Genre: Thriller, Drama, Sci-Fi, Time Travel, Murder, Mental Institution, Prostitution, School / Campus, Gore, Prison, Space, Supernatural, Suspense, Psychodrama
Tagline: Change one thing, change everything.
Plot: Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher) has lost track of time. From an early age, crucial moments of his life have disappeared into a black hole of forgetting, his boyhood marred by a series of terrifying events he can’t remember. What remains is the ghost of memory and the broken lives around him – the lives of his childhood friends, Kayleigh (Amy Smart), Lenny (Elden Henson) and Tommy (William Lee Scott).Throughout his childhood, Evan was under the care of a psychologist who encouraged him to keep a journal, detailing the events of his day-to-day life. Now in college, Evan reads from one of his journals and finds himself thrust suddenly, inexplicably back in time. He comes to realize that the notebooks he keeps under his bed are a vehicle by which he can return to the past and reclaim his memories. But these recollections only leave Evan feeling responsible for the damaged lives of his friends, most crucially that of Kayleigh, his childhood sweetheart who he continued to love into adulthood. Determined to do something now that he was incapable of doing then, Evan purposely travels back in time, his present-day mind occupying his childhood body, in an attempt to re-write history and spare his friends and loved ones these traumatic experiences. By altering the events of the past, Evan
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 But if the storytelling induces brain cramp, the imagery brings on a bad case of acid indigestion. The filmmakers return again and again to their movie's most repulsive visuals... ''The Butterfly Effect,'' is inhabited by a genuine spirit of cruelty, both toward its characters and its audience.--DAVE KEHR (The New York Times)
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.  --James Berardinelli (ReelViews)
Children and small animals are mercilessly tortured -- and so is the audience -- in this thoroughly repulsive Ashton Kutcher time-travel flick.--Charles Taylor (Salon)
Upon contemplation, it's clear that writing-directing team Eric Bress and J. Mackey Gruber, who wrote the also entertaining yet slightly flawed "Final Destination 2," have crafted a carefully constructed script and in the end answer most of a viewer's questions, except for that disturbing drawing of a massacre that he makes as a child.  --Annlee Ellingson (Boxoffice Magazine)
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 wellas time, was being jerked around.  --ROGER EBERT (Chicago Sun-Times)
While The Butterfly Effect isn't profoundly philosophical stuff, it is an intriguing look at how the past shapes the future, and in the leading role, Ashton Kutcher makes a successful crossover from comedy to drama. --Guylaine Cadorette (Hollywood.com)
Deserves credit on the idea alone, but you always get the feeling that it could have worked so much better had it been in more experienced hands. C--Craig Younkin (Lee's Movie Info)
"The Butterfly Effect" is a pretty hard motion picture to swallow. The experience is not helped by the filmmakers, who have little interest in developing characters or narrative coherence, and have been forced to give Ashton Kutcher his first big dramatic role - which he bungles without much effort. D---Brian Orndorf (FilmJerk.com)
One of the movie's most dramatic moments can, with the wrong audience, easily produce titters instead of the desired shivers.  --Ron Weiskind (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
It's a shame because the first half is truly enjoyable, full of suspense with a creepy atmosphere, but it can't maintain that level. 6/10--Scott Spicciati (Movie-Vault.com)
Kutcher's noogie-giving persona does exude a confident charm, however, and that charm goes a long way in The Butterfly Effect, the heartthrob's first dramatic lead since he hit the cover of Tiger Beat. --Norm Schrager (FilmCritic.com)
The whole movie, I just kept waiting for Kutcher to look at the camera and say, "You've just been Punk'd," and in a way, he did punk us. Even though it's not that bad, he punk'd us into thinking it's a lot better than it really is. --Brian Gallagher (MovieWeb)
I’d call this a darker Back to the Future, but that sounds more like the ‘80s-set “Donnie Darko”. --Kevin N. Laforest (Montreal Film Journal)
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| Directed by |
Eric Bress
A Cool Breeze on the Underground, Bits and Pieces: Bringing Death to Life | |
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| Written by |
| Eric Bress
Bits and Pieces: Bringing Death to Life, A Cool Breeze on the Underground |
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| Music By |
| Staind
MTV Video Music Awards 2001 | |
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| A ludicrous supernatural thriller, packed with clichés, heavy-handed symbolism, stupid dialogue and over-acting. 52/100 --Brian Webster (Apollo Guide)
An original movie that fools around with the concepts of time, memory, fate and consequences in ways that make them entertaining, thoughtful, sad and loving, all at the same time. 8/10--'JoBlo' (JoBlo.com)
ASHTON Kutcher tries hard to play it straight, but he and his fans get punk'd in "The Butterfly Effect," an over-the-top supernatural thriller so ridiculous it's unintentionally funnier than some of his recent comedies like "My Boss's Daughter." --Lou Lumenick (New York Post)
An applause-worthy, wildly ambitious mind-bender that is not only one of the more original motion pictures to be released in recent months, but also one of its most emotionally unshakable.  --Dustin Putman (The Movie Insider)
In its own ridiculous way, "The Butterfly Effect" is an entertaining movie, despite mediocre acting, lackluster direction and a story that's sometimes frustrating.--Mick LaSalle (San Francisco Chronicle)
It's refreshing to see something so sharp, so bright, from somewhere so unlikely.--Edith Alderette (San Francisco Examiner)
This ingenious fable of time-travel, chaos theory and self-sacrifice is this year's Donnie Darko. 8/10--Anton Bitel (Movie Gazette)
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