THE
BUTTERFLY EFFECT 2
The Butterfly Effect 2 (2006)
Actors: Eric Lively, Erica Durance, Dustin Milligan, Gina Holden,
David Lewis
Directors: John R. Leonetti
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled,
Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Number of discs: 1
DVD Features:
- Available Subtitles:
English, Spanish
- Available Audio
Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0
Surround)
- Commentary by director
John R. Leonetti and co-producer Michael Stirling
- "Altering Reality: On
the Set of The Butterfly Effect 2" featurette
Movie:
 
Disc:
 When
it comes to pointless and meaningless sequels, The Butterfly Effect 2
is about as pointless and meaningless as existence and life itself!
More of
a remake
-
but without the originality and unpleasantness that made the original film
so memorable
-
than a sequel in any real sense of the word, this straight-to-DVD effort
features an all-new cast and has practically nothing to do with the original
Butterfly Effect.
If you could
travel back in time and change key events in your life, what would you
change? Our yuppie protagonist (Eric Lively) travels back in time to
prevent an accident involving the SUV he was driving, in which his best
friends and girlfriend were killed. (You'd think that he'd travel back
in time and not buy an SUV at all
-
after all, it is the unsafest vehicle when it
comes to single vehicle accidents -
but, no.) Not content with saving the life of his fiancé, he gets all
materialist and grubby and travels back in time to indulge in some
corporate back-stabbing and scoop a promotion that went to someone else
in the start-up IT company he works for.
Things start
going for a loop then as he ends up making his current present worse
than it was, pretty much like in the original film. But whereas the
first Butterfly movie was wildly over-the-top dealing with drug
addiction, child molestation and prostitution, Butterfly Effect 2
is rather tame by comparison as the worst we have to deal with an irate
investor who demands his money back.
THE DISC:
Some trailers, a dry audio commentary by the film's director and writer
and an on-set featurette.
WORTH
IT?
Butterfly Effect 2 isn't really as bad as some straight-to-DVD
efforts gathering dust on your video store's shelves right now, but it
still feels as if you're watching the same movie again as the novelty of
the original film's concept has long since worn off. Still, the cast is
able and the production itself not as cheap as one would have feared
(the credit title sequence is pretty cheesy though). There is some
gratuitous sex, some unwarranted violence and an ending that makes no
sense at all - a bit like life itself then.
RECOMMENDATION: A rental for when the good stuff is out and you
don't feel like watching Groundhog Day for
the umpteenth time. (Although the excellent and similarly-themed
Retroactive is always a good alternative if
you haven't checked it out already.)
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