The Butterfly Effect 2 - Part 1
February 11th 2008 02:21
If I could go back and change events of the past, I would probably stop myself from hiring this piece of crap that they call a sequel.
I’m back my Bucket Heads and it’s been a very painful week for me. I went out this week and hired 10 garbage movies, watched each of them and downed many bottles of vodka after each one. Furthermore I discovered a bunch of terrible movies that have been floating around my house over the years so I have begun watching them with the company of my good friends Strawberry and Peach Schnaps.
I would just like to remind people who have been following the website from day one that I’m going to be changing the way I do my reviews. I will be making three posts throughout the week. Monday will be focusing on a full synopsis of the movie and might be broken up into two posts to prevent people’s heads from exploding. Wednesdays I will be posting up the bad quotes from the movie, though some weeks I won’t have any since I can’t fit the entire script into a post for copyright reasons. Friday will feature my top five loathes of the movie in question. So let’s all take in a deep breath and move on forward deep into the Bucket!
It really pains me to see a sequel do ridiculously bad compared to the first movie that was awesome. In this case we’ll be taking a look at The Butterfly Effect 2. The first movie was pretty damn good. If you haven’t seen the movie it stars Ashton Kutcher as a guy who discovers he can jump back into events in the past by reading a journey or looking at photos/videos. He ends up changing the future only to screw it up even more for the people he cares about.
It’s a pretty good movie if you haven’t seen it and Ashton is actually pretty good in the movie. I really can’t stand the guy that much on Punk’d and many of you might think he is an idiot but you will enjoy his performance in this movie. The follow up to this movie though was terrible, absolutely terrible. If you were a big fan of the first movie you will not like this and if you watch number two first you will be put off from watching the first film. So Bucket Heads allow me to present to you all a synopsis of the piece of crap that was The Butterfly Effect 2.
We start off to find out main character Nick waking up by a campfire. With him are his two good friends Trevor and Amanda and Nick’s hot girlfriend Julie. They start crapping on about a bunch of things that they did at this campsite when they were kids, like down a tequila bottle and have a cocaine orgy. Actually I made up the last one but it would have been more interesting if they added that because we’re two minutes into this movie and I’m already getting frustrated.
Nick and Trevor go off to get firewood and begin talking about their jobs at this start-up software company they are working for. I don’t know why but Nick decides to be an asshole and chases Trevor with a crab. It turns out its Julie’s 25th birthday and they give her a crap cake that’s made up of four cupcakes. I’d be pretty pissed off if someone gave me a cupcake for my birthday and said it was my birthday cake. Give me a huge chocolate cake or a nice strawberry cheesecake, or a choc-chip cheesecake or a peppermint cheesecake. Damn it, I want cheesecake now. Where the hell was I?
Oh yeah the cupcakes, God damn cheap bastards. Trevor pulls out his special ‘candle’ and no I did not mean he whipped out his love stick so if you thought of that you’re one big sicko. He ends up pulling out a joint and smokes it with his girl while Nick takes Julie off to a special location. Aww… I wonder what’s going to happen here. Nick gives Julie a necklace and they talk about a bunch of random stuff. Julie wants to tell Nick something but he gets called into work. Who wants to bet that she was going to tell him that his pregnant? I think that she was going to say she was pregnant or that she had cancer and was going to die.
Everyone is driving back, annoyed that Nick ruined their weekend away. We see a sign that indicates a sharp turn is up ahead. Oh no… I smell DEATH! They are all talking and taking photos with this digital camera when suddenly they get a flat tire! The car skids out of control, since they are on an icy road, and what could make things worse than having a truck coming towards you when you’re stuck! The truck doesn’t slow down but slams into the car. At this point the blood on the windscreen merges into a big bloody ‘2’ and the title screen appears.
Wow that was pretty umm… creative? Well it was definitely random I don’t know why they just didn’t have the title of the movie appear at the start like the majority of the movies out there. I know some movies have the title screen come into play later but not a whole damn ten minutes INTO the movie. Normally they’ll wait like three to five minutes but I guess someone didn’t want people to know what they were watching as if they were trying to trick us into watching this crap. Back to the movie!
Don't worry he isn't going into a cardiac arrest, he's just having a bad dream.
Nick’s in a coma and starts to have a huge fits in his hospital bed while having random flashbacks of the crash. The nurse calls for a code blue while Nick’s mother rubs his eyebrows. She says he is having nightmares and Nick stop shaking. Well, those are some pretty screwed up nightmares. You know what else was weird? That has to be the SLOWEST response to a code blue that I have ever seen. They didn’t even come into the room. Normally you hit the code blue button and within ten seconds a crash team bursts in. In this movie the nurse was talking to someone over the intercom for like one minute and they never showed. Remind me not to go to this hospital if something should happen to me.
Nick comes out of the coma and asks about his friends. Now to prevent someone who just came out of a coma from going into a huge shock after hearing that someone died, people lie and say ‘Oh they’re recovering in another room’ or ‘Oh they’re fine and they’re at home’ so that when the person is ready they will be told the awful truth. However, Nick’s mother bursts out straight away Trevor, Amanda and Nick’s love Julie are all DEAD! Lucky Nick doesn’t go into shock or depression since this is Hollywood and things like that don’t exist.
Nick starts looking through the photos of the trip and it seems that the camera managed to survive the crash. He walks around his apartment touching items that belonged to his dead girlfriend. He heads back to the campsite and places the very expensive necklace on a shine that’s dedicated to them. Hmm… what’s to stop someone from stealing that? I know I probably would have if I saw an expensive piece of jewelry like that lying around. He heads back to his place, looks at a photo and starts to get a big headache and a nosebleed. Oh… so Nick is the person who gets the power to go back. So he’ll just go back and change it so his girlfriend will live then.
One year passes and Nick is working at that software company that his friend was working at too. A guy called Bristol who is the vice president tells him to get his work done and they have a sale meeting with a bunch of rich people pushing their product… a camera that can capture photos. This isn’t a very good software company if they are pushing this as their main product since EVERY phone can do this. As Nick is looking at the picture on the screen he starts getting another headache and a nosebleed, which results in him screwing up the deal. The president of the company even gets pissed off at Nick because of his condition. That isn’t right the poor guy can’t control what happens to his body. Nick’s boss forces him to take leave and Bristol the asshole smirks while drinks a can of Diet Coke. What a nice little cheap plug for the company.
They did have a normal life until Nick screwed it up for everyone.
Nick’s back at his place drinking heavily and looking at photos of his friends. He starts getting another huge headache and this time he ends up back in the time of the car crash. See in the Butterfly Effect someone can go back to the moment in time to change something and alter the future. The scene plays out as it does before but this time Nick tells his girlfriend to put her seatbelt on? Wait a minute does he think a seatbelt is going to save someone who takes the full impact of a truck slamming into them? Well this time Nick manages to start the car up and drives forward, slamming head on into a tree.
Nick wakes up in the present day on the floor of his apartment. His place has tons of artwork pieces from his girlfriend Julie, who has survived the car crash! Everything is better in the future now! Nick can’t believe it and starts kissing her face and smelling her hair for like two minutes. Now if I wasn’t around someone I loved for a whole year why would I smell their hair? Julie tells Nick to get ready as they are going out for her 25th birthday.
Nick tells Julie at the bar they go to that it felt like he wasn’t with her for a whole year and everything feels weird. Julie tells him he isn’t dreaming but Nick is still confused and has no idea of what is going on. Trevor and Amanda, they were the other two friends who died in the accident, turn up and it seems like they are getting married. Aww isn’t this a lovely Hollywood picture people? Everyone is living happily ever after! After the birthday Nick and Julie have sex all over the house. No I am not making this up, they pretty much slam into walls and on couches for like five minutes or less. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of hanky-panky if you haven’t seen your loved one for over a year. In fact this probably saved the movie from being extremely boring up to this point.
Nick heads to work and starts Yahoo-ing a bunch of random things about memory loss, hallucinations and changing reality. The father of the main character from the last movie is showed in a newspaper clip. Well at least there’s some link between the first and second movie. Trevor talks to Nick and think he is looking at porn. Some fat guy tells them Bristol is going to have a meeting but Trevor gets called in first. During the meeting Bristol the asshole tells everyone he fired Trevor as he was screwing up. That makes perfect sense. If I was a boss and if I found out that someone was screwing up I would fire them as well. Nick opens his mouth and he is pissed off about Bristol firing Trevor so Bristol fires Nick as well.
Now let me get this straight Bucket Heads. Nick turned back time to save his girlfriend and his friends from death. He is now living with his girlfriend with a good job and everything is going well for him, but he decides to screw up his own life by getting himself fired? Who wants to bet he is going to turn back the clock to give himself a better job?
Nick is talking to Julie at his apartment and she is pissed off that he quit, which is fair enough since he needed the job and now he has nothing. She rants on about a bunch of crap including something they lost in the accident. Now remember when she was trying to tell Nick something at the start and I said either she was pregnant or she had cancer? I’m going with that she lost the baby in the accident since you can’t lose cancer in an automobile accident. Nick tries to sweet talk his way out of the trouble giving the ‘all we have is each other’ speech but it only pisses Julie off even more. Wow, this is the first time I’ve seen a movie where the woman gets pissed off and doesn’t have her heart melted. Nick sees a picture of the Christmas party at his work and turns back time to go to it.
Nick finds Bristol at the Christmas party and spills wine on his pants, how the hell is that meant to change anything? The only change that is going to happen is that Bristol has to put on a new pair of pants because Nick was an asshole. Nick does some sneaking around at his workplace, sees two people going at it on the desk, but manages to find a file. He pulls it out, and we fast forward to the future where Nick is now the vice president of the company.
So what is going to happen now? Does Nick have a lot of money now and his girlfriend or is he now an egotistical money hungry maniac with no friends or family? Let’s find out as we move on to part two…
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
i found the first "Butterfly Effect" to be an abysmal film (Worthy of the bucket)...A Brain dead rework of the likes of Donnie Darko. Predicatable, lacking mystery or suspense with clumsy plotting contradictions, a lack of consistency and some truly horrible performances,
I actually thought it was the first one you were talking about, didn't even know there was a sequel. I shall give this one an even wider birth. Thanks for the warning, they really will make sequels to anything these days.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Not Worthy to Pirate.
JD must have read my mind about Donnie Darko. It was a wannabe Donny Darko.
I shall avoid the sequel.
Comment by Wayne F
Bucket Movies
Donnie Darko involved time travel to save the world from destruction while Butterfly Effect is more about effecting one person's life and the people around them. I done an oral presentation on Donnie Darko and the Theory of Time Travel for university. I think I have that floating around somewhere so I could post it up if you two are interested on the Theory of Time Travel
John, I agree that people will make sequels to ANYTHING, (Son of the Mask for example). I'm still waiting around for Titanic 2.
Damo, I love that term 'NWP' I think I'm going to be using that in future posts hehe.
Thanks for the comments guys and I'm glad I have saved you from this terrible movie.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Funny I saw Darko as the more microscopic, personally the time travel was almost a mcguffin in the spiritual sense. Thats the joy of Donnie D, you can grab a thread or a character and it becomes just as important as any other exploration in the script.
Dig your work, I enjoy reading your posts.
PS: Would love to read your thesis on time travel.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
double post sorry
Comment by Wayne F
Bucket Movies
I think the cool thing with Darko is how you can view the movie. You can see it as a kid who had a dream of what was going to happen, or a kid who was suffering from a mental illness (which he was) or as a kid who's destiny it was to save the world. It's one of my favourites and I enjoy talking a lot about it hehe.
Good to hear that you enjoy my posts
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
I also didn't like The Butterfly Effect. I thought its premise was promising, but its result was wishy-washy and didn't make it for me.
10 crappy films in one week? You're a dedicated hero,
Tracy
Comment by Lilla
Enviro Warrior
An Extra Ordinary Life
Dream Herald
I have to add my voice to the chorus and my thumb to the down position for the Butterfly Effect as a film. The idea was absolutely brilliant, no doubts... but the execution of it was AWFUL... perhaps the worst I have seen... and I agree a Donnie Darko wannabe.
I never even thought of going near Number 2 and couldn;t agree more than to say it deserves the Bucket.
Lilla ...
PS I'm glad Kucher pulled himself out of the bucket with The Guardian, at least.
Comment by Wayne F
Bucket Movies
Tracy, it was very painful watching 10 horrible movies but the cause is good. I thank you for your support!
Lilla, it was good to see Kutcher do well in this movie and it's probably his best performance in a movie, and I might go as far as to include his TV roles as well. A shame that you didn't like the movie but I do agree with the point that there are movies out there that have potentially awesome ideas but fail very hard.
I'm glad I saved the two of you from watching this garbage. Thanks for the comments!