The Butterfly Effect is a movie that arrived at something of a critical point in Ashton Kutcher's career. I don't think anyone would argue that he is a good actor, but given the right material he can be serviceable. Looking over his filmography, this was the first project to push him. Before this movie he was best known as the resident idiot Kelso on
That 70s Show. He parlayed his sensibilities to big screen comedies like
Dude, Where's My Car? and
Just Married, but he had not had a project that allowed him to stretch his range. This movie, released back in 2004, gave us the first glimpse of what Kutcher could do. To tell the truth, he isn't that bad.
While I occasionally get some entertainment value out of celebrity news and revelations that they are not all nice people, I generally keep their off screen exploits out of my enjoyment, or lack thereof, of their films. Mel Gibson is a good example of that. The guy has made a real mess of his personal life, but put him on the screen (or behind the camera) and you still have a talented and charismatic personality. He has only begun getting back on the screen, with less than a handful of appearances since 2002's Signs, but with Get the Gringo (previously titled How I Spent My Summer Vacation), he shows that is still Has a little bit of the old school charisma in him.
It seems to be inevitable these days; if a movie is even a modest success, it will somehow be turned into a franchise, whether it deserves it or not. A good example of this is 2004's The Butterfly Effect. That movie was a surprisingly well constructed thriller that went out of its way to push the envelope by going in some very uncomfortable directions. Not only that, but it took us into the characters' lives and showed how the choices affected them. It is a nicely constructed film. Anyway, the movie was successful enough to garner the sequel treatment and here it is, The Butterfly Effect 2.