Retroactive (1997)

Retroactive is a lean, high-octane time-travel thriller that treats its clever premise like a loaded gun: every reset tightens the screws, not just on the plot, but on your nerves. Set against sunbaked Texas backroads and fueled by brisk pacing, it plays like a nasty little road movie that keeps reinventing itself, mixing action, dread, and a streak of dark humor with real bravado. Jim Belushi is disarmingly volatile as the kind of charismatic menace you can’t talk down, while Kylie Travis anchors the film with a protagonist who learns—painfully—that “doing the right thing” can still make everything worse. It’s not for viewers who shy away from rough-edged violence and cruelty, but if you like smart B-movie ingenuity that moves fast and hits hard, this one is a satisfyingly wild ride.

Retroactive is clearly trying to mash a tight, ticking-clock time-loop thriller with a grim road-crime story, using repetition to crank up tension and give its heroine a few chances to change the outcome. The problem is that the movie leans hard into nasty, sensational violence and an aggressively unpleasant antagonist, so the experience can feel more like being trapped with a bully than enjoying a clever sci-fi puzzle. The low-budget look and the big, overbearing performance style don’t help, making some scenes feel louder than they are suspenseful. If you like lean, mean 90s B-thrillers and can stomach bloodshed and domestic-abuse themes in service of a pulpy premise, there’s some momentum and a fun hook here; if you’re after smart, character-driven time travel, this probably isn’t your night.