Ashton wasn't that annoying..

Rating: 9/10 (15 June 2005)

Title: The Butterfly Effect (2004) Director: Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Melora Walters, Jhon Patrick Amedori, Irene Gorovia Tagline: Change one thing, Change everything Review: I'm not an Ashton Kutcher fan, lord knows the guys made an obnoxious character out of himself in his TV show punked. Most of the time he plays idiots and immature kids, so that preconceived image of Ashton Kutcher was in my head as I was going to the theater with some friends of mine to check out The Butterfly Effect. I gotta say that I was pleasantly surprised with this movie.
The story is about a young boy named Evan Treborn. The kid suffers from black outs. Basically every once in a while he'll pass out and not remember what he did or why he did it. Not only that but the boy goes through some pretty traumatic experiences as a child. Fastforward a couple of years and now Evan is in college and has come to be a semi-normal young man trying to make the best of the present and forget his shadowy past. That is until he finds he has 'a gift'. He can travel back in time and basically correct whatever unpleasant experiences that messed up his life. Or so he thinks.
Thats the basic premise of this flick, which amazed me with its well written screenplay and good performances. Kutcher delivered pretty well for his first "serious roll" like I said before I am used to seeing him do the ignoramus/doofus act in the past, so I was a little skeptical at first but the guy did alright. Amy Smart was great as Kayleigh Miller, Evans love interest. Through the different alternate universes she does a great job of portraying different personalities, in fact Ill go as far as to say that acting wise, she was the best thing in the whole flick.
Also the young actors who play the child counterparts to Evan and Keyleigh were great, they were not annoying or stupid in anyway. They in fact felt pretty real, and came off as likable normal kids.
It was cool to see Eric Stoltz doing a small role in the film, but come on! Whats up with him doing this crappy roles? Stoltz is a fine actor who deserves doing something bigger then what his been doing lately. I wish he'd wake up and do something that will make him shine again someday.
But by far the best part of this flick is the story. You know a movie will be intriguing if in the first twenty minutes a lot of things happen. That was the case here, during the first few minutes your like whoa, if these are the first twenty minutes....I wonder what the rest of the film will be like! And I'm happy to say that the movie does not disappoint after if gets going, it remains interesting all through out. Though I do have to admit that at one time the whole "lets go back in time to fix things" felt a little redundant, in a point you will feel like "ok, I get it! Lets not do that again!". But they I let that slip because I was so into the story and characters.
The effects though not the big attraction here (this ain't back to the future folks!) were very well achieved. For example, the visual fx that occur when Evan travels back in time are cool as hell, the mix of the vibrating visuals and sound effects were very effective.
Great flick, Kutcher wasn't the distracting annoyance that I was expecting (he was actually good) and it has a great cast and story. Check it out if you want to wonder what would happen if you could find a way to change your past! Great ride!
Rating: 4 out of 5.