Flashback

Having Dennis Hopper portray a '60s rebel in a modern-day context is a wonderful casting coup, and Kiefer Sutherland is perfect as the uptight yuppie FBI rookie trying to get Hopper to trial in the Northwest. But "Flashback" is a road picture that takes a wrong turn and never gets back on the right path.

There are some wonderfully funny moments along the way, most provided by Hopper, but in the end the picture is torpedoed by a dumb plot twist about halfway through and an idiotic, formula shoot-'em-up ending.

Hopper is Huey Walker, a radical known for his pranks and "love-one-another" speeches, but most famous for a practical joke played on Spiro Agnew in Spokane, Wash., when the latter was vice president.

The FBI arrested Walker after the incident, but he escaped — and for 20 years he has eluded authorities. Now he's back in custody, and young John Buckner (Sutherland) is assigned to get Walker to Spokane where he will stand trial.

Since weather is interfering with air transportation they take the train, and during their journey Buckner is tricked by Walker, who assumes Buckner's identity and dumps him off in a small Northwest jail run by corrupt politician Cliff DeYoung.

It is at this point that the film goes awry, as DeYoung becomes a psycho killer bent on destroying both Buckner and Walker, causing them to join forces and hit the road. If that's not contrived enough, how about this — the small town just happens to be near Buckner's childhood home, and he offers a revelation about himself that starkly changes the relationship between Buckner and Walker.

The normally reliable Richard Masur and Michael McKean are pretty awful as a pair of former hippies trying to relive their pasts, but Paul Dooley is good as Sutherland's boss, Carol Kane has a nice bit as a hippie who never left the '60s behind her and there are some wonderful old songs filling the background. But it is Hopper who shines — he alone is worth the price of admission.

It's just too bad the film's second half is so loaded with movie cliches — cliches we've seen far too often in both better and worse pictures.

"Flashback" is rated R for violence and profanity. There is also a scene on the train with a prostitute and drug use.