Unintentionally hilarious

Rating: 4/10 (6 August 2004)

Whenever time was altered in "The Butterfly Effect", I was reminded of an episode of "The Simpsons". Homer had a toaster time-travel machine, and kept making things worse and worse for himself with every journey. It was totally ludicrous, and thus very funny. "The Butterfly Effect" tries the same thing with a straight face, and it simply does not work. The worse things got, the more I would laugh. The performances are all solid, but cannot overcome the banal script. I was also annoyed by the fact that the actors portraying Ashton Kutcher's character as a child were obviously much older than the ages given in the film. (And what young boy could draw a picture that well, anyway?) The ending of the Director's Cut is more effective, but not enough to recommend this.
** (on a scale of zero to five stars).