Thanks for the memories!

Simply A Masterpiece

Purely Joyful Movie!

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

Director Louis Morneau who also directed another classic flick, Road Kill 2: Dead Ahead 2008 has created another gem in Retroactive.Starring James Belushi who has also been other classic flick , Salvador 1986 and Made Men 1999.Also starring Kylie Travis.Also starring Shannon Whirry who has also been in other classic flicks, Animal Instincts II 1994, Animal Instincts 1992, Mirror Images II 1993 and Out for Justice 1991.Also starring M.Emmet Walsh who has also been in other classic flicks, Romeo + Juliet 1996, Narrow Margin 1990, Blood Simple 1984 and Blade Runner 1982.I enjoyed the shootouts and car chases.If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out other classic time travel flicks, The Butterfly Effect 2004, Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey 1988, Planet of the Apes 1968, Primer 2004, Returner 2002, Slaughterhouse-Five 1972, Timecop 1994, The Caller 2011, Triangle 2009, Edge of Tomorrow 2014 and Timecrimes 2007.

This movie reminded me of the movie 12:01 which I reviewed before. It was basically Groundhog Day with a science fiction theme. A hostage negotiator with a glitch in her past is in the middle of nowhere (actually, a lost Texas road) when her car crashes and James Belushi and his wife pick her up. Belushi then murders the wife in front of her, and she makes her way to Frank Whaley, who plays a scientist who is conducting an experiment sending lab rats twenty minutes or so back in time. She then convinces him to use her as a "lab rat" to change the results, each time turning out differently. Belushi makes a nasty bad guy;don't expect to see him in his "According to Jim" role. Far from it. This was a tense movie with excellent performances and a combination of an expected and a surprise ending. I liked it, and you will too.*** out of ****

RETROACTIVE is one of those hidden gem films! A straight-to-video release, it is much better than a high percentage of what Hollywood churns out in theaters! I first saw it on cable years ago when it first came out and was immediately enamored by it. It drew me in from the start. I just love its premise! Really, one of the best time-travel movies you'll ever see. Well plotted, paced, and executed! RETROACTIVE stars uber-hot Australian model Kylie Travis (who does a great job carrying what is essentially an action film) as a Chicago psychiatrist Karen who at the film's start has left her job because 6 of her patients were heinously gunned down in a hostage crisis. Her helplessness has forced her leave for less grisly surroundings. On her way across country, her car breaks down on the desert highway and she is picked up by a bickering couple Frank (James Belushi in the best role he's ever had!) and Rayanne (played with heartbreaking solemnity by Shannon Whirry). It's obvious to Karen that Frank is an abusive boyfriend to Rayanne and in her efforts to save her from him, Frank kills Rayanne and then goes after Karen, who ends up in a super-secret government facility and next thing she knows, it's 20 minutes earlier and she is in the car with Frank and a very much alive Rayanne again!Genius! The plot is so incredibly simple, yet so immediately manipulative! You can't help but want to know what happens next! Turns out the facility is overseen by a brilliant scientist named Brian (solidly played by Frank Whaley), who has discovered time travel. So Karen tries to change the situation so that Rayanne survives and Frank is taken down. Each time she tries and goes back, the situation worsens. RETROACTIVE is one of the best examples of a movie where I have seen the "snowball effect" happen. Each worsening scenario is brilliantly thought out and constructed and unique from the previous one. Just one little change from the previous timeline makes a small difference in terms of immediacy, but a huge difference in terms of the final outcome! The ending is actually satisfying and powerful! RETROACTIVE is a lost gem in the sci-fi/action/time-travel genre...Highly recommended viewing!

This is a 'small' film that's easy to dismiss based on its obvious faults. But those faults are entirely superficial, and if you can overlook them (not difficult), it has a great deal to offer.The clever thing here is the marriage of tight little Twilight Zone gimmick with a typical Die Hard action scenario. The heroine, a police negotiator fresh from a failed hostage crisis, finds herself endlessly re-living a calamitous twenty minutes out on a desert highway... trying desperately for a better outcome, yet somehow only making things worse and worse. The eventual conclusion is beautifully restrained, passing up all the usual Hollywood clichés and thereby making a surprisingly thoughtful statement about how sometimes you just can't make everything work out perfectly.The only real problem with the film is some slightly heavy-handed direction. Yes, yes, I know: the heroine absolutely should have picked up the gun instead of running. Several times. My guess is that the script specified that she had to run, and the director simply wasn't careful enough in placing the dropped weapon so as to make clear she couldn't possibly grab it instead. It happens in much bigger-budget movies than this. There's also the issue of Belushi's seeming indestructibility, but this I assume is deliberate. The situation is nightmarishly predestined, so it makes perfect sense that only those die who must die.Aside from these few moments, though, the direction is pretty sharp. The pace is unhurried yet relentless; armed confrontations are genuinely tense; and the various explosions are very gratifying. (Do cars *really* blow up like that? Who cares! Every genre has its conventions...) The story twists and turns delightfully; like the heroine, we often get just what we want, but rarely quite what we expect.Performances, by a cast of unknowns and second-stringers, are uniformly fine. But Jim Belushi, rarely thought of as Oscar material, is truly memorable as the bombastic Texas psychopath, both funny and frightening. This is easily the best work I've ever seen from him; it's hard to imagine anyone doing a better job in this role.No, Retroactive isn't perfect. But its strengths far outweigh its minor weaknesses. Perhaps with a bigger name attached to it, or more CGI effects, it would have been a blockbuster. As it is, the limited scale only increases its charm. This is that rarity, a thoughtful action film: exciting, amazing, amusing... and satisfying on every level.