RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
Check out the new RT Community
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / Blow Out
Blow Out

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Get this Movie
  • Buy Poster External Icon
  • Bookmark and Share

Blow Out (1981)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
89 %
Tomatometer

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted: 35

Fresh: 31

Rotten:4

Average Rating: 7.5/10

Consensus: With a story inspired by Antonioni's Blow Up and a style informed by the high-gloss suspense of Hitchcock, DePalma's Blow Out is raw, politically informed, and littered with film references.

Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: While outdoors recording sound effects for a movie, audio technician Jack Terri hears a tire blowout and a car crash. Before the car sinks into the river, he manages to save the female passenger... While outdoors recording sound effects for a movie, audio technician Jack Terri hears a tire blowout and a car crash. Before the car sinks into the river, he manages to save the female passenger from drowning. Because the other passenger was a presidential candidate, Jack suspects that the "accident" was a political murder. Afterwards, Jack falls in love with Sally, the woman he rescued, and learns that she's been in cahoots with Manny, a sleazy photographer who's operating a blackmail scheme. As part of their scam, Manny photographs Sally with important men in what appear to be compromising situations. Jack starts to wonder whether he's being paranoid or whether things are not quite what they seem. Then the assassin turns his attention to Jack and Sally, and Jack has to use every special effects trick in the book to keep them both alive. [More]

Starring: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz

Starring: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz, Peter Boyden, John McMartin

Director: Brian De Palma

Director: Brian De Palma
Producer: George Litto
Composer: Pino Donaggio

[See More Credits]

Get This Movie

Rent DVD
 
 

Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.

 
 
Buy DVD
 
 
Release:

Aug 28, 2001

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Blow Out

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
Arrange By: Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

There are some neat performances, particularly Travolta's convincing bid to be taken seriously after years of being dismissed as frivolous beefcake.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
03/27/09
Channel 4 Film

A forgotten gem.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
03/27/09
Mark Dinning
Empire Magazine

An homage to Blow Up that far outstrips the original in emotional immediacy, political sophistication, and visual style.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
03/27/09
TV Guide's Movie Guide

This 1981 release is one of Brian De Palma's more interesting and better-made thrillers, though it's even more abjectly derivative than his Hitchcock imitations.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
03/27/09
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

With attractive leads and a stylish flair for suspense, De Palma misses sustaining involvement by his distracting allusions to prior films.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
03/26/09
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It’s a great movie.

Full Review Source: New Yorker | comment Comment
05/28/08
Pauline Kael
New Yorker
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Original for sure story of Travolta's movie sound effects guy recording a real murder.

comment Comment
02/21/08
Steve Crum
Video-Reviewmaster.com

No review available.

comment Comment
01/20/08
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Blow Out is not known as one of Brian De Palma's horror movies, but of all his films, it's the one that feels most like a nightmare.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
08/26/06
Paul Schrodt
Slant Magazine

the filmmakers seem more concerned with their art or their in-jokes than with satisfying an audience

comment Comment
07/21/06
Douglas Pratt
DVDLaser

Where Antonioni's images made you think, De Palma's merely make you blink, and the baroque plot confuses as often as it frightens.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Time Out

A well-crafted Hitchcockian-style thriller with De Palma again in top form. It's a mystery why this fizzled at the box office in the summer of 1981.

comment Comment
01/24/06
Chuck O'Leary
Fantastica Daily

No review available.

comment Comment
07/24/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

comment Comment
01/07/05
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

One of Travlota's best performances. "Great scream."

comment Comment
01/01/05
Michael A. Smith
Nolan's Pop Culture Review

A movie which continues [De Palma] practice of making cross-references to other movies, other directors, and actual historical events, and which nevertheless is his best and most original work.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
10/23/04
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
10/08/04
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

Of all De Palma's movies, Blow Out is the one I most like to see over and over.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
10/06/04
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Blow Out is the work of a high-spirited, irrepressible director who takes the effects movies can produce far more seriously than he takes the characters they seem to be about.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
08/30/04
Vincent Canby
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Brian DePalma's masterpiece, a wonderful movie.

comment Comment
01/27/04
Blake Davis
KFOR Channel 4 News
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
See More Topics...

Related Forums for Blow Out

Click here to be the first to post a message on this forum.

See All

More DVDs

Close
Top Rentals
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
79%
79%
Gran Torino
30%
30%
12 Rounds
23%
23%
Confessions of a Shopa…
—
The Code
39%
39%
Inkheart

More Rentals…

New On DVD This Week
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
22%
22%
Push
12%
12%
The Unborn
29%
29%
The Little Red Truck
—
Five Fingers
—
Night Train

More New Releases…

RT On Current TV

What’s Hot On RT

Deconstructing Harry

Deconstructing Harry

Pt. 3: Cuaron's darker Prisoner of Azkaban

Best Mockumentaries

Best Mockumentaries

From Borat to Spinal Tap, this one goes to 11

Humpday Clip

Humpday Clip

An exclusive peek at the indie comedy!

Half-Blood Prince

Half-Blood Prince

How good is the 6th Harry Potter?

Other News

Close
  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • Weekly Ketchup: T.J. Hooker Film in Development
40
  • Warners Shortens Green Lantern Wishlist Source: Hollywood Reporter
150
  • Harold Ramis Talks Ghostbusters 3 Source: MakingOf.com
50
  • Spider-Man 4 Gets Its Third Writer Source: Latino Review
60
  • Warners Wins Favorable Ruling in Superman Case Source: Variety
20
  • Remo Williams Rides Again Source: Risky Biz
10
  • Mortal Kombat 3 Filming in September? Source: Slashfilm
82
  • MacGruber Gets a Director Source: Variety
39
  • PG-13 Turns 25 Source: VideoETA
8
  • Weekly Ketchup: Universal Takes on Asteroids
92
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Deconstructing Harry, Day 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
116
  • Deconstructing Harry, Day 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
67
  • Deconstructing Harry, Day 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
54
  • Total Recall: Mock Docs That Rock
53
  • Tomatometer Watch: How Good is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince?
53
  • Critics Consensus: Bruno is Certified Fresh
44
  • Five Favorite Films with Kathryn Bigelow
39
  • Box Office Guru Wrapup: Brüno Struts To The Top Spot
29
  • RT on DVD: Knowing, Push, The Unborn Unleashed
28
  • Five Favourite Films with Jaime Winstone
20
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • RT Interview: Director Carlos Cuaron on Rudo and Cursi
0
  • RT Interview: Tony Scott on The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
10
  • Cannes 2009: RT Interview - Sally Hawkins on We Want Sex
2
  • RT Interview: Tilda Swinton on Julia
5
  • Hollywood Legend Debbie Reynolds Reflects On her Life in Showbiz
10
  • Exclusive: McG Talks Terminator Salvation
24
  • Georgia Groome - Fresh Talent on RT
5
  • RT Interview: Reading The Reader with Stephen Daldry
11
  • RT Interview: Oscar Nominee Melissa Leo
7
  • Carey Mulligan - Fresh Talent on RT
7
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • Blow Out at Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh Links

Featured
Point-Counterpoint: Bruno
Point-Counterpoint: Bruno External Link

MSN's David Fear and Frank Paiva go head to head discussing the pros and cons of Bruno star Sacha Baron Cohen.

The New Cult Canon
The New Cult Canon External Link

The AV Club's Scott Tobias takes a second look at David Lynch's cult classic, Lost Highway.

Tom Cruise's 10 Best Roles
Tom Cruise's 10 Best Roles External Link

TIME takes us on a 25-year long journey into the superstar's career, giving us a look at his 10 best roles.

A Baywatch Comedy?
A Baywatch Comedy? External Link

BuzzSugar reports on Paramount's plans to rebirth the iconic TV show as a comedy film.

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Games| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.