A few members of the staff had the opportunity to watch The Butterfly Effect last Monday. Well, we don't have to slam this film. Despite the fact that we kept expecting Ashton Kutcher to tell someone, "You just got punk'd!", it was actually pretty good. The storyline is that this kid (Kutcher's character) grows up having blackouts where he does things that he can't remember at all. This usually happens during traumatic events, but can also happen while doing mundane tasks.

Later in life, when Kutcher is rooming with Gothzilla, he reads through some journals that he kept and is able to actually go back in time and relive the events where he blacked out. The first time through, he just sees what happened. But then he discovers that he actually has the power to change things. Everytime that he changes something from his past, his entire life and the lives of those around him changes drastically. It is said that when a butterfly flaps his wings that it could cause a typhoon halfway around the world, hence the name Butterfly Effect.

So Kutcher goes around changing things in his past at random until he gets the life he wants. His ex-girlfriend goes from being dead to being his fiance, to being a prostitute, to being his friend's girlfriend to having never met him.

The mechanics of the movie still kindof bug me. So, he can go back in time. Apparently it is only to the times that he blacked out. But were the blackouts caused by him going back in time? When he blacks out the first time, he draws a picture of himself killing to Nazis. This is something that only happens in the future - an alternate future, at that! So that means that the future had to happen before the past did. There are plenty of other gaps and inconsistencies in time, but you'll just have to watch the movie to find them.

To make the movie even better, there is a sadistic 8 yearold that kicks major ass. He beats the hell out of the main character, beats up someone twice his age in a movie theater, screws his sister, burns a dog, kills a woman and her baby and intimidates everyone into not saying a word!

This movie can really boggle the mind if you let it. It has an original concept, a good storyline and, believe it or not, good acting.


staff out...

Previous News  |  The Ekaj Archives  |  Back to Main  |  Next News

Questions? Comments? Sugestions?  E-mail the staff.