YouTube is streaming this overlooked '90s Brendan Fraser romantic comedy for free — and I urge you to watch

Tom's Guide

5 days ago

"Blast from the Past" tricked me the first time I watched it. It looked like a goofy, mid-tier romantic comedy built around a fish-out-of-water gag and Brendan Fraser doing his best aw-shucks routine.
And sure, on the surface it's light and silly. There's a man raised in a fallout shelter, swing dancing in a diner, and Sissy Spacek teaching her son etiquette like it's 1962.
But give it a second look, and it's doing something a lot smarter than it gets credit for. "Blast from the Past" is actually a gentle, funny critique of modern cynicism, wrapped in a Cold War time capsule.
Brendan Fraser plays the star, Adam, with so much earnest charm that it sneaks up on you. Suddenly, this comedy about atomic paranoia and misplaced manners becomes a sweet, surprisingly sharp story about culture shock, family trauma and how much the world changes when kindness is treated like a threat.
It's the kind of movie that doesn't scream for attention. But "Blast From the Past" has aged way better than you'd expect. And it's available to stream for free on YouTube. Yes, completely free!
"Blast from the Past" is about a man named Adam (Fraser) who's been raised in total isolation — literally underground — for 35 years by his doomsday-prepper parents (Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek). Back in the '60s, they mistook a plane crash for nuclear war and locked themselves in a fallout shelter stocked with canned goods, baseball cards and swing records.
Fast-forward to the '90s, and Adam finally ventures up to the surface to restock supplies and maybe find a wife. What he discovers is a world that's completely alien to him. It's loud, fast, and totally lacking in the kind of old-school manners he was raised on.
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"Blast From the Past" is a rom-com, a culture clash comedy and a surprisingly sweet story about how out-of-place kindness can feel in a jaded world. Also, it has Christopher Walken in a bomber jacket, which should honestly be reason enough to watch.
Adam isn't just a walking punchline; he's more of a reflection of a bygone era, and watching him stumble through modern life becomes strangely touching. So does watching him fall in love with Alicia Silverstone's character. And did you know how great she looks as a brunette?
When Adam finally surfaces, he's not just seeing daylight for the first time, but also trying to reconcile everything he's ever known with a culture that moved on without him. And watching him try to make sense of it all is where the movie really triumphs.
This is one of those rare movies that manages to be sweet without being sappy, clever without being smug, and funny without punching down. It takes a premise that could've been pure slapstick and turns it into a surprisingly tender story about optimism, loneliness, and the shock of realizing the world isn't always what you were taught to expect.
Fraser is the heart of it all. His performance is so warm and genuine that you can't help but root for him. You just don't see much of that anymore in movies, almost like sincerity is a little radical these days. Watching him navigate late-'90s Los Angeles with the social graces of a 1960s gentleman is not just hilarious but moving too.
There's not nearly enough kindness in movies, and the fact that we get to see Fraser as another heartwarming character after his recent comeback in a lesser-known movie for free on YouTube? That's priceless. Watch it while it's still available.
Watch "Blast from the Past" free on YouTube