Retrograde - Krieg auf dem Eisplaneten

Dolph Lundgren vehicles have hit DVD every spring for the last few years. Apparently they have done well enough that some studio finally snagged this sci-fi time travel flick that has been sitting on the shelf since completion in 2003. John Foster (Lundgren) pilots a space craft from 2204 back to the 21rst century with the crew's mission to stop scientists from discovering plague carrying meteorites in Antarctica. Naturally, there are traitors on board who want to alter the future for their own personal gains and it is up to Dolph to stop them. This is pretty bad, thanks mostly to the flat direction by Christopher Kulikowski. The guy has no concept on how to stage or film a fight scene. And who casts martial artist Gary Daniels and doesn't give him a big fight scene? Even more disappointing when you see former PM Entertainment exec Joseph Merhi is a producer on this. The acting is uniformly bad with Joe Sagal (as a rich dude funding the scientific expedition) and Ken Samuels (as the boat captain) being the stand outs. Seriously, how do guys this bad get cast and maintain some semblance of a career? One has to wonder if working with such a poor director is what finally made Dolph decide to step behind the camera (his directorial debut was the film made right after this). He has directed 4 films since RETROGRADE and the three I've seen have been infinitely more entertaining than this.

Yesterday I bought this DVD on sale in Blockbuster (Rio de Janeiro). The price was less than US$ 4,00 for an used DVD (called "previously seen"), which is very cheap for Brazilian usual prices. Unfortunately, I have just watched 10 minutes of the awfullest movie I have ever tried to see. Simply unbelievable how a producer can put his or her money in such a flick. Further, why the Brazilian distributor Europa bought such a garbage to distribute in Brazil? Meanwhile, in Brazil we have many important movies that have not been released on video or DVD, such as the work of Yasujito Ozu or "Fahrenheit 451" of Truffault. I saw another brave IMDb user that was capable of watching 30 minutes of this trash, and I would like to congratulate him for his courage. I would like to indicate this flick to "The Jerk of the Daily Votes". My vote is one.

Title (Brazil): "Retrograde"

"Retrograde" aka "Time Travelers" is a typical B movie, I had low expectations, but in the end it wasn't too bad. Dolph Lundgren plays a guy from the year 2200 who travels back to our time to avoid the discovery of an alien virus who killed most of mankind till 2200. The meteor which brought the virus to Earth was discovered by the crew of a ship near Antarctica. Now there's no denying we have loads of rubbish in this movie: they are searching for microorganisms in a lab that isn't sterile at all, the spaceship can also travel through time just like that, day and night near the South Pole last 12 hours each, and the hero's enemies don't really make sense when they try and stop him on his mission. However, he is in an interesting situation as he tries to protect the ship's crew, but on the other hand can't tell them he's from the future, so they only know he must be hiding something from them. Lots of fighting going on which one expects in a Dolph movie, and then there's the hostile environment and the nasty virus - a scratch could kill you. So... it isn't "The Thing", but I've seen worse.

I have watched many of Mr. Lundgren's films which I have managed to sit through until now. I don't know if it was the low budget or the cast no wait it was the whole idea of actually making this film, why did they bother! We can always do with more science fiction but this was so bad how could they, even my other half agreed with me to change the channel before we had watched the first quarter. By the time they're ship left for Earth arriving 200 years in the past and the crew mutinied I lost interest as the ship rolled in space and they were all still standing except for the ones being shot. Turning over the channel to watch Lethal Weapon 3 meant my evening was not spoilt.

Dolph In Space!....Now calm down.

So far unreleased in the U.S., (almost with good reason). It's for die-hard Dolph fans (like myself) only.

"Retrograde" is about John Foster (Lundgren) who has to stop a bunch of bad guys who are trying to take over a boat in the future. Yes, that sounds like a poor plot and it is, but deep down it looks like they were trying. The budget is low and the special effects are cheap, but Dolph and Gary put in decent performances.

The movie's worst sin was to not pit Dolph and Gary Daniels' characters to a fight to the death. That would've been awesome.

To tell you the truth, if you liked "Direct Action" you won't like "Retrograde", unless you are a Dolph completist.

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