Retroactive

Ignore the haters - Ratroactive is a fun and visually inventive sci-fi time-travel movie that is worth watching.

Jim Belushi is outstanding as Jim - a good'ol Texan who loves his Caddy, and hates his wife. His over-the-top performance alot of fun to watch. He meets Karen played to perfection by Kylie Travis who in my opinion had the makings of an action star.

The Time Travel aspect of the movie means scenes are shown several times but director Louis Monreau does a great job of this by coming up with more and more creative ways to showcase each set piece.

Worth watching.

Let's see...Jim Belushi with the worst Texas accent imaginable. A time machine that only lets ya go back about 20 minutes at a whack. A trip across the dustlands of rural Texas, and a Shrink who shoots up about a hundred magazines and never hits a bloody thing she is aiming it.

When you have 90 minutes of blank film, and about 7 minutes of plot, this is what you get. How many times can one watch minor permutations on the exact scene before slumber ensues, and the brain glazes over.

This could have been so much more, but a promising cast, and a promising premise have been totally wasted in a sea of car stunts and shoot-em-up. Even as a two dollar rental this puppy is a bust!

A Chicago cop has car trouble on a remote Texas highway, but is picked up by a murderous man (James Belushi) and his tormented wife. Before she can do anything to stop it, Belushi has murdered several people, including his wife. The cop (Kylie Travis) escapes to the inside of the Superconducting Supercollider, and manages to go back in time to try to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, her first trips back in time cause more murders, not less.

James Belushi shamelessly chews up the scenery in this one (or should I say shoots up), but Kylie Travis is wonderful in her role as the troubled policewoman. The film has an interesting time-travel premise which is similar to GROUNDHOG DAY and a certain STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION episode. Unfortunately, this means that we get to see Belushi murder the same people in slow motion multiple times. Still, if you overlook some of the silliness in the execution of the plot, the premise of the policewoman's dilemma is a compelling one.

By the way, the SuperCollider is not out in the desert in West Texas, but underneath farmland in east Texas, and the area is not that deserted. Also, the US Government shut down the project several years ago because it was too expensive.

This movie has a fascinating premise- what if you could go back in time, and change what you've done? Would it make things better, or worse?

Some of Jim Belushi's best acting is in this film- his "stream of consciousness" comments are a riot, and also horrifying, given their context. I've heard that he had just gotten out of a tough divorce, and the director let him ad lib at length, to really show the anger and madness in the character of Frank.

Of course, the lingering camera shots of Kylie Travis flying through the air in her black tank top and tight pants do nothing to detract from the overall watchability of this action/psychodrama thriller.

I'd give this one 8/10.

Whoever came up with the title to this film should be taken to one side and taught a thing or two about movies. There is no getting away from the fact that the title is BAD! The title suggests that you are about to watch every bad sci-fi movie you have ever seen, but what lies behind the title is an entertaining time travel film which is actually quite good.

James Belushi is quite good as the bad guy and Kylie Travis plays the feisty female cop well.

There is great pleasure in watching the main characters failing miserably at changing their situation as they travel back again and again to fix things, when it seems all manage to do is make a bad situation worse. The ending is surprisingly downbeat and refreshingly rewarding, which makes a change for Hollywood these days.

All in all not the best of films ever made, but if you just leave you critical faculties and high expectations at home you will be pleasantly surprised.