Blue Sky
Late, Great Reviews - First
It’s hard to know who’s got more of a screw loose. Tommy Lee Jones playing Major Tommy Lee Jones, the straight-shooting army officer who desperately wants to pursue a career in army science. Or his wife, the promiscuous Carly who can’t go a day without flashing her tits at helicopters, having affairs with Tommy’s colleagues or falling out of windows.
People like this exist. Although they shouldn’t be together. Also in the film, some cowboys explode, kids debate the morality of nuclear weapons and Carly pleads with her daughter to tell her about her sex life.
It’s hot garbage. (Spoilers from here).
After putting up with a lot of shit from his wife, Major Tommy Lee Jones ends up in a mental hospital. Carly goes ballistic and as she rampages through her home she discovers a file in her husband’s briefcase titled Blue Sky. Taking her two kids, she sets off on a road trip to the American west where some hicks help her prove her husband’s innocence. Major Tommy Lee Jones is released, quits the army and becomes civilian Tommy Lee Jones. The film ends with Carly becoming a brunette and buying a new car that her husband clearly can’t currently afford. Ohh Carly. Never change!
This shouldn’t be viewed as an attack on Jessica Lange. On paper I’m sure Carly was about as nuanced as a female lead got in a 90s movie. And she gives it stacks. So much so she won an Oscar for the role. Tommy Lee Jones however deserves scorn. Potentially he’s in on the joke and is why he makes absolutely no effort. His performance couldn’t even be described as one note. It’s flat, flatter than a cartoon cat under a steam roller.
It’s hard to know what the moral of the story is. Are all pretty women mental? The children are insufferably righteous — maybe that wisdom comes from the mouth of babes? The only thing I can say for sure is that as a man in the 90s you could be ugly and punch well above your weight. Damn you CrossFit.
I would not recommend this film. Watch Entrapment with Catherine Zeta Jones and Sean Connery instead. CZJ is badass.