Who's Bad?

The Butterfly Effect (2004)

I realize that as a whole, The Butterfly Effect — about Ashton Kutcher leaping through time via old journal entries and trying to change the seriously effed-up events of his childhood — is kind of ridiculous. But damn the whole when the parts are so much fun! I ate up all the little pieces of this movie like greasy-good popcorn: the sick way the words in Ashton Kutcher's diary skitter about on the page just before he jumps to an alternate reality; the way Ashton Kutcher's college roommate (Ethan Suplee, from My Name Is Earl) is obese and goth but still a sex machine; the way Amy Smart is made up like a crack whore in that one scene; the way Eric Stoltz — yes, Eric Stoltz! — swans about while getting his scumbag on. Plus, every time Ashton Kutcher wakes up in some new place facing a new dilemma (he's in jail! he's in a mental ward! he's got no arms!), it's as if you're watching a completely different movie. So if you think it sucks, fine — but you can't exactly call it boring. — Dawnie Walton, assistant managing editor