The Joe Review: Darned Good Movie
Written: Jan 10 '05
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Amy Smart, good contrast among the different personality types and situations
Cons: could have been more imaginative, an insult to heredity vs. environment philosophers
The Bottom Line: There are better movies out there, but there are many, many worse - if you watch it, you won't feel like you wasted your time.
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| JosephR's Full Review: The Butterfly Effect |
Since I haven't written a movie review in quite awhile, I'll resummarize what a Joe Review means, other than I'm a pompous fool who believes his name means something :).
The one thing I look for in a movie more than everything else combined is a good, detailed, imaginative story. I HATE movies that combine a great idea, a 90 million dollar special effects budget and an aggressive marketing campaign with a script that seemed like it was thrown together over a burger and fries at McDonald's.
I also try to give away as little of the plot as possible, as typically, the less you know about a movie the more you enjoy it. (For example, I didn't know that A Beautiful Mind was based on a true story and I really thought Russell Crowe's character had been kidnapped! :) ).
Eye candy, especially when it comes in the form of Salma Hayak, Reese Witherspoon or Barbara Mori, is ALWAYS a plus for me as well :).
Now on to the review.
As every other reviewer has stated, the main character (Ashton Kutcher's character) realizes he has the ability to go back to the past and change his future. Every time he fixes one thing he screws up something else.
I've seen better, but for the most part the story was pretty imaginative. The situations he finds himself in are certainly varied. He finds different friends in each situation. I don't know whether or not it was intentional, but the characters always seem to contrast each other, i.e. a sorority girl wearing pink with a goth as a roomamte, these things almost always lend themselves to an interesting story, or at least sidebar.
I'm also biased because I think Amy Smart is a major hottie. The directors took advantage of this hottie by putting her in several outfits that provide VERY nice eye candy as an added bonus to the story!
One thing I didn't like, having taken several psychology and philosophy classes in college, is that the movie ASSUMES heredity in that age-old heredity vs. environment debate (come on, don't tell me you've never seen Trading Places ;) ). In each situation that Ashton's character creates, ALL of the characters in the movie are total slaves to their upbringing. In one reality a child was raised by an abusive father and became a murderer, in another he was raised by his mother and became valedictorian of his class and the leader of his church. I found that to be just wrong - that basically says, people are complete wimps who have no control over their own destiny!
So overall, this was a reasonably imaginative and fast-paced movie that develops the plot, draws you in, and once the action starts (with Kutcher's character's first trip back in time), it doesn't let you out of your seat for one second until the final curtain.
There are many, many worse ways to spend 105 minutes of your life if you happen to have the Starz package on cable or DirecTV, and there are equally many worse ways to spend your three bucks at Blockbuster.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Feel-good Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Ending
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Epinions.com ID:
JosephR
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Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 0 members
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