Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15014 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-09-13
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 113 minutes

Synopsis
Playing God has its consequences, which is the theme of the tricky time-travel shockfest THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT. J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress, who share writing and directing credits, make a splash with a gripping script that never fails to throw twists and loops into the plot. Both thematically and visually, the film is similar to the perfect commercial filmmaking in the team's script for FINAL DESTINATION II.
Here, Evan Trehorn (Ashton Kutcher) is a college student who has suffered from blackouts and memory loss since he was a child. Tormented by deeply repressed childhood memories, he has visions of his best friend and first love Kayleigh (Amy Smart) as a child (Irene Gorovaia) whose Dad (Eric Stoltz) is a child molester, and whose brother Tommy has a serious sadistic streak. In search of greater clarity, Evan pores over his journals and is physically transported back in time where he is still a young boy (John P. Amedori) and has the ability to change what happened. But soon he realises that changing history has caused calamitous results elsewhere. A mesmerising thriller with a dark underlying mystery, THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT is delightfully chilling.

Customer Reviews

A rare gem in the modern age
Their comes a time these days were, not too often, we get a quite simply brilliant film. Where other money-grabbing movies fill the TV ads 24/7, The Butterfly Effect is a film that has been incredibly well thought out, featuring a story that doesn't get predictable, cheesy, or lame.

Ashton Kutcher play's a really good role, which I was quite suprised at considering he tends to play more of a 'dumb' or funny character, such as his character in 'Dude Where's my Car?' (great film by the way, if a little cheap!). I'll concur with other reviewers, this does get sad at times, but I'd rather watch a sad film that's been superbly directed than Sammy L Jackson blasting snakes inside a plane, because how often do we get a film these days that can tap into your emotions? How often do we even get a clever film that feels its like one big puzzle? Luckily, The Butterfly Effect has all this and more.

The plot is straightforward in an overview of the film, though it would be impossible to summarise the movie without actually giving away spoilers. However, for the record, the film starts off with Ashton Kutcher playing a troubled child who takes after his long lost father for having a crave for destruction or death. In the early parts of the film, we see through his childhood the dares he and his friends played on each other, and the consequences of their actions. Little did he know, the consequences wouldn't always add up to his poor memory, and so when he refers to his journals he wrote since he was 7 years old, he realises he has the ability to take himself back in time and transport himself into his body of the journal entry in question.

With this ability, he realises he can correct some of the mistakes that turned out for the worst. But, in typical time-travel fashion, one change leads to many other unexpected ones, and as he arrives from his memories, the situations change from amazing, bad, almost right, and... very sexy! The film keeps you on the edge of your seat to see whether he can make the right life for him self, or whether he'll be stuck in the mess he created..

For those that are a bit more sensitive than others, you may want to be filled in that this does have some 'graphic' scenes. Not in a gory sense, but in a psychological sense, such as one of the child's fathers expressing paedophilia, which I found was a brave move as a director. The heart warming part is that Ashton Kutcher's child character get's his own back on the father, which makes you want to punch the air in delight!

My favourite theme of this film romance side of it. Throughout, we see Ashton Kutchers character confused and longing for the love of his childhood sweetheart, though the perils of time-travel mean in one life he's in bed with her, then in the next she's a down-town prostitute. The end is in its own way very heart-warming though, and shows that not all films have to be predictable and lame.

It's not something you'd watch on your own, but if your on a date, this is a film to help you get 'closer' to that person next to you... Absolutely brilliant film with quality all the way through!

Almost perfect.
One of the best films I have seen in recent years, about time-travel and its consequences. Ashton Kutcher is a revelation and, although the film is slightly let down by a not very good ending this is not enough to derail what is a very good movie. If not for the ending, I would have given this movie 5 stars out of 5. Nonetheless, watch this movie!

The more you watch it, the more you'll want too!
Is where we are today directly related to the choices we made yesterday?
What if we could go back in time; reshape our futures by reshaping our pasts?
Who hasn't wondered what if but, well, what if . . .
. . . how can we be sure that the alterations we might choose to make wouldn't lead to greater catastrophes if we did?

A film to be enjoyed on different levels; the more you watch it, the deeper you're likely to go.

(would have made 5 stars for me, if they'd kept an alternative ending ~ watch the extras!!)