Even better than I remember from several viewings in the '90s, this is high quality action thriller bombast that needn't take a back seat to its more successful simul-released '94 twin "Speed". Both are about bomb squads, take place in distinct cities, are filmed with total panache, and have a grand scenery-chomping villain fiddling with detonators, but "Blown Away" is a bit more emotional and adult compared to the eager puppy-dog theatrics of the (great) Keanu Reeves classic.

Rooted in the history of the IRA and has that Boston mixture of swagger and melancholy, but still a melodramatic and absurd ride. Just darker-tinged, visually and thematically. It's got grit, it's got at least 4 Oscar-winning actors (Bridges, Jones, Forest Whitaker, a Cuba Gooding Jr. cameo/favor to his "Judgment Night" director Stephen Hopkins), father and son coming together one last time toward the end of father's life (Jeff and Lloyd, and the latter gets to be something of a badass again in what seems like a spiritual nod to his early hero roles in stuff like "Sea Hunt"), cinematic flourish from start to finish (check out all this slo-mo majesty during key moments, and explosions reflected in a person's eyeball, and a hotel terrace beautifully overlooking the city where of course a distant fireball is going to shoot into the sky for them to see, and all the microphotography carving suspense out of every common device in a home being a possible trigger), an intermediate know-how with bomb diffusion tactics and even a salute in the end credits to the real bomb squad workers of the world.

Makes you wonder how many bomb threats were occurring in Boston really, for this team to be on call for action every single day. How many people were rigging explosives in this one town before crazy Tommy Lee Jones showed up?

Jones is by turns menacing, magnetic and a little too loony for his own good at times, warning us of the impending Two-Face performance of garish extremes coming a year later, but also still riding high on the memorable villainy he brought to "Under Siege" in '92. He's better when he's playing it calm, yet still fun while dancing and giddy. Speaking with an Irish accent, Jones pulls off one impressive bit when he has to fake an American tonality to hide who he is during an encounter with Bridges' wife and daughter, and he somehow manages to make the American accent that is his real voice sound fake itself, like he can't totally hide the Irish from it. Dedication!

Jeff Bridges running in anguish around disasters and dealing with insidious terrorism plots makes this part of his whole '90s quilt with "Fearless" beforehand and "Arlington Road" in '99, though I don't mean to undersell the wide spectrum of roles he took on in that decade, from Wild Bill and a psycho in "The Vanishing" to romantic lead in a Streisand film, the Dude and the President in "The Contender". And he's absolutely as real as he needs to be in this. Never misses. Sterling as an aging hero.

Mileage may vary on the efficacy of several U2 "Joshua Tree" montages (pretty open-minded of the band to allow their songs to be the official soundtrack of this terrorist's explosive-crafting activities), but I liked the ethnic cohesion they were going for with it and those meditative/populist songs mirror the film's own straddling of both grim seriousness and popcorn blockbuster overtures. Adding the "1812 Overture" climax to the finale is pure icing. The explosions rule, especially how they're usually foreshadowed by Bridges' dawning horrified realization after it's too late to stop the countdowns, but especially the symphony of destruction at the end. The booms just keep coming! Those 2 guys running away from them would have been evaporated in seconds, instead of free after like 10 straight gigantic ignitions to jump to safety in the river. That's the old west of action movie logic for ya. And then a bonus double climax afterward involving a car on the road that feels like a tacit ode to "Speed". This movie's so good it's even paying its respects to the competition.

Not to get old-man about this, but "Blown Away" is the difference between big old 1950s Buicks and the modern plastic flim flam vehicles the auto industry craps out nowadays. In the '90s, action movies were built to last, even the ones that didn't hit it big with audiences or critics. They had character and roughage and people noticeably committing to the work and multiple payoffs. They looked good and they delivered. I guess today's action movies are trying to pack in the entertainment value too, but there's so fewer handprints on the finished products, it seems, so much more remote craftsmanship, and that leaves less of a mark on our viewing experience as a result. We don't feel it as much. Filmmaking has become more sophisticated but also a whole lot more weightless and synthetic. "Blown Away", however, in its performances, writing, cinematography, production design, scenery, little character interactions, storytelling, and spectacle alike: this is a movie that blasts.

*upgraded from 3.5 to 4 stars*