Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Retroactive (1997)

Director: Louis Morneau

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Returning to Texas after a botched hostage crisis, police psychologist Travis crashes her car in the middle of nowhere. Accepting a lift from redneck Belushi and his girl Whirry, she little suspects he's a petty criminal with a murderous temper. When the ride turns into a nightmare, with corpses scattered across the desert, Travis takes refuge in a government lab where lone boffin Whaley is experimenting in time reversal. Trouble is, when Travis travels back to forestall the havoc wreaked by Belushi, the situation deteriorates. With its explosive action, black comedy and far-fetched sci-fi imposed on an otherwise vaguely plausible crime thriller, this modest indie film is reminiscent of such low budget '80s exploiters as Tremors and the work of Charles Band. Like the most memorable of these, it's lifted out of the rut by a quirky, imaginative script. True, Belushi's performance is overbearing and M Emmet Walsh turns in yet another sweaty cameo; true, too, that the frequent visual emphasis on Travis' cleavage flags the movie's compromised ambitions. Nevertheless, there's more than enough energy, bravado and invention to engage the attention throughout.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Louis Morneau

Producer: David Bixler, Michael Nadeau, Brad Krevoy, Steve Stabler

Cast: Shannon Whirry, Jesse Borrego, Jim Belushi, Kylie Travis, Frank Whaley, M Emmet Walsh full cast

Genre(s): Thrillers

Duration: 90 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.