The resource of time travel is one of the most stimulating for science fiction cinema. The problem is that by now practically all of us know those really good movies that use it, but there is always room for surprise and today I bring you a hidden gem available free on YouTube which precisely this year celebrates its 25th anniversary. I mean ‘Panic on the road’although you may also know it by the title of retroactive.
Timecrimes in Texas
Starring Kylie Travis and a loose James Belushi, ‘Panic on the road’ about a criminal psychologist whose car breaks down in the middle of the Texas desert, being helped by a couple who were passing by. Everything gets complicated when he discovers that his girlfriend is unfaithful, something happens shortly after that leads the protagonist to travel back in time for about 20 minutes, thus starting a loop from which we’ll see if she manages to escape…
In ‘Panic on the road’ you will find a cross between a road movie, a violent 90’s B-series thriller and a science fiction film that deserves much more recognition than it has received. In its own way, it is a direct precedent of ‘The Timecrimes’, the excellent first film by Nacho Vigalondo that I recommended to you a few weeks ago on the occasion of its arrival in the Netflix catalog.
Of course, I anticipate that here the science fiction component is not something that is fully explored, functioning more as a distinctive element within a fairly common type of film in the United States during those years. Therefore, that you fancy a thriller of these characteristics is essential, and also to overlook some detail of the script -such as the number of bullets that are fired at a certain moment-.
In return, ‘Panic on the road’ always shows off an enviable energyespecially palpable in the interpretation of a Belushi who seems to be having a great time giving life to a despicable southerner, also everything being well measured by the director louis morneau so that the viewer spends a most entertaining time during the less than 90 minutes that it lasts. Surely more than one will remember when seeing it from the golden age of video stores.
I don’t know to what extent it is legally available and the image quality is nothing special, but it has been missing in Spain by any other means for several years in Youtube in original version with Spanish subtitles. If you don’t need the subtitles, you also have it on YouTube in the original version and with better image quality.
In Espinof:
Source: www.espinof.com
