Ouch not a nice review for Butterfly Effect
PARK CITY, Utah -- The Butterfly Effect is a lot like its star, Ashton Kutcher -- desperate for respect, completely without substance and very, very goofy.
It tries to be many things, fails at most of them, but emerges as surprisingly serviceable entertainment, a silly slick piece of trash. Don't bother looking for depth -- everyone's playing at the shallow end of the pool here.
Kutcher stars as Evan Treborn, a man suffering from mysterious gaps in his memory, blackouts he had when he was a child. His mother (Melora Walters) worries because his father experienced similar blackouts until he was finally locked up in the nuthouse. With the help of a shrink and a diary he's kept since he was young, Evan learns he has the ability to thrust himself back in time to when the blackouts occurred. More than simply reliving memories, he is able to change the past and affect the present.
Inhabiting his childhood body, Evan tries to correct the wrongs that have led to tragedy in his current reality -- not just for himself, but also for his childhood sweetheart Kayleigh (Amy Smart), her brother Tommy (William Lee Scott) and their friend, Lenny (Elden Henson). But in trying to make everyone's life better, he only succeeds at making them worse. Time and again, he returns to key childhood moments, each time re-configuring his present-day self.
Much of the film's humour -- and it is intentional -- comes from the concept that changing one event can turn Kayleigh from a sorority girl to a junkie or Tommy from a psycho to an overachieving college student.
This is the debut film from the writing-directing team of Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber(Final Destination 2). Like that film, The Butterfly Effect works effectively as an elaborate puzzle of death, betrayal and redemption. Where they go wrong, however, is in their use of exploitive, extreme violence and inclusion of child abuse as a plot point.
Kutcher is one of the film's executive producers, and it's obvious this is a glorified audition tape he hopes will land him more serious, dramatic work. Time and again, he's called on to emote, something he does better than I expected, which is to say, better than the carpet in my hotel room.
He's aided by a supporting cast -- with the exception of Walters, who is inexplicably terrible -- that approaches the material with conviction and credibility.
Whether the film succeeds at the box office remains a question. Kutcher's popularity ensures a solid opening, but what will his predominantly teenage fans make of this odd time-trip tale?
It's not exactly Dude, Where's My Car Again?
PARK CITY, Utah -- The Butterfly Effect is a lot like its star, Ashton Kutcher -- desperate for respect, completely without substance and very, very goofy.
It tries to be many things, fails at most of them, but emerges as surprisingly serviceable entertainment, a silly slick piece of trash. Don't bother looking for depth -- everyone's playing at the shallow end of the pool here.
Kutcher stars as Evan Treborn, a man suffering from mysterious gaps in his memory, blackouts he had when he was a child. His mother (Melora Walters) worries because his father experienced similar blackouts until he was finally locked up in the nuthouse. With the help of a shrink and a diary he's kept since he was young, Evan learns he has the ability to thrust himself back in time to when the blackouts occurred. More than simply reliving memories, he is able to change the past and affect the present.
Inhabiting his childhood body, Evan tries to correct the wrongs that have led to tragedy in his current reality -- not just for himself, but also for his childhood sweetheart Kayleigh (Amy Smart), her brother Tommy (William Lee Scott) and their friend, Lenny (Elden Henson). But in trying to make everyone's life better, he only succeeds at making them worse. Time and again, he returns to key childhood moments, each time re-configuring his present-day self.
Much of the film's humour -- and it is intentional -- comes from the concept that changing one event can turn Kayleigh from a sorority girl to a junkie or Tommy from a psycho to an overachieving college student.
This is the debut film from the writing-directing team of Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber(Final Destination 2). Like that film, The Butterfly Effect works effectively as an elaborate puzzle of death, betrayal and redemption. Where they go wrong, however, is in their use of exploitive, extreme violence and inclusion of child abuse as a plot point.
Kutcher is one of the film's executive producers, and it's obvious this is a glorified audition tape he hopes will land him more serious, dramatic work. Time and again, he's called on to emote, something he does better than I expected, which is to say, better than the carpet in my hotel room.
He's aided by a supporting cast -- with the exception of Walters, who is inexplicably terrible -- that approaches the material with conviction and credibility.
Whether the film succeeds at the box office remains a question. Kutcher's popularity ensures a solid opening, but what will his predominantly teenage fans make of this odd time-trip tale?
It's not exactly Dude, Where's My Car Again?
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