Director
John Leonetti
Writer
Michael Weiss
Cast
Eric Lively ………. Nick
Erica Durance ………. Julie
JR Bourne ………. Malcolm
Gina Holden ………. Amanda
Lindsay Maxwell ………. Grace
Dustin Milligan ………. Trevor
DVD Release Date: October 10, 2006
Running Time: 92 minutes
Rated R: for adult language and some sexuality.
The Movie
There is no reason to see this movie.
I don’t mean that to be an intriguing tag line. I don’t mean that to be the start of some broader thesis.
There is no reason to see this movie. I’m tempted to have that line be my entire review, but know that it wouldn’t match up to the criteria here at the DVD Lounge.
The Butterfly Effect 2 is one of those direct-to-DVD sequels wherein the original film is basically remade for less money. In neither storyline nor characters does it really connect in any meaningful way to the first film. The mechanics of time travel don’t quite work the same way as in the original. In The Butterfly Effect our protagonist discovers he can jump backwards in time by reading his journals. In TBE 2, our main character looks at pictures. In the first film, our protagonist has his memories from his original timeline and his new alternate reality timeline. For this pseudo-sequel, our protagonist spends most of his time wandering around confused about his altered reality. But nit-picking aside, Butterfly Effect 2 is just an awful movie.
And that’s not to say that I liked TBE, and dislike this one because it somehow tarnishes the Butterfly franchise. Far from it. The original is a grotesquely dark and joyless film starring TV’s Kelso (Ashton Kutcher’s character in That 70’s Show), one of the most unlikeable actors in Hollywood today. Yet this film manages to be so much worse. In order to survive viewing the film, one must channel one’s inner MST3K totem robot puppet, and even then, as soon as the credits roles, one finds that all alacrity is drained, and all that can be mustered is an incredulous head shaking. Butterfly Effect 2 is speechlessly bad.
It’s hard to describe why this film is as awful as it is. There are too many reasons. The acting is wooden and bland. The actors are generic looking and unmemorable. The character development is both grossly inefficient and ineffectual. The characters themselves are all immensely stupid, and partially psychotic in their actions. The story is monstrously less imaginative than the first film. The plot is full of holes. Sub-plots are started and immediately dropped. There are about 5 continuity errors during the course of a single car crash. Pointless sex scenes go on for 2 full minutes without even a good breast shot. Our protagonist makes trivial use of immense super-powers; his temporal super-powers start working whenever he looks at a photograph, but some how he hasn’t noticed this thing until his mid-twenties. It’s so bad. It doesn’t even fall into the Uwe Boll enjoyably bad category. It’s just bad.
The press release that accompanied the DVD advertised that this film came from the director of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. They might as well have said, “From the guy that did the cinematography for Joe Dirt!” No seriously. It wasn’t in the release, but I’m going to advertise that it was written by the fella responsible for such classics as Octopus 2: River of Fear and I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer. (Speaking of which, by all rights, shouldn’t that be I’ll Always Know What You Did That One Summer Several Years Ago When That Bad Stuff Happened. You Know What I Am Talking About. Don’t Play Me Like That. by now?
I’m also calling shenanigans on the alleged running time of said film. The Butterfly Effect 2 might technically last 92 minutes, but the film ends and the credits start rolling at 81 minutes. Plus, to show further incompetence on the part of the DVD makers, the END CREDITS chapter start kicks in 90 seconds after that.
Special Features
Apart from a sea of trailers, the DVD is mercifully lean. We get a standard “Making of” doc which runs about 15 minutes. It helps to demonstrate the basic competence of the filmmakers. You see, they wanted to open on a sexy beach locale with the lead actresses in bikinis, and then wanted all the leads to hop into a convertible. So they decided to film in Canada… in January.
The only other feature is a commentary track by the director and a producer. The commentary track feels like being stuck in an awkward conversation with a autistic 12 year old. I’m sorry, I don’t know how else to put it.
