The Butterfly Effect 2 (2006)

~Cast~

Eric Lively...............................Nick Larson

Erica Dunance........................Julie Miller

Dustin Mulligan.......................Trevor

Gina Holden...........................Amanda

Directed by...........................John R. Leonetti

My Rating:

So we have the DTV sequel to the 2004 Ashton Kutcher box office semi-hit BUTTERFLY EFFECT mind tripping its way into our homes. This time, there are no named actors, an extremely small budget, and 20 minutes less run time. I suppose that could be fine. I mean, small budgets can be a good thing when it forces them to spend more time on the story. BUTTERFLY EFFECT 2, however, just used the time to push out another money maker baby with the same name and concept and called it a day. The instant the credits began to roll I knew I was in for a piece of shit, but it wasn't yet determined how much of a piece of shit it would end up being. Final Destination 3 had bad acting but it's still a decent watch. At least FD3 didn't stick us with the single most boring person in all of film history. That's right, we are set to follow a lame company exec who is trying to make it big in his job while loving his g/f forever. Yes, it's one of those lame ass stories that bores the tears out of even the most enthused person, but then why should we expect anything good from the genius director who brought us the AMAZING sequel, MORTAL KOMBAT: ANNIHILATION...can't sense the sarcasm? By the way, beware of spoilers...but then again...if you saw the original film...you won't be shocked by what happens in the slightest.

    So we have 2 couples hanging out on this girl, Julie's, birthday. We spend 10 minutes going on and on about how much in love Julie and her dullsville boyfriend Nick are. They decide to drive home when Nick's job calls him in for a meeting. They then, surprise, surprise get into an accident that ends up killing everyone in the car except Nick. A year passes and he has gone into deep depression and contracts massive headaches at random. One drunken night when looking in a photograph, Nick some how finds the ability to go back in time (apparently being depressed and drunk gives your mind the ability to travel back in time). So he goes back and starts fucking around with the past, one thing gets better, another gets worse...he fixes said worse thing, the better is gone, then goes back to fix both and fucks up everything only to have the same speech Ashton Kutcher has in the original about going back in time and screwing shit up. This loser goes back to the beginning and ends up sacrificing himself and throwing his car off the side of a cliff despite the fact he very easily could have slammed on the break and gotten into the other lane, but hey...whatever ends this piece of shit quicker is fine by me.

    I actually liked the original BUTTERFLY EFFECT a lot, I didn't dwell on the fact that PUNK'D and THAT 70's SHOW star ASHTON KUTCHER was the lead. I sat back and enjoyed the movie and found it was quite entertaining and very well done. So when I first got wind that this sequel was coming out, I was like "Okay, this should at least be entertaining." Well, I should have listened to my gut feeling after viewing the trailer of this horrid piece of dinosaur dookie, this film sucks! The story is lame, there are plot holes galore, and there are about 100 things this asshole could have done to PREVENT half the shit that happened. What I liked in the original was the fact that there was really nothing the main character could have done differently to change things for the better. He did EVERYTHING and no matter what he did...it kept on fucking things up. In this film, we just have a selfish asshole who wants to get further in his lame job and nothing is really affected at all. His g/f being alive is the only REAL difference that I would consider grand. He quits his job and then goes back to change that...you got the woman of your dreams back in your life and you go back to get higher in your job and fuck the bosses daughter in the bathroom!? HOW THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO LIKE THIS GUY!? He is boring as hell, selfish as all fuck, and apparently will cheat on the "woman he loves" at the drop of a hat. Real likeability there...ya know...I think there should be a new law. Director John R. Leonetti should be BANNED from ever making another movie sequel ever again under penalty of castration, death, and castration of his soul.

    Let's get to the acting, replacing Ashton Kutcher (in a role that mainstream critics lambasted him for) is Eric Lively as corporate inch worm Nick Larson. The entire movie I felt like I was being punk'd. I'm sure this guy isn't a bad actor by any means, but in this film he flat out bore me to tears. There was nothing I liked about him; every second he was on screen I was falling asleep. Eric, I'm sure you can do better because the main problem with this was the fact the SCRIPT fucking sucked ass and neglected to give the LEAD a compelling character. These kinds of films that are all about ONE person need a character that we can relate to/care about and this film failed to do that. Already, we have lost a lot in this without even going into the story. Amy Smart played the love interest in the original. This time the love interest for Mr. Larson was played by Smallville's Erica Dunance (That's right, the girl who showed EVERYTHING in Uwe Boll's House of the Dead, Lois Lane people...Lois Lane) While I am sure SMALLVILLE fans will flock and gobble this up more than Rosie O’Donnell gobbles up media attention, she was very plain in this to me. I'm sorry, but her character also bored me to tears. She was probably the most redeeming character in this but that didn't help the fact she was a complete snooze fest. I swear this film could be given to insomniacs instead of sleeping pills! Then we get the 2 side characters that were actually more interesting and did better jobs than the main characters. Dustin Mulligan who plays Trevor was the most interesting person in this whole film. His character seemed to have the MOST depth, the biggest character changes, and the more interesting life. Yet, we are stuck with his best friend/co-worker who couldn't peek the interest of a dying grandmother. Gina Holden played Trevor's girlfriend and I found her to be a way better actress (as well as better looking) than Erica Dunance. She was barely in this and didn't ever seem to be affected by anything that went on. There were other people but I couldn't care enough to look them up.

    Alright...I am issuing a KAHR national warning...TO EVERYONE WHO ENJOYS GOOD FILMS AND WATCHABLE SEQUELS...YOU MUST BE ON THE ALERT FOR ONE JOHN R. LEONETTI. HE IS INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS TO MOVIE SEQUELS AND IS IN VIOLATION OF THE MOVIE DECENCY CODE OF 5893B. He fucks up sequels to the point of retardation and makes people want to commit suicide. We should forget our war on terror and fight the war on SHITTY DTV SEQUELS TO FILMS THAT NEVER NEEDED THEM. This guy is now on the list along side ROBERT A. ALTMAN and STEPHEN T. KAY.  AVOID ANY OF HIS FILMS AT ALL COSTS UNDER PENATLY OF BEING TORTURED BY AN EXTREMELY AWFUL FILM!

    Gore wise, we got a lot of lame shit such as a car crash that only shows blood on the windshield, bloody noses galore, a guy getting his face slammed through a table, and from what I remember...that's it. For sex, all we get is teased left and right from 2 soft core sex scenes which were the equivalent of dry humping, and the ladies get a bald man blowing the main character under the bed sheets (utterly disturbing) and they also get a butt shot. Once again...the guys get shit.

    I say, the original film is an entertaining watch and makes for a really good film. This DTV sequel is exactly what it presents itself as, a shitty copy cat film that is pushed out in the latest trend studios seem to have with making DTV sequels to films that obtain moderate success at the box office. Nothing new is gained in this 84 minute piece of donkey raping shit so my best advice is to avoid it at all costs. Things just happen and you are supposed to go along with it and say "Ok, he can do that because it happened in the original." The only connection they make in this film with the original is a gay news paper article about Kutcher's father who was in the mental asylum in the original. This film was just fucking retarded and that’s all I have to say about that.

Special Guest Reviewer:

"I wish I could look into a photo of me watching this shit and go back in time and prevent myself from ever pressing play. I have seen more entertaining conversations on episodes of the VIEW. "

Jack Torrance

"You watch the view and still stick by the fact you aren't craving a load of cock every morning? HA!"

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