Blow Out

Many consider "Blow Out" to be the highlight of Brian De Palma's career, but to be honest I was pretty underwhelmed. It starts of great though. De Palma gets to show of his amazing knack for style in a brilliant opening scene that provides a hilarious pastiche on the slasher genre. The faux-sleazy look, the clever winks at genre classics, the genuine suspense even though you know it's a movie-within-a-movie, it's genius at work. There are more of those beautiful stylistic touches spread throughout the movie (the fireworks during the climax would be an obvious example), but the plot is just contrived and the final act demands more than a little suspension of disbelief. And while John Travolta puts in a strong lead performance, obligatory damsel in distress Nancy Allen never really manages to make her character likable so you don't really care whether she lives or dies. That's why the obvious Hitchcock influence isn't as effective as it could have been, Hitchcock gave us characters we deeply cared about and then did awful things to them. Sally is no Marion Crane to say the least, making it more difficult to stay interested in her story. "Blow Out" looks fantastic, but doesn't go very far beyond that.