Blow Out 1981

Vincent Canby, New York Times: 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. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: 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. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Perfectly contrasts movies that reveal the truth against those which avoid it - a blood-drenched yet stake-free slasher vs. the far more insidious horrors of all-American living. Read more

Pauline Kael, New Yorker: It's a great movie. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: 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. Read more

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

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