The Lesson to be learned

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT
Apparently in our current brave new world of cinematic brilliance, good acting is defined as "sparatically cutting hair and beard so as to reveal new facial features." Ashton delivers lines with the sheer disrespect of a 4th grader in the class christmas play. for the most part all this film achieves is taking a brilliant idea and theory and dumbing it down for the lowest common denominator so that pop audiences will pay to lose brain cells on this swill. Its the problem with associating Ashton Kutcher with Chaos Theory, which requires an IQ of room temperature or higher to understand. (incidentally "Chaos theory" also explains the fact that ashton HAS a carreer in film.) The plot twists were shallow and unintriguing, seemingly written by angsty jr. highers just begging for a chance to beat someone up and show characters in mental institutions.

Amy Smart was cute and effective, but forgettable, while Ethan Suplee was almost too much to handle as the obese over exagerated "goth" who gets tons of pussy. The only performance worth watching for is that of Elden Henson, "the other fat kid', Lenny. With ease he jumps from character type to character type, delivering an intriguing character amidst a slough of pop-culture cliches.

As is often the case, the lesson to be learned from this unexceptional and somewhat tedious "january standard" film is that special effects and good post production dont make up for a mediocre script and uninspired performances.