Whenever there are movies that involves multiple universes as well as when the characters go through repeated and looped sequences, I know I’ll be in for a good time. That and trying to mentally prepare myself to get my mind blown. Donnie Drako immediately comes to mind. Redux Redux, starring Michaela McManus, Stella Marcus, and Jeremy Holm, while not being exactly on the extreme end of the “mind blown” category, had some things going for it, but ultimately, it fell short on execution. When dealing with movies such as these, I believe there will always be things that can’t be explained away, and sometimes, there’s a certain charm in that. Yes, some bits can be a head-scratcher, but if done right, it forces the viewer to come to certain conclusions themselves, and whether they are right or wrong, not much harm is done. Redux Redux has some of those moments, but because the movie is just a little below average, they could have done themselves a favor by spending more time to expand on it.

So we have a woman whose main goal is to kill the same person over and over again in multiple universes/timelines. She’s able to do this due to having in her possession a highly advanced casket-like machine that can transport her to these different timelines. The very first question most users will likely have in seeing this is just how in the world did Irene, for intents and purposes a very ordinary enough citizen, come into possession of this highly advanced machine? The answer? We get none. In fact, we don’t even know who Irene really is other than a woman hellbent on getting revenge on the bastard who took her daughter and in trying to find a universe in which her daughter lives. Irene stumbles into and saves Mia, a victim of the crazy dude in one of the universe, and the story takes off from there.

I think one of the core elements that’s missing from a movie such as this is emotions. Irene’s mission is not exactly complicated. But I think the reason for the viewers to care is missing. Yes, her six(?) years old daughter was taken from her, but we get absolutely nothing about Irene’s previous life with her daughter, Anna. And I mean not even a single flashback scene of any sort. While we obviously want to root for her, this lack of emotional bond between her and her daughter feels like we are just along for the ride. Irene’s relationship with Mia does make up for this just a bit.

Some questions that undoubtedly pop up are numerous. In that scene where Mia makes a huge scene at the diner and Irene is forced to teleport in the machine outside the parking lot, the very next scene shows her driving away again in her rental Penske van. However, we know whenever Irene uses the machine, she gets teleported to another parallel universe and that her machine drops in at the exact spot from the universe she came from. Just how was Irene able to drag that big and very heavy machine with her? Next up is just how does the machine work? It wasn’t until the very end that we discover that Irene is able to selectively go to any universe she wants to, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to return to the universe she left Mia in and save her. Why did they even bring up the part about Irene being dead from suicide? I don’t see how that added anything to the story at all other than to bring up another mysterious thing to ponder about because they sure as shit weren’t going to explain it.

For a low-budget movie, Redux Redux I think is very serviceable. Clocking in at around one hour and fifty minutes or so, I did feel that some of that time could have been spent more wisely on fleshing out certain things. However, the fun is there, and if you just turn off your thinking for a bit, I think it will be much more enjoyable.