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The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect (2004)

tomatometer

33

Average Rating: 4.8/10
Reviews Counted: 167
Fresh: 55 | Rotten: 112

The premise is intriguing, but it's placed in the service of an overwrought and tasteless thriller.

18

Average Rating: 3.8/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 28

The premise is intriguing, but it's placed in the service of an overwrought and tasteless thriller.

audience

81

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 543,714

My Rating

Movie Info

Final Destination 2 screenwriters Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber make their directorial debut with the sci-fi thriller The Butterfly Effect. Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher with facial hair) wants to free himself from his disturbing childhood memories. As a kid, he often blacked out for long periods of time and tried to detail his life in a journal. As a young adult, he revisits the journal entries to figure out the truth about his troubled childhood friends Kayleigh (Amy Smart), Lenny (Elden

Jul 20, 2007

$57.7M

New Line Cinema

Cast

All Critics (178) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (56) | Rotten (114) | DVD (26)

Nothing can save this repetitive bore. Dude, where's your memory?

January 29, 2004 Comment
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Not one second of this bilge makes a lick of sense.

January 29, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Observer | Comment
New York Observer
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Kutcher is the wrong actor to anchor a psychological freak-out.

January 29, 2004 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
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It's one of the most unpleasant Hollywood films in some time.

January 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Salon.com | Comment
Salon.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A flawed but serviceable thriller.

January 23, 2004 Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Sloppily conceived and clunkily paced, the movie goes from improbable to preposterous within its first few minutes; over the next two hours the filmmakers never miss a chance for some gratuitous piece of sadism, sexuality or sleaze.

January 23, 2004 Comment (1)
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. So very bad.

December 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Tries hard to be affecting and mind-blowing, and sometimes it comes close.

January 31, 2008 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

More like "The Gag Reflex."

November 18, 2005 Full Review Source: Bangor Daily News (Maine) | Comments (3)
Bangor Daily News (Maine)

The film is not eccentric enough to have a lasting cult appeal, but it is reasonably enjoyable as it unfolds.

February 15, 2005 Full Review Source: Movie City News | Comment
Movie City News

this is exactly the sort of movie I like to see.

January 16, 2005 Full Review Source: LYTRules.com | Comments (3)

Assez bien dans l'ensemble, mais la fascinante prémise n'est jamais vraiment exploité à sa hauteur.

December 16, 2004 Comment

Despite a fairly upbeat ending, the ugly images dominate the film with the time/reality plot a bloody nose afterthought.

October 14, 2004 Full Review | Comment

Cool theories...don't necessarily guarantee good stories...[even if Ashton Kutcher] is repeatedly punk'd by the space-time continuum.

September 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Style Weekly (Richmond, VA) | Comment

Walks a super-thin line between horrific believability and hilarious unbelievability.

August 10, 2004 Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | Comment
Window to the Movies

One of the most thoughtful films of 2004.

July 16, 2004 Comments (4)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Butterfly Effect

A boy suffering from memory lapses is diagnosed with a hereditary mental illness but later in life learns he is capable of revisiting previous moments in his life. A variant on the whole wish fulfillment concept we've all thought about where you imagine going back to a point in your own life and try to change things

February 16, 2007
garyX
xGary Xx

Super Reviewer

Intense. The multiple stories were legitimately interesting but I couldn't take Ashton Kutcher seriously. Fortunately, I was watching this movie in good company.

January 14, 2012
Letitia Lew

Super Reviewer

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