Where Antonioni's images made you think, De Palma's merely make you blink, and the baroque plot confuses as often as it frightens.
Comment
06/24/06
Blow Out (1981)
89
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:36
Fresh:32
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... [More]
Starring: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz
Director: Brian De Palma
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Reviews for Blow Out
An homage to Blow Up that far outstrips the original in emotional immediacy, political sophistication, and visual style.
03/27/09
There are some neat performances, particularly Travolta's convincing bid to be taken seriously after years of being dismissed as frivolous beefcake.
03/27/09
Brian DePalma's masterpiece, a wonderful movie.
01/27/04
Much less successful than it could and should have been.
08/28/01
Underrated by just about everyone except Quentin Tarantino.
01/01/00
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.
01/24/06
No review available.
01/20/08
...Blow Out is one of Brian DePalma's best films.
09/26/02
It's an effective film mostly because it has a sense of humor and Travolta is convincing as the unlikely hero fighting against political corruption.
01/01/00
A triumph of both style and substance.
01/01/00
No review available.
07/24/05
Intriguing DePalma thriller
10/17/02
Of all De Palma's movies, Blow Out is the one I most like to see over and over.
10/06/04
Brian De Palma’s movies are a stunningly uneven lot, but that might just be because he takes as many risks as he does.
03/05/02
No review available.
08/01/02
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.
03/27/09
Top CriticNo review available.
11/26/02
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