From the guys who brought us “Final Destination 2” — proving that the first film was actually just a lay over — comes yet another supernatural thriller that asks audiences to check all reason at the theater door and prepare to do the time warp again. Ashton Kutcher (“That ’70s Show,” Demi Moore) is the latest leading man to revisit yesteryear, but unlike his predecessors, Kutcher (or Evan Treborn, his nom de guerre in the movie) doesn’t require any fancy machinery or divine intervention to get back to where he once belonged. All he has to do is read passages from his childhood journals while squinting so hard he looks like he’s in need of a powerful laxative.
A pedophile, a criminally insane father and a psychotic play pal all combine to make Evan’s formative years a living hell. Along the way, he develops an unusual coping mechanism: Whenever something really awful takes place, he blacks-out. All grown up and away at college, Evan discovers that the notebooks filled with his adolescent scribblings are a portal to the past. It’s easily the most unsophisticated time-traveling technique ever devised, but there’s serious comedic currency in the notion of Kutcher’s brain getting so taxed by text, it blows a hole through time.
Once he’s got a handle on his powers, Evan attempts to rewrite history to transform the present, seemingly for the sole purpose of landing his dreamgirl, Kayleigh (played as an adult by Amy Smart). But as any cinephile knows, changing the past almost always yields unexpected and disastrous results in the now. So Evan is stuck trying to right his wrongs over and over and over. “The Butterfly Effect” is entertaining, and at times hilarious, though not by design. One thing it isn’t, however, is frightening. Rather, it’s a no-thrills thriller that gets sillier as it lists toward a wholly preposterous finale. In a bold attempt to distance himself from his “That 70s Show” and “Punk’d” pedigree, Kutcher grew a beard. Nice move. Makes him seem like a much older Kelso. Smart manages to move deftly between several variations of Kayleigh, from a stylish sorority sister to a strung-out and scarred hooker. (Rated R for violence, sexual content, language and brief drug use. Running time: 113 minutes)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 23, 2004. Read the original PDF.