Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Underrated sleeper but a Great Movie, January 25, 2002
This movie doesn't rely on spectacular special effects, outrageous creatures, computer generated universes or even a huge cast of super star talent. What makes it a great flick is the superb job done on the script and the great acting done by both leads. An unbelievable premise (time travel) is made secondary to the plot and dialogue so that it doesn't become a hindrance to the story line.Belushi's character is very believable as an evil villain and this is probably his best performance. Travis plays a hostage negotiator that is taking time off from her stressful job because she has just botched an incident and is trying to recuperate from the trial. Along comes Belushi playing a loud mouth abusive bore and the action starts. They tangle and Travis stumbles into a test lab where time travel experiments are being conducted. Instead of being killed by the bad guy she is sent back to where they first meet and is given a second chance at resolving the conflict. She is now the ultimate negotiator as she has some degree of knowledge of the future and can use that knowledge to affect the outcome. Of course she screws up and makes it worse and there lies the beauty of the movie. I am torn between giving this movie a four or a five, it is a really well written and acted and can be watched more than once, but it does lack enough to not be called a blockbuster type movie. If I could give it four and a half I would. Highly recommend if you like sci fi, time travel or just plain well written scripts.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
She's sexy; she time travels; she kicks butt., October 22, 2004
This has been a favorite of mine since the second time I saw it. Not that I did not like it the first time; I had seen it on cable but could not remember the name until I came across a used copy about 4 years later. I have since watched it several times and always enjoy it. Kylie Travis plays a police negotiator who had failed in an attempt to negotiate the release of five hostages and instead are killed in an explosion (this preludes the movie in a flashback sequence). After she runs her car off the road because her mind is on the hostage incident, she is picked up by a couple played by Jim Belushi and Shannon Whirry. Jim Belushi is a loudmouth, over copensating, gun toting redneck (and those are his good qualities) transporting stolen computer chips and Shannon Whirry is quite abused by him. What follows is a car-ride that ends in murder and a chance happening across a time-machine in a secret government sponsored lab. This gives way to repeat the car-ride and incidents which follow (this may well be the longest ten minute car-ride in history). There are many small details which may seem insignificant at first but become further plot points as the story repeats itself. Each time the story repeats some action is taken differently in the hopes that it will change the outcome; often, though, making it worse. The characterizations are further developed as the story repeats. Since the story is building and fluctuating each time, it is not repetitve, and each subsequent change to the story increases the pace of the movie that much more. The directing and the story itself are well done. Where someone could have taken a story like this and let it drag by being too repetitive or lose the continuity by trying to advance the story too quickly; they came up with the right mix. 'Retroactive' is far from being shy on action; from car chases to flying lead and about everything in-between. The stand out performance in 'Retroactive' belongs to Shannon Whirry. She is incredible as the abused wife who tries to fight back. There are several in your face shots that all three play well but Shannon just seriously delivers; since this story hinges on saving her character, she gives good reason to make you want her character saved. M. Emmet Walsh is particularly nasty as Belushi's cohort in crime; and seeing Walsh's character bounced off the hood and over the roof of a speeding station wagon gives great satisfaction. Kylie Travis in her tight black pantsuit, white shirt and push-up bra is particularly captivating and exciting everytime she beats up Jim Belushi. 'Retroactice' is an exciting (at times loud), well paced, well scripted action movie with a great sci-fi premise. Ultimately this movie is not so much about time travel as it is about regrets about decisions we have made or not made and the blame we place on ourselves. If given the opportunity to change things we may find that we can actually make it worse and are not to blame for the natural course that events will take with or without us.-Bob
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Quantum Leap meets Groundhog Day., December 11, 2004
The flick stars James Belushi as Frank, a psycotic killer with violent mean streak & temper, Kylie Travis, a semi-big star then from the UK, as Karen, a psychologist from Michigan who becomes hostage negotiator, & Shannon Whirry as Rayanne, Frank's ex who is killed brutally. It also features Frank Whaley as Brian, a young & handsome scientist who just perfected a time machine & Roger Clinton as a truck driver.
Karen has a flat tire, so she pulls over by the side of the road & gets picked up by Frank & Rayanne. Frank immediately stars to spook Karen by getting pissed off over little things. Rayanne tells him to calm down & get over it, but Frank doesn't listen to her. He picks up a gun after some tense dialog, Rayanne says she's gonna be killed by him, he fires it & kills her. Frank pulls over some time later on & Karen escapes to a lab where Brian is at.
Karen introduces herself to Brian & says she needs some help. Brian, after then, reveals his time machine to her. She goes into the machine & sets the time back to a couple of hours ago. Instead of fixing the problem she relives the same scenario as before except of course, things are more out of hand & unpredictable now. Frank on the 2nd time to the lab, pulls over his car & chases her with gun, but doesn't pursue her to the lab. She goes back into the machine again & tries it again. This time, things seem to be all right until she relives the same scenario over again. It takes her 3 or 4 times to get it right, on her final attempt, Frank chases her into the lab, & threatens to kill everybody if she doesn't come back to him. The time when she gets it right, she kills Frank & drives off into the sunset behind the wheel of his car.
It has some decent acting, but nothing too memorable. A lot of the dialog is fairly good, but some is really lame for sci-fi action. The special effects are really good & shine in this flick. The camerawork is good, as is the directing. I din't care for the music too much, it wasn't too bad, but just seemed out of place for the movie.
Grade: 6 out of 10.
Run time: 91 minutes.
Rated R for language & violence.
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