Suspenseful, thrilling, and entertaining

Rating: 7/10 (14 July 2006)

This movie has so much unfair bashing, and negativity surrounding it, it makes me sick. If you're the kind of person who will automatically hate a movie because of logical errors in the plot, you should not watch this movie. That is the exact reason why mainstream critics should be completely ignored. People should also give Ashton Kutcher a chance. He CAN act, as he proves in this. Unfortunately, his presence must have also contributed to the critical failure.
The film follows Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher), who suffers a traumatic childhood alongside his friends Kayleigh (Amy Smart), her brother Tommy, and the insecure Lenny. Evan turns out better than any of them when they are adults, because at all the most horrifying moments, Evan would black out and have no idea of what just happened. This prompts him to keep journals about everything he does. When Evan is in college however, he reads his journal, and experiences a memory he lost as a kid. He discovers that by reading the journals, he can possess his childhood self, and stop such horrible things from happening. His quest to fix his present begins when a traumatized Kayleigh commits suicide. Evan starts going back to his most upsetting memories, and changes them. Unfortunately, the things he does in order to prevent the tragedies have a ripple effect over time, and when Evan returns to the future, he often discovers that his present is far worse than what he was trying to prevent.
The story is loaded with plot holes, but don't worry about it. If you have an open mind, and don't nitpick, you can highly enjoy this movie. It's a shame that Ashton Kutcher's presence doomed the film, as the performances are all brilliant. I actually cared about his character, and felt that he did well at showing emotion during the sad parts. When he tells the hooker version of Amy Smart that she was once happy with him, I nearly cried (one of the few things in a film to ever do that to me). And while I can't help but find Ashton to be rather humorous in his comedies, I think he's far better in this film than any of his comedies. Amy Smart is outstanding in this. She is not only stunningly beautiful, but she is a comforting presence in this movie, a voice of reason among all the insanity. Her character is very likable, and would definitely be worth all the sadness and pain that Ashton goes through to save her from sadness.
My only complaint with this movie, is that it feels a need to include many gratuitous, unnecessary elements of extremely harsh subject matter, only for the sake of being cool. I couldn't care less about stuff like that normally, but I felt that few shocking elements (prison rape, child porn, various sex scenes) were totally unnecessary, and just thrown in there to make people go "wow" this is a cool movie, and make teenagers enjoy it more. Ashton Kutcher endures a childhood worse than nearly any child you could imagine. Kids constantly endure life-changing tragedies but Ashton is molested, witnesses his dad get beaten to death by prison guards, sees his dog get burned alive, and even becomes an accessory to manslaughter. The rampant grimness diminishes the believability, but the entertainment value remains intact.
If you forget the plot holes, the logical errors, and random shock scenes, you'll enjoy this fun film. Plot holes don't matter, the film is a thrilling suspense ride that will keep you guessing non- stop, and will keep you glued to your seat until the credits roll. I award the film 10/10.
It is very correctly rated R for Violence, Sexual Content, Language, and Brief Drug Use. Sex: 8/10 Violence: 8/10 Swearing: 10/10 Drugs: 5/10