Expected more

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The film's shoestring budget is glaringly apparent throughout. Bad sound. Bad lighting. Cheap, washed out film stock. Atrocious direction. Over-the-top acting. Gordon Thomson is painfully wooden as the central character, Alan Evans, who flees to Canada to avoid the draft. Don Stroud provides the film's only believable performance as Richie Kovacs, Evans' fellow draft dodger and hippie sidekick.Underscoring The Blast's flaws is its syrupy, melodramatic music score, which smacks of the earliest days of soap opera. Criticism aside, the film's most redeeming features are a surprisingly interesting storyline, as well the use of a variety of stunning British Columbia locations.