ATTN: Ugly; time travel + ashton kutcher = major suckage

[2Marlon2Brando]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movi...fly/index.html

Review: 'Butterfly' not effective
Alleged thriller inspires derisive laughter
By Paul Clinton
CNN Reviewer
Thursday, January 22, 2004 Posted: 6:04 PM EST (2304 GMT)

Ashton Kutcher in "The Butterfly Effect."

(CNN) -- The new film "The Butterfly Effect" premiered last week at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. It got the same reaction there that it did at a private screening in Los Angeles two weeks ago -- laughter in all the wrong places.

Not a good sign for a thriller, but wholly deserved.

Starring Ashton Kutcher -- whose career is currently in overdrive -- this overwrought, over-the-top, ham-fisted potboiler will do nothing to advance his big-screen aspirations.

The basic premise is interesting. "The Butterfly Effect" theory is that a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the world can eventually precipitate a reaction on the other side -- that the small wisp of air the butterfly affected can, in the future, turn into a hurricane.

In the film, Evan Treborn (Kutcher) realizes he can travel back in time to change the past -- but every time he does so, the future changes because of his action in altering events.

A clever idea. Too bad it doesn't work in this movie.

Abusive events
Treborn has had a horrific childhood, full of sexual and emotional abuse. Throughout his life, he has suffered from memory gaps which have obscured the bad events happening in his life.

Under the care of a psychologist, he's been keeping journals detailing his everyday life. He gets through adolescence, and when he gets to college, he thinks his troubled past is finally behind him.


Kutcher with Melora Walters in "The Butterfly Effect."
Then he starts reading the journals. Suddenly, he's whipped back in time with full knowledge of the present.

At this point Treborn decides not only to alter his own past, but that of his three best friends. They're the overweight Lenny (Elden Henson), childhood sweetheart Kayleigh (Amy Smart) and her deeply disturbed brother Tommy (William Lee Scott). They've all been involved in some very dark and extremely violent situations, particularly sexual abuse at the hands of Kayleigh and Tommy's father, played by Eric Stoltz.

But every time Treborn goes back and tries to stop the abuse, everything goes horribly wrong. And this is also where the film's screenwriters and co-directors, Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, get derailed.

Extremities
Every character is laughably extreme. Kayleigh goes from lonely waitress to crack whore to sorority girl, and each time the characterization is so overblown it's ridiculous: She's not just a crack whore, she's the crack whore from hell. She's not just a clean-cut sorority girl, she's the ideal clean-cut sorority girl.

Worse, the impact of the transformations is lost. In one of the altered pasts, Kutcher's character loses both arms during an explosion. The audience reaction was laughter. Laughing at an amputee is not a good sign.

Another cause of undesired humor is Treborn's college roommate Thumper (Ethan Suplee), who appears in most of the alternate realities. He's a fashion victim dedicated to the Goth look. Of course, he's not just Goth, he's GOTH.

This extreme portrayals are true for every actor, at every stage of life. There is no gray area here; everything is drawn in black and white. Subtlety, obviously, is something these two filmmakers are not familiar with.

It's a shame. Kutcher, who is best known for his comedy, is fairly good in the haphazard drama, and Stoltz is usually an estimable actor. The movie must have looked a whole lot better on the page than it does on the screen.

The director of photography, Matthew F. Leonetti, tries his best to give this film a supernatural feel. He uses every film stock Kodak makes attempting to give each of the movie's different time frames a unique feel; he plays around with color; he employs hand-held camera moves and high shutter speeds. Unfortunately, these efforts do nothing but highlight the script's innate mediocrity.

Word of mouth at Sundance about this film was not positive. It will most likely do no better in the open market. The cinematic graveyard called January is a most appropriate place for "The Butterfly Effect."

[Geek USA]

hey man

[Fattening Ass]

paint whore !

[2Marlon2Brando]

[13]

shocker

[blackfaerie]

hmm....


right.

[noir cat]

FUCK!
I tried not to read the whole CNN Review because I didn't want any give-aways as I wanted to see the movie. I ended up reading the whole thing anyway because I was trying to see whether or not the review put Kutcher down... but I just think he should be given a chance and that he shouldn't be type-casted. I think I'm going to see it anyway, tomorrow if possible. It's not like there are more promising movies.

Besides, I enjoy laughter, appropriate or not. I just finished the review by the Rolling Stones (it got a good review). I guess the only way to find out is to watch it... besides, I think Kutcher's hot so I will be happy both ways. : )

[noir cat]

Originally posted by Hyperbole
That movie looks so fucking stupid.

"Every time I go back in time, something gets messed up!"

Well, Ashton, I know when I go back in time...
ugh.

I hear ya.

[Geek USA]

[2Marlon2Brando]

Originally posted by Geek USA
gif

THAT IS AWESOME!

[Geek USA]

Originally posted by 2Marlon2Brando


THAT IS AWESOME!

omg 4 u

[q149]

ashton kutcher + anything = major suckage

[Mayfuck]

[Mooney]

that dude's name is evan. my name is evan. people have said that i look like that guy. i will take this as a sign to not watch this movie!

[noyen]

Originally posted by Mayfuck

i don't want to kill myself anymore.

[q149]

Originally posted by noyen


i don't want to kill myself anymore.

lol

[2Marlon2Brando]

http://www.crankycritic.com/archive0...flyeffect.html

The Butterfly Effect
Starring Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart
Written and Directed by J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress
website: www.butterflyeffectmovie.com


IN SHORT: Guaranteed to make your brain hurt. [Rated R for violence, sexual content, language and brief drug use. 113 minutes]

Kejioa iolkmaz dal The Butterfly Effect aidjij akouie. Kiaen, aieoin leqncoi dlldn ocwnop jaj ejdjkk fjlaliem tja lwmm oj hebab caioe nku Evan (Ashton Kutcher) aune na aniek kzi moi wiun oskke jid. Meio Kayleigh (Amy Smart) emm iocne uigane aoen qoe dbdoe elsoi kleo akdoi mqn icioi kelknn silaln ianel akm. Kakdll iaune lwkjb cfcwn icu aksj cueob cjkek.

It's just as simple as that.

Those of you who can figure out the above 'graph are perfectly suited to plant for The Butterfly Effect, a film which is so self-involved with its clever endgame and overkill of editing and special effects that it forgets a most important aspect of basic filmmaking: the audience has got to give a damn about the characters. The 20something femme to our right said " the guy who wrote this is demented!" The 20something male to our left said "I don't have any idea what's going on." 40something Cranky agreed with both of 'em and slogged through the life story of Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher), whose memory blackouts throughout childhood hid traumatic events from his fragile little mind.

We should point out that the mathematics involved in following the time trek of the flashbacks in this film require at least a seventh grade education. Just warning you.

Circa age 8, Evan (Logan Lerman) Kayleigh (Sarah Widdows) and Tommy (Cameron Bright) are bestest friends. Evan has blackouts during which awful things seem to happen -- if psychosis can be inherited then Evan is a prime candidate. His father is locked away in a loony bin and, when he first sees his son at age 7, mutters something about "this has to end with me" and tried to throttle the boy. Nasty stuff happens. Evan is told to write a daily journal as a means to, hopefully, help his memory overcome the blackouts.

Circa age 13 Evan (John Patrick Amedori) Kayleigh (Irene Gorovaia) and Tommy (Jesse James) and fat kid Lenny (Kevin Schmidt) find a major sized firecracker and set it off, with traumatic results. Evan keeps writing in his journals. Every once in a while, while reading his journals, it's as if the words do their own kind of voodoo dance and events change! Thus, the Butterfly Effect.

What is The Effect? Some meteorologist somewhere suggested that, if a butterfly flaps its wings in Beijing in March, then, by August, hurricane wind patterns in the Atlantic will be completely different. As far as this flick goes, Evan's daily journal is the key to a gimmick that returns him to the events of the earlier time and gives him the ability to change them. Every change he makes screws up his life even further and confuses him even more.

Like, back at age 8, Kayleigh's father (Eric Stoltz) is shooting a "Robin Hood" film with his new video camera. Sure, li'l Evan and Kayleigh aren't quite sure why they have to be naked in the film and a jealous Tommy is busy upstairs ripping the heads off of his sister's dolls and no one ever spoke about that experience again. But young Evan starts talking like a much older man and scares the crap out of drunken dad.

Or the grown up Evan, who tries to piece everything back together even as Tommy (William Lee Scott) is off screen doing time for reasons we won't reveal. Tommy's sister Kayleigh (Amy Smart) is the light in Evan's life that he does nothing about until it's too late. What happens to her changes a couple of times and we're not going to spill those either. Evan's fat friend Lenny (Elden Henson) and fat college roommate Thumper (Ethan Suplee) have a whole bunch of different roles as things change all around them as Evan mucks about in time.

How the time travel gimmick works is never explained. Stuff happens, you know? We're not going to get much into the suicide and murder and man on man prison attacks and fatal explosions and the dog in the bag and the slaughter of the innocents that make the lives of the grownups in The Butterfly Effect look like Final Destination 3, without the overriding Spirit of Death. That's an appropriate comparison since writer/ directors J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress only previous experience was to pen Final Destination 2.

There, do you understand now?

Nothing in The Butterfly Effect makes much sense until you make it to the very end. The bigger problem is that, by the time it deigns to clue the audience in on why none of it seems to make any sense whatsoever, said audience has long since ceased to give a damn. We call that "being too clever for its own good."

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Ten Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to The Butterfly Effect, he would have paid . . .

$1.00

The Butterfly Effect is such a mess that you should take a large crowd of friends along, if you waste your money on it, so that you can try and figure it all out once it's over. As for us, our head hurts

[Irrelevant]

Originally posted by 2Marlon2Brando
http://www.crankycritic.com/archive0...flyeffect.html

the same guy gave Elephant a zero. and called Dreamcatcher "Best Stephen King based movie since Carrie."

[Irrelevant]

i want to see this movie for comedic value.

[StillBecomingApart]

Me too.

[ravenguy2000]

The guy in the Hartford Advocate gave this shit 4 and 1/2 stars. He's the most horrible critic I've ever had the displeasure of reading.

[lawson]

i was laughing at this piece of crap in the previews 2 months ago. the perfect crappy dramatic movie for all his high school fans to think is deep

[Ugly]

http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/mo...ly_effect.html

Butterfly Effect, The
A Film Review by James Berardinelli

*** outta ****

It is likely that a number of reviews are going to describe The Butterfly Effect as a "science fiction" movie. Nothing could be further from the truth - little that occurs during the course of this film relates to science or technology, and to force The Butterfly Effect into the genre is a lazy and unwarranted approach. Although there is a "Twilight Zone" feel to the proceedings, it's worth noting that many episodes of Rod Serling's classic TV series gyrated along the line between fantasy and horror, and that's exactly where The Butterfly Effect belongs.

That being said, this is a compelling and intriguing movie that toys with the powers of choice and chance in a way that is not overused. Sure, there are plot holes (some of which are quite substantial), but most of them don't become apparent until long after the end credits have rolled and the film is being analyzed in a post-screening discussion. The ending is a cheat, and Ashton Kutcher is perhaps not the best choice for the lead role. Nevertheless, despite these flaws, I don't hesitate to recommend the film. In the cinematic wasteland that is January, this stands tall.

The Butterfly Effect takes its name from a premise of chaos theory: a butterfly flapping its wings in North Africa can cause a typhoon half-a-world away (see Jurassic Park for a similar explanation). In this case, we're not faced with a question of spatial causality, but of how re-arranging the time stream can result in a slip into an alternate reality. By following the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) principal, The Butterfly Effect manages to move forward without confusing or losing its audience. This isn't one of those films where a moment's inattention will result in total bewilderment, although it is a good idea not to take a trip to the snack counter.

Evan Treborn (Kutcher) is a 20-year old college student with a bigger parcel of emotional baggage than most young Americans. Since age seven, he has been experiencing blackouts at moments of high emotional stress, such as when a friend of the family molested him, or when he and some friends became involved in a prank-gone-bad. Evan learns that, by concentrating on the words in a journal he composed while growing up, he can transport himself back in time and re-live certain events. Sometimes, he can make changes; sometimes he can't. When a childhood friend, Kayleigh Miller (Amy Smart), commits suicide because of something Evan does, he becomes obsessed with reworking her life. And, when he does, he learns that he might have been better off not meddling with the complex formula of cause-and-effect.

Co-directors Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber (who also co-wrote the screenplay) have fashioned a movie that not only entertains in its own right, but asks us to consider the consequences of our own actions. (This is their first outing behind the camera; they collaborated on the screenplay for Final Destination 2, an act for which I am willing to forgive them.) There's a little Sliding Doors in this film, although, unlike the earlier movie, The Butterfly Effect is not a romantic comedy, nor does it show us the parallel evolution of different universes. This film follows a single incarnation of Evan as he meddles in his own time stream, changing his future from grim to grimmer, even as he remembers all of the permutations he has been through.

For Ashton Kutcher, this is obviously an attempt to shed his "Punk'd"/"'70s Show" image and prove that he can really act. However, while Kutcher doesn't embarrass himself, he is miscast. He lacks the gravitas necessary to pull off the part with complete conviction; someone like Billy Crudup or Jared Leto (whose turn in Requiem for a Dream was remarkable) might have been more convincing as Evan. Nevertheless, Kutcher isn't so bad that he torpedoes the entire project. On the acting side, he is joined by other up-and-coming (read "hot") performers like Amy Smart, William Lee Scott (as Kayleigh's brother), and Elden Henson (as Lenny, another of Evan's childhood friends). The senior member of the cast is Eric Stoltz, who is cast as the movie's sleaziest character.

The ending is weak, and may be the result of the filmmakers writing themselves into a corner and not wanting to conclude things in a burst of nihilistic excess. Yet, even though it's a cheat, it retains a degree of resonance, primarily because it doesn't seek to sabotage the dark tone. In many ways, The Butterfly Effect is about regrets, and the closing sequences emphasize this. The film is engrossing enough to minimize such misgivings, however; few who enjoy unconventional pictures and see The Butterfly Effect will regret the experience.


(Note: the studio made them change the ending, the DVD will have a "darker" one.)

[Ugly]

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=16794


Ahoy, squirts! Quint here... To be honest, this crusty seaman is at a loss at the moment.

I'm just in from a screening of THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT, that Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart flick. You remember the trailer... made it look like a forgettable star vehicle for the gossip "It" man of the moment... Of course you do. I remember the trailer, too, which is the reason why I almost didn't go to the screening tonight. Dishes are piling up, I'm just getting into my second read-through of King and Straub's THE TALISMAN, I just got the upcoming Anchor Bay DVD release of Gilliam's classic fantasy film TIME BANDITS to watch... I had a lot of excuses to blow off the screening.

Ultimately, the theater it was playing at was close and I knew that I wouldn't pay to see the movie, so if I was going to have a go at the film, this would be it. Sweet God, am I glad I made that decision.

This movie is not what the trailer makes it out to be! From this point on, I want all of you folks to swear to me you'll forget that trailer even exists and go see this film. This is the best intelligent, unpredictable, unformulaic sucker-punch of a movie this side of DONNIE DARKO.

I'm serious! I know it's hard to believe, but you're just going to have to take my word on it. The script by writer/directors Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber is astoundingly smart and perfectly paced. The acting it top notch all across the board, which came as a surprise to me. I had an idea that Kutcher could do some good dramatic work if given the right material, but I really didn't expect much from Amy Smart, other than some good eye-candy.

They both have difficult jobs to do in the film. They have to keep their characters the same at their core, but ultimately a reflection of their current surroundings and memories. Smart really pulled off some tough scenes, which came a huge personal shock.

The film is also filled with great character actors. Eric Stoltz plays... well, a memorable character. Ethan Suplee is a gas, Elden Henson has a small, but wildly divergent role and proves he's one of the best young character actors out there. I'd love to see him cast in a film as Philip Seymour Hoffman's little brother! The kids they cast are really great, as well.

I'm in a bit of a difficult place here at the moment. I was planning on writing up a nice little synopses of the film and tell you exactly how harsh and gritty the flick really is, but I also don't want to expose to what lengths the film actually goes, thus ruining the journey of discovery you will take if you decide to give the movie a shot.

Let me just say that the trailer does a good job of setting up the basic story, but in no way prepares you for how smart the script is, how sharp the direction is, how spot on the acting is or how fucked up the movie really is underneath everything. This is a film you'd expect to be made on the cheap, a film festival gem up there with MEMENTO in the cleverness in the telling of the story. The fact that it's a big studio release really blows my mind.

I know I'm fighting a bit of an uphill battle with this review. There will be those that just can't fathom Ashton Kutcher headlining an intelligent, finely crafted studio movie. There will be the poor semi-illiterate talkback assholes that'll point to the ads for the film on the site. They'll scream and shout conspiracy even when I say I don't get paid for my work on the site and see not one red cent of that advertising money.

Ultimately, I'm shouting at the world from my little perch that this is a great movie. You don't know the names Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber yet, but if they continue on this trend, us fanboys will be drooling over their next project just as we do with Richard Kelly and David Lynch and Christopher Nolan and Darren Aronofsky.

Ignore the trailer and if you don't trust my word, keep your eye out for the reviews from Sundance. The few people I talked with after the screening had their jaws hanging open. This is the little film that snuck through. It's a sleeper hit for me, but I really can't say whether or not the film will be a financial success. We had lots of old ladies walk out of the screening. The people who look at the trailer and say, "Aw, that cute little boy I keep seeing on E! and Access Hollywood is in a romantic movie..." will find themselves scratching their head (or just plain walking out of the movie). The people on the other side of the coin probably won't even make the effort to see it unless urged on by friends and critics they trust.

For those who moan about Hollywood not producing anything original or that every studio movie seems cookie-cutter, it would be a mistake to miss this movie. I was blown away by it as I'm sure many of you out there will be. This film opens on the 23rd, a little more than a week from this writing. Until then, keep your eyes open for other views of the film. They might not all be positive, but you won't find many saying this film is typical Hollywood fare, I can guarantee you that.

Anyway, that's enough from me. Go see this flick. It's movies like these that need and deserve our support. It's a damn shame New Line's Marketing Dept. will hinder the success of the film by presenting it as something it isn't, but nevertheless, I urge you to give the film a shot. I think you'll be surprised.

-Quint

[Ugly]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert...terfly23f.html

The Butterfly Effect

By Roger Ebert



Chaos theory teaches us that small events can have enormous consequences. An opening title informs us that butterfly flapping its wings in Asia could result in a hurricane halfway around the world. Yes, although given the number of butterflies and the determination with which they flap their little wings, isn't it extraordinary how rarely that happens? "The Butterfly Effect" applies this theory to the lives of four children whose early lives are marred by tragedy. When one of them finds that he can go back in time and make changes, he tries to improve the present by altering the past.

The characters as young adults are played by Ashton Kutcher, as Evan, a college psych major; Amy Smart and William Lee Scott as Kayleigh and Tommy, a brother and sister with a pedophile father; and Elden Henson as Lenny, their friend. The story opens in childhood, with little Evan seriously weird. His drawings at kindergarten are sick and twisted (and also, although nobody ever mentions it, improbably good for a child). He has blackouts, grabs kitchen knives, frightens his mother (Melora Walters), becomes a suitable case for treatment.

A shrink suggests that he keep a daily journal. This he does, although apparently neither the shrink nor the mother ever read it, or their attention might have been snagged by entries about how Mr. Miller (Eric Stoltz), father of Kayleigh and Tommy, forced them all to act in kiddie porn movies. Evan hangs onto the journals, and one day while reading an old one at school he's jerked back into the past and experiences a previously buried memory.

One thing he'd always done, after moving from the old neighborhood, was to promise Kayleigh "I'll come back for you." (This promise is made with handwriting as precocious as his drawing skills.) The flashbacks give him a chance to do that, and eventually he figures out that by reading a journal entry, he can return to that page in his life and relive it. The only problem is, he then returns to a present that is different than the one he departed from -- because his actions have changed everything that happened since.

This is a premise not unknown to science fiction, where one famous story has a time-traveler stepping on a cockroach millions of years ago and wiping out humanity. The remarkable thing about the changes in "The Butterfly Effect" is that they're so precisely aimed: They apparently affect only the characters in the movie. From one reality to the next, Kayleigh goes from sorority girl to hooker, Evan zaps from intellectual to frat boy to prisoner, and poor Lenny spends some time as Kayleigh's boyfriend and more time as a hopeless mental patient.

Do their lives have no effect on the wider world? Apparently not. External reality remains the same, apart from minute adjustments to college and prison enrollment statistics. But it's unfair to bring such logic to bear on the story, which doesn't want to really study the butterfly effect, but simply to exploit a device to jerk the characters through a series of startling life changes. Strange, that Evan can remember everything that happened in the alternate lifetimes, even though by the theory of the movie, once he changes something, it didn't happen.

Ashton Kutcher has become a target lately; the gossip press can't forgive him for dating Demi Moore, although that's a thing many sensible young men dream of doing. He was allegedly fired from a recent film after the director told him that he needed acting lessons. Can he act? He can certainly do everything that's required in "The Butterfly Effect." He plays a convincing kid in his early 20s, treating each new reality with a straightforward realism when most actors would be tempted to hyperventilate under the circumstances.

The plot provides a showcase for acting talent, since the actors have to play characters who go through wild swings (even Evan's mom has a wild ride between good health and death's door).

And there's a certain grim humor in the way the movie illustrates the truth that you can make plans, but you can't make results. Some of the futures Even returns to are so seriously wrong from his point of view that he's lucky he doesn't just disappear from the picture, having been killed at 15, say, because of his meddling.

I enjoyed "The Butterfly Effect," up to a point. That point was reached too long before the end of the movie. There's so much flashing forward and backward, so many spins of fate, so many chapters in the journals, that after awhile I felt that I, as well as time, was being jerked around.

Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, the co-writers and directors, also collaborated on "Final Destination 2" (2003), another film in which fate works in mysterious way, its ironies to reveal. I gave that half of a star, so "The Butterfly Effect" is five times better. And outside, the wind is rising ...

[2Marlon2Brando]

Will you ever admit that this movie is horrible?

I bet that if you go see it and it blows, you are still going to say that it was a great movie to try and prove me wrong.