86
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertBest of all, this movie is inhabited by a real cinematic intelligence. The audience isn't condescended to. In sequences like the one in which Travolta reconstructs a film and sound record of the accident, we're challenged and stimulated: We share the excitement of figuring out how things develop and unfold, when so often the movies only need us as passive witnesses.
- 100This is one of the finest films about the process of movie-making, a bleak, complex work that gives Travolta his most challenging role.
- 100Slant MagazineSlant MagazineBlow 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.
- 100The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelOn paper this movie, written and directed by Brian De Palma, might seem to be just a political thriller, but it has a rap intensity that makes it unlike any other political thriller...It’s a great movie.
- 91Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyEntertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyDeliciously twisty and twisted.
- 80The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyYet more important than anything else about Blow Out is its total, complete and utter preoccupation with film itself as a medium in which, as Mr. De Palma has said along with a number of other people, style really is content.
- 80Time Out LondonTime Out LondonWhere Antonioni's images made you think, De Palma's merely make you blink, and the baroque plot confuses as often as it frightens. Still, plenty of style, a modicum of thrills, and a suitably s(l)ick ending. Collectors of character performances will enjoy Lithgow's right-wing nut.
- 50NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenDe Palma has brought back Travolta's edge and intelligence. Relieved of having to give a star turn, Travolta seems happy to buckle down and do a straight-ahead, no-frills acting job. [27 July 1981, p.74]