Movie Review: The Butterfly Effect
Apr 24th, 2008 by admin
- Director: Eric Bress & J. Mackye Gruber
- Genre: Drama/Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Thriller
- Year: 2004
I got this movie for Christmas and it had been sitting in my unwatched pile of DVD’s for all this time. Perhaps shallow, perhaps not, I have to admit to not watching this movie solely because of Kutcher, whom I do not like outside of the Punked! show. This weekend, however, having extra time and no movies to watch, I ended up picking it up and giving it a whirl.
In the end, I am going to have to put this movie in the same category in which I put “The Jacket” a movie with great potential, but in which they dropped the ball. The difference being that this time around the ending was actually interesting.
The theory that one slight thing can provoke a series of events is examined in this movie. Ashton Kutcher plays a college kid suffering of blackouts, and eventually discovers the ability to go back in time and change details of his past that end up shaping the future. His goal is to make the future bright for everyone he loves, but as he ends up finding out, often times the happiness of others comes at a heavy price.
The acting is sadly off and on in this movie, which leads me to believe that it is perhaps the director(s) that messed up. Both Ashton and Amy Smart play good and bad roles, there are some very convincing moments and some which are pitifully carried. At the same time more often than not, the dialogue is weak. When you add in to the mix that there are some scenes that seem very conveniently dropped…well it all leaves me thinking that at best, I can give this movie a mediocre score. Its fun to watch, but by no means a good movie.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Notes: I saw the Director’s Cut, so I am not exactly sure what the difference between it and the theatrical version is. The Director’s cut had some very brief nudity and a few violent moments. Adult content is splattered all over the plot, however, so I do not see the Theatrical Version being any more kid friendly.
Quote: Dr. Redfield: Just think of your mind as a movie, you can pause, rewind or slow down any details you want.