[Y]ou almost have to admire its willingness to be completely and utterly detached not just from reality but from simple storytelling coherence.
A Sound of Thunder (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:94
Fresh:7
Rotten:87
Average Rating:2.9/10
Consensus: Choppy logic and uneven performances are overshadowed by not-so-special effects that makes the suspension of disbelief a nearly impossible task.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for sci-fi violence, partial nuidity and language
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Theatrical Release:Sep 2, 2005 Wide
Box Office: $1,717,608
Synopsis: In A SOUND OF THUNDER, based on a short story by Ray Bradbury, director Peter Hyams (END OF DAYS, TIMECOP) creates a world where time travel is possible and life as we know it is threatened. In the... In A SOUND OF THUNDER, based on a short story by Ray Bradbury, director Peter Hyams (END OF DAYS, TIMECOP) creates a world where time travel is possible and life as we know it is threatened. In the year 2055, Charles Hatton's (Ben Kingsley) company, Time Safari, will take anyone with a big enough wallet back 65 million years for the thrill of their lives: dinosaur hunting. Thanks to Tammy, a talking computer created by Dr. Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), the time-travel team returns with clients to a specific moment 65 million years ago, with explicit directions not to leave anything behind, change anything, or bring anything with them back to the future. Expedition leader Travis Ryer (Ed Burns) is certain that the protocol is flawless, but Dr. Rand isn't so sure. She knows that Hatton will cut any corners necessary to make bigger bucks, and she's waiting for the worst. Sure enough, a safari goes amiss when Ryer's gun malfunctions and he sends the clients scampering for cover from an irate dinosaur. The team returns to 2055 shaken but unscathed. The next day, all over Chicago, mysterious trees and vines begin springing up through sidewalks and out of walls. It seems that something went terribly wrong on the last jump, but no one can pinpoint just what it was. According to Rand, the problem will only worsen as "time waves" continue to sweep the planet, resulting in 65 million years of evolution and growth catching up with the present time. Soon, monstrous creatures--giant baboons with lizard-like features, bat-faced teradactyls, and huge sea serpents--abound, leaving Ryer and his team in constant danger as they fight the clock to determine what caused the anomaly and to save life as we know it. [More]
Starring: Edward Burns, Catherine McCormack, Ben Kingsley, Jemima Rooper
Starring: Edward Burns, Catherine McCormack, Ben Kingsley, Jemima Rooper, David Oyelowo, Joshua Oppenheimer
Director: Peter Hyams
Director: Peter Hyams
Screenwriter: Gregory Poirier
Story: Thomas Dean Donnelly
Producer: Moshe Diamant, Howard L. Baldwin, Karen Baldwin, Jan Fantl
Composer: Nick Glennie-Smith
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Release:
Mar 28, 2006
Reviews for A Sound of Thunder
The profoundly unconvincing CGI work only makes the sorry screenplay and lackluster performances look worse.
An exciting, uneven thriller that explores the ripple effect of altering one tiny moment in the distant past.
Despite its cardboard characters and technical ineptness, it's earnest, unpretentious and, overall, surprisingly entertaining.
It’s too bad they couldn’t travel back in time and stop this movie from being made.
If movies have personalities, this one has an appealing one, combining scientific inquisitiveness with giddy pleasure in creating tension for viewers.
A Sound of Thunder takes an interesting science fiction concept and relegates it to the secondary role of servicing a limp action/adventure movie.
Some of this might have passed muster in a Twilight Zone episode, which would have been an ideal home for such a tale.
Told by director Peter Hyams with a minimum of logic, little suspense and indifferent acting.
A Sound of Thunder relies almost entirely on computer-generated image effects and, sadly, they're poor.
As a plot contrivance, time travel is such a headache you wonder why Hollywood keeps returning to it -- let alone a director like Peter Hyams, who having directed Jean-Claude Van Damme in Timecop, has already made this mistake once.
Kingsley proceeds through his scenes on autopilot, and Burns is the kind of actor you cast as the hero when a piece of wood is unavailable.
The filmmakers of A Sound of Thunder, like a T. rex with indigestion, have simply bitten off more than they could chew.
Director Peter Hyams and his cast seem determined to play this hokum with a straight face, except for Ben Kingsley, who is clearly trying to give the worst performance possible -- it's almost as if he's begging Hyams to cut his scenes out of the movie.
The dialogue strives for witty banter, but most laughs are unintentional.
Watching A Sound of Thunder could possibly lower your IQ into the single digits.
A Sound of Thunder looks cobbled together from a half-baked screenplay and underdone special effects, but it's made with a certain heedless zeal that makes you smile if you're in tune with it.
Our advice: Wait until it's on the Sci Fi Channel, and then watch something else.
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