By Geno McGahee
I love the idea of time travel…the idea of going back in time and fixing something is really appealing and in the 2004 film “THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT,” we get to see just what can happen, both positive and negative when this is done.
Evan (Ashton Kutcher) grew up with some major problems that forever hurt his life. Two major incidents needed to be changed in order to salvage the future. Kayleigh (Amy Smart), her brother Tommy (William Lee Scott) and their fat buddy Lenny (Elden Henson) get together with Evan and put a half stick of dynamite in a mailbox to blow it up. Before it goes off, a mother and infant go to the box to retrieve mail and tragedy strikes. With two deaths on their conscious, the group becomes relatively disturbed.
The second incident involves Kayleigh and Tommy’s dad, Mr. Miller (Eric Stoltz). Mr. Miller is a child molester and a child pornographer and his abuse of his children and Evan add to the future madness that would ruin so many lives. If those two incidents could be changed, things would be dandy.
Evan is now in college and has a morbidly obese gothic friend, Thumper (Ethan Suplee) that gets laid all the time by hot women. Now, I know that the actor playing the role has lost a great deal of weight since this part, but at this time, it is hard to believe that he could thumper any hot chick…let alone several. Hey, it’s a movie and there are really fat guys that get laid out there…I think…so this is just one of them.
As Evan explores his past, he sees the mess that is the life of Kayleigh, a girl that he still has feelings for and he realizes his ability to go into the past and change events, but with every change comes a new tragedy. At one point, Kayleigh kills herself, after another change, she’s a meth head hooker, and then when he finally gets her straight and wakes up with her beside him and horny, things fall apart and he ends up in prison where skinheads want to split him like firewood. To go from Amy Smart to having two bald ugly dudes demanding blow jobs…what a terrible twist of fate.
Before the skinheads could shove their dicks in his mouth, Evan changes the past again, and again, he’s screwed. He wakes up without arms and then finds himself in a nuthouse. He can’t get a break.
THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT is a really good flick and you’ll really enjoy it if you like time travel flicks. For instance, let’s say that you are the president of the TIMECOP fan club. If that is the case, you’ll get wood watching this. I didn’t get wood, but dammit, I did enjoy it!
Rating: 8/10
