DVD Review HTF REVIEW: The Butterfly Effect (1 Viewer)

[Chris Rein]

I watched it tonight and LOVED the movie. What a great film. I was so pulled into the story I didn't want it to end. The sound was killer on this disc too.

were fantastic.

Great movie. Highly recommended.

 

[Wayne W]

I bought this DVD blind and really enjoyed the movie. Ashton Kutcher did a good job in the role IMHO. I don't know if he will ever be a "great" dramatic actor, but it is certainly refreshing to see him playing a different type of character. The rest of the cast gave fine performances as well. It took me a few scenes into the movie to place his Mom as the actress from Magnolia.

As for the endings, I watched the DC first and then the TC. I agree with the other posts about how both versions end on a down note. I think the TC is actually more depressing for the same reasons Justin mentioned in his post. I do like some of the ideas in the DC, but I have to go with TC as my favorite (I really wish it had the DTS track as well).

 

[Neil Joseph]

Just finished watching this now after picking it up blindly, a thing I don't like to do very much.

I too preferred the theatrical cut, the dc was a little over the top. Anyway, there are certain films you watch that have no effect on you and then some others that change your life in a way. Butterfly falls into the latter for me.

Also, the sound during his flashbacks was bombastic, like they had all 6 channels going full blast. It reminded me of LOTR: FOTR when Frodo put on the ring.

 

[Mark Schmitt]

I rented this and I only had one night to watch it, so I popped in the Directors Cut and didn't get to see the Theatrical.

Can someone fill me in as to what happened at the end in the TC (in spoilers of course)?

 

[Justin_S]

I'm glad to see that you agree Wayne, and that you and Neil preferred the theatrical ending. I was beginning to think I'd be the only one here. Mark, the theatrical ending goes like this:

Insteand of footage of his birth, he uses footage of when he first met Kayleigh to go back, and he tells her that that he'll kill her and her family if he ever sees her again. She runs off, and thus they never become friends. In the final reality, Evan is with Lenny, and they burn Evan's notebooks. Later down the line, Evan walks past Kayleigh in a crowd, and looks back, longing to go talk to her, but knowing he can't.

 

[JonZ]

"Dan's spoiler:

Spoiler:
Somehow seeing him as a child telling her "I hate you" has a more emotional impact than him commiting suicide in the womb and then creating a cycle with a fourth pregnancy.


Mine:

Spoiler:
But there won't be another cycle - the "disease" only affects males, and Evan's mom finally has a female in the DC ending."



Also, it looked to me like Evans mother has met and had a child with another man - it seems that Evans father was the one who passed on the "disease".


"Also, did anyone prefer the endings from the Deleted Scenes section"

Havent had a chance to check those out yet.

 

[dan fritzen]

 

[Wayne W]

In reply to Dan's question:

I liked the scene where their paths cross. She doesn't recognize him because it was so many years since she has seen him, but still pauses when he passes her. The way Amy Smart played the scene it felt like she experienced déjà vu without actually recognizing him. The fact that it affected her as she passed him gives the impression that the different timelines are all still part of the universe if only consciously inside his head. The experience is of course much more painful for him. I thought it was a great way to end the movie.


Another thought on DC vs. TC. I think the DC did have some interesting ideas and was more over the top, but the TC had more emotional impact for me. I did like the DC though.

 

[Jordan_E]

Thinking on the DC, to me the ending was like an opposite It's A Wonderful Life, like everything was better if he had NEVER existed! I think that's what really got to me, the whole twist on the oft used Wonderful Life idea.

The more I think about it, the more I like this movie.

 

[Daniel`D]

Well I saw this while it was in theaters and the psychic part was in it. Also, I'm almost sure that there was a clearer picture of the nude girl coming out of the shower while Ashton was getting his nose to stop bleeding because me and my friend (I was 17 at the time, she was 15) were surprised that they would sell us tickets to a movie that had full frontal nudity.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Did you see it in Canada? From what I've read, the girl was nude{r} in the Canadian release.

 

[Grant H]

What?!! They changed that? !! She was fully nude when I saw it in the theater in State College, Pa. Definite full-frontal nudity.

 

[TonyD]

she was in the far left part of the screen.
are you taking aferscan into acc't.
maybe she was just cut off from overscan.

 

[Jim Williams]

I rented this from Netflix and it did not come as a flipper, just one sided with the DC version on it. I can't believe that I don't get to see both versions when renting this from Netflix!

 

[Grant H]

I hope you're right, Tony.

I'd hate to see another re-framing controversy a la T3.

It was 1.85:1 theatrically, right?

I think that's right because I saw it in a brand-new theater. The screen was HUGE, but I believe it was one onf the smaller theaters and didn't have a 2.35:1 screen.

You've gotta watch the studios every minute though.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

My TV has virtually no overscan, so although we don't get a great look at the naked girl, you do get to see brief full-frontal. Dunno if the glimpse was longer in theaters, but she's definitely visible on the DVD...

 

[Colin Jacobson]

You're 100% sure there's no theatrical cut on the flipside? That makes absolutely no sense, as I can't imagine New Line produced a special version of the DVD just for Netflix.

 

[Jim Williams]

There is no flip side. There is the data side and on the other side is the title of the film printed on the disk.

 

[Felix Martinez]

The recent release of Elephant was also offered via Netflix in a similar one-sided platter - in that case, the bonus features were MIA.

It's interesting, because the menus still say "Theatrical Version on other side of disc" - or something like that :frowning:

Cheers,

 

[Daniel`D]

It might show everything that was showen on the big screen, but I thought there was more. And I saw it here in the US.