The Butterfly Effect

Ravi · January 11, 2004, 11:40:42 AM

Quote from: BrainSushiAm I the only one who got a kick out of seeing Ethan Suplee as The Big Fat Goth in this trailer?

To me he'll always be Frankie from Boy Meets World.

ono · January 11, 2004, 12:32:43 PM

Quote from: Ravi
Quote from: BrainSushiAm I the only one who got a kick out of seeing Ethan Suplee as The Big Fat Goth in this trailer?

To me he'll always be Frankie from Boy Meets World.

That's what I was going to say.

Film Student · January 17, 2004, 11:08:02 AM

Sorry P, I looked for a thread on this but somehow missed it at first... anywho, here ya go, in it's PROPER place...

Went to a press screening of this piece of cinematic excrement last week, and I have to say it's quite possibly the worst film I've ever seen.

I feel the need to speak up about this because I was recently perusing AICN, and a critic that I normally (for the most part) respect was raving on and on about how "brilliant" this film was. The critic was Quint, I'm sure most of you are familiar with him... What worries me is his implication that this piece-of-shit film was getting fantastic buzz, at Sundance of all places... Am I off my rocker? Has anyone seen this abomination and enjoyed it? Is the world so fucked up now that not even a film literate asshole like Quint can recognize amateur garbage when he sees it? If this film gets good reviews from the legit critics, I'm gonna kill myself...

Now, some may be asking, what's so terrible about this film? Let me tell you.

1. Ashton Kutcher couldn't act his way out of a fuckin' paper bag. For proof, of course, see the thread that recounts how Cameron Crowe fired him from Elizabethtown for this very reason. Quint, on the other hand, thinks that TBE fully proved Kutcher's ability to take on "Serious" roles.

2. The story is trying so hard to be a 'hip' indie film a la Donnie Darko and Memento, that it forgets about little things like consistency, character development, and plot cohesion. Quint, on the other end, says "this is the most intelligent, unpredictable, unformulaic sucker punch of a movie this side of Donnie Darko." NO, it's the biggest piece of shit/ waste of time this side of "Glitter."

3. I've now lost all respect for Melora Walters. She is TERRIBLE. Possibly the worst performance in the entire film, which is saying A LOT.

It's late, I'm tired and I'm quickly losing the ability to articulate my thoughts and opinions in an intelligent way, so I'm just gonna say this:

I don't normally get this worked up over a shitty movie. They get made all the time, it's part of life. But go see this film, and tell me it's not the most appalling piece of trash to be greenlit this side of "Ishtar."

That is all.

Pas · January 17, 2004, 11:09:47 AM

"I'VE NEVER SEEN A BRAIN LIKE THAT"
-Phony Doctor from the Butterfly Effect

tpfkabi · January 19, 2004, 11:01:29 PM

the second i saw the trailer i thought, "someone is trying to capitalize on the cultism of Donnie Darko....." and someone else above has mentioned DD too.
hhmmm, so i wonder if a lot of people will be thinking DD is a rip off of this film when it is rereleased this summer? or perhaps it could point people to it and then they see it is a superior film......

who knows the minds of john and Jane Q. viewer?

Chest Rockwell · January 21, 2004, 06:36:11 PM

Butterfly Effect looks like shit. Donnie Darko will be much better, but even then I'm not a terrible fan of Donnie Darko. Either way, anything with Ashton Kutcher can't be that good. Let's not kid ourselves here. Seriously.

billybrown · January 21, 2004, 06:51:16 PM

Quote from: bigideasthe second i saw the trailer i thought, "someone is trying to capitalize on the cultism of Donnie Darko....." and someone else above has mentioned DD too.
hhmmm, so i wonder if a lot of people will be thinking DD is a rip off of this film when it is rereleased this summer? or perhaps it could point people to it and then they see it is a superior film......

who knows the minds of john and Jane Q. viewer?

Regarding whether people will think DD is a rip off the DUMP Effect when it gets re-released this summer... ah, NO.

tpfkabi · January 21, 2004, 09:40:49 PM

Quote from: billybrown
Quote from: bigideasthe second i saw the trailer i thought, "someone is trying to capitalize on the cultism of Donnie Darko....." and someone else above has mentioned DD too.
hhmmm, so i wonder if a lot of people will be thinking DD is a rip off of this film when it is rereleased this summer? or perhaps it could point people to it and then they see it is a superior film......

who knows the minds of john and Jane Q. viewer?

Regarding whether people will think DD is a rip off the DUMP Effect when it gets re-released this summer... ah, NO.

notice...i didn't say you and I, but none other than John and Jane Q. Viewer.......hopefully it kinda points people in DD's direction

pete · January 21, 2004, 10:04:10 PM

I still can't get over the staind song in the trailer.

coopxr · January 25, 2004, 12:42:50 PM

So did anyone see it this weekend? I personally thought it didn't make much sense, but overall entertaining. Donnie Darko makes this movie look like shit though.

Finn · January 25, 2004, 01:42:25 PM

This movie really didn't work for me. There were too many scenarios and the acting was pretty bad (even Melora Walters). If they had a better script with some better actors, it could have been very good. Overall, I'd say an interesting thumbs down.

Chest Rockwell · January 25, 2004, 04:28:21 PM

Quote from: Sydney (Dr. Strangelove)If they had a better script with some better actors, it could have been very good.

That's quite a huge chunk of the movie there. Was the directing sufficient enough?

pete · January 25, 2004, 05:38:20 PM

I dunno, time-traveling through staring at words really, really hard, has gotta be by far the most unsophisticated time-traveling method ever in the film history. But the special effects did look pretty convincing, the part where they used matting to make it appear that Ashton Kutcher could read.

Ravi · January 25, 2004, 11:05:38 PM

Quote from: peteBut the special effects did look pretty convincing, the part where they used matting to make it appear that Ashton Kutcher could read.

Haha

billybrown · January 27, 2004, 12:00:14 AM

Quote from: CinephileYeah, I'm trying my best to keep that out of my head since FD2 was just a dull retread of the first one (which I liked a lot for the premise).. so maybe they're going to make something interesting here. If Peter Berg can go from Very Bad Things to The Rundown, I think its possible... I'm trying to keep the faith...

Q. How in the world was The Rundown more interesting than Very Bad Things?!

A. Oh, oh, I know, Very Bad Things didn't have Stiffler and The Rock starring in a dumb action film.