Unstoppable cyborg assassins, time travel, gun battles involving teenagers and American industrial wasteland - all that would give impression of PAST PERFECT being nothing more than a cheap imitation of THE TERMINATOR. However, the script by John Penney at least tried to do something more - to seriously explore the causes of juvenile delinquency in modern world and give his opinion in the millennia-old debate between proponents of pre- determinism and free will. Unfortunately, Penney's answer to this question comes in the form of convoluted plot elements that suddenly appear half way through the film. Credibility of PAST PERFECT is further diminished by Penney's refusal to deal with the issues of time travel paradox. Finally, any serious meaning in this film is drowned by the cheesy special effects, obligatory car chases, explosions and gun battles and generally bad direction by Jonathan Heap. The cast is, on the other hand, strong for this kind of films and, apart from always underrated Eric Roberts, features respected character actors like Nick Mancuso and Saul Rubinek. Newcomer Laurie Holden (who would later become the star in TV shows like THE X-FILES and MAGNIFICENT SEVEN) does her best to put some humanity in a thankless stereotypical role of our hero's female partner. However, young Mark Hildreth is simply terrible as Rusty and his role is even worse compared with acting talents mentioned above. And this impression can be made about almost every other element of this film that deserved its obscurity.