring Stephen Hopkins
• Audio Commentary featuring Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
• The Making of Blown Away: A Day in the Life of A Bomb Squad
• Take Me Home: Music Video
• TV Spots
• Trailer
• KLSC Trailer Gallery: 
• Face/Off
• Hard Target
• Ronin
• Turbulence
• Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
• Winter Kills
• Black Moon Rising

Blown Away is the right kind of efficient entertainment that defined the ‘90s. Plot is simple, the characters are cleanly defined, plenty of suspense with increasingly complex and thrilling set pieces. Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones may struggle a little with their Irish lilts, but they’re dynamite together as opposite sides of various explosives. KLSC gives the film a fitting 4K Dolby Vision upgrade leaving the older transfer well behind. The two audio options available are the same from 2015 which may be a problem for some fans. While some care was taken to replicate that classic Franklin song, it’s not a bad fakey, but it’s not the original film audio and that is something many fans will get stuck on when considering a purchase. If possible it’d be worth the effort for a disc replacement if the song’s licensing has been secured. For a damn fun mid-1990s Action/Suspense film, Blown Away delivers. Recommended