Like millions of science fiction fans I have always been fascinated with the concept of time travel. It has everything to make for a solid theme for a Sci-Fi story being impossible by most current established scientific theories but just plausible enough to make you think that the story could happen. There is an inherent problem with most time travel tales; the ever present paradox. If you go back in time and kill your grandfather you couldn’t be born in the first place to go back. The masters of the Sci-Fi world have all had a turn at stories of this type. One of the first that I ever read when I was much younger was ‘Sound of Thunder’ by Ray Bradbury where an accident with an insect in the distant past has terrible consequences in the present. This trend has hit television with a notable use of the theme in the most recent season of the smash hit ‘Lost’. This is such a promising theme that many have taken it on and one of the latest is the Sci-Fi action thriller ‘Retrograde’. Admittedly it is not the best Sci-Fi flick around but it is above the majority of the Saturday Night specials that have been shown for the last few years on the Sci-Fi channel. It stars two well known action stars for the ‘B’ flick world, Dolph Lundgren and Gary Daniels so at least you know there will be plenty of kick butt action to keep your attention. This is without a doubt a guy’s flick. It is so filled with testosterone that you might test positive for steroid use after watching it. There are a couple of modern day themes present here such as an impending biological disaster that has to be prevented. Typically this is great fodder for a Sci-Fi tale and works better here far better than I expected. It is impossible not to go into a direct to video flick like this without some preconceptions but in this case you do wind up with a fairly solid piece of entertainment. If your weekly poker game with the guys ends early this is a great choice for some light fun.

The movie is in all respects an independent movie. You might think of an Indy as some artsy faire that is shown in a college town art house but the independent world has greatly expanded over the last few years. It cost a meager $2 million to make this film. Even by Indy standards this is a flimsy shoestring budget. According to notes on the film it took just over two weeks to film a couple more for editing and the final mix another day. Compared to most action blockbusters this is an incredibly brisk pace to make a movie. It is extremely easy to sit back in the comfort of your living room and chide the efforts of an Indy film maker. Sure, many of them look cheaply made and rushed because they were. In the case of this film there was a sense that these are people making an honest effort at creating an enjoyable movie. They certainly are intelligent enough to know that they are not going to push ‘Citizen Kane’ off the AFI top films list but they did the very best with what limited resources they had available. With today’s hardware and software available to every Spielberg wannabe a lot of people think they know what it takes to prepare a movie. This cast and crew make a lot of mistakes but they fact is they tried. Without attempts like this no director, writer or actor is able to grow in their respective crafts.

The script was written by Christopher Kulikowski and Gianluca Curti. Kulikowski has one other film as writer and director; another more dramatically geared Sci-Fi flicks ‘Aurora’. Curti has two previous screenplays; a crime thriller and a drama. In many ways the story has the feel of an extended episode of some minor science fiction or fantasy anthology series on cable. The fundamental story line is strong enough albeit one that has been used many times in the past. Two men go back in time because of a cataclysmic virus outbreak. The goal is to stop the people who freed the virus from the meteor that crashed on earth. Since the virus is from outer space there is no way to treat or prevent its spread. Right there you have a story that tries to stand on the shoulders of giants; ‘Twelve Monkeys’ and ‘The Andromeda Strain’ leap immediately to mind. A fairly novel twist is introduced with the inclusion of a character, Markus (Gary Daniels) that follows the hero, John Foster (Dolph Lundgren) into the past for his own greedy and nefarious purposes. The story doesn’t go in the direction that you might suspect especially with two notable action stars in the main roles. It has a conclusion that is for the most part predicable but still has a few satisfying elements to it. The crew lands near the artic circle giving it a nicely rugged and isolated terrain necessary for this particular type of story. The victims of the virus become a type of zombie added a little flavor from that genre as well. In some ways this is the main shortcoming to the story. It tries to create a mélange of too many genres to get any elements from one of them correct.

For a sophomore directorial effort Kulikowski does better than many might expect here. He has talent and that shows in the way he constructs his shots and sets up the scenes. What has to be worked on is the pacing. It is far too slow for an action film. It would be okay to slow down the tempo of the film for exposition if this was a more psychological story to tell. With an action movie fans rightfully expect the pace to be quick and steady. He also has to work with a main cast that is better known for their physical attributes then there acting talents. While it is true that there are action stars that have considerable chops in holding a scene together Lundgren and Daniels are huge bodies able to punch and slam their way through a flick. This is not necessarily a negative thing if the director embraces this fact. There is little in the way of a sense of imminent danger here and that drags the production down from its potential. There is action here but it appears to be detached from the underlying story. Kulikowski was trying to rise above the pure action genre and I have to give him proper credit for that laudable goal. With a few more movies under his belt he is going to be an Indy director and writer to watch.

The film finds its region one DVD release through First Look Studios. They have a growing reputation for giving new comers to the independent film industry a start and means to find their audience. This is a reasonably flick for a day when the game is rained out and you can have a good time watching it.