Retroactive

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.