‘Butterfly’ has bad cast; ‘Hamilton’ just plain bad

JOHN DEPKO

Ensemble cast should relive acting class

The thought of being able to transport ourselves through time to

change key events of our childhood has been an appealing premise in

many science fiction films.

The original “Back to the Future” looms large as one of the best

of this genre. “The Butterfly Effect” takes a dark and disturbing

turn on this great plot device and delivers a movie that is mostly a

violent Gen-X video game.

Several actors of differing ages play each role as the tale

flashes back and forth between their childhood, adolescence and young

adulthood. Ashton Kutcher is the central adult character, Evan

Treborn, whose life and psychic abilities drive the story. Amy Smart

plays his varied love interest. Evan and his three young friends

suffer several traumatic events as elementary school kids, but Evan

blacks out at the climax of each evil event. These include sexual

abuse, sudden death, psychotic schoolmates and a pet dog that is

burned to death for revenge.

These scenes are tough enough to watch the first time, but because

of the time travel plot, we have to witness them over and over as our

hero desperately tries to change the past. In loud and chaotic

flash-forwards, we quickly see the future changes caused by each of

his reversals of past actions. But no matter what Evan does in the

past, the future only seems to change for the worse. Because of his

questionable mental state, we don’t know for sure if his final vision

occurs only in his twisted mind or in the real world as well.

Co-writers and directors Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber

collaborated to dumb down a potentially great story with mediocre

actors. It has its moments, but we can only speculate what Spielberg,

Kubrick or Hitchcock might have done with this same intriguing

material.

* JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator

for the Orange County public defender’s office.

‘Win A Date’ a tad on the cheesy side

Boy secretly has crush on best friend. Best friend falls for hunky

dud. Boy must take steroids to compete with pectoral piece of

hunkiness.

OK, so I made up the steroids part, but I’m just trying to add

something new to this tired, tired formula. “Win A Date With Tad

Hamilton” is a repeat of the teeny-bopper, first year “Dawson’s

Creek” cliche about the best friend who slips away -- with the added

bonus of a movie star named Tad, who steals away the beautiful girl

(Rosalie), who never noticed how her best friend (Pete) salivates

every time she enters the room.

The only real inventiveness is how Tad, played by flavor of the

month Josh Duhamel, is introduced into the movie. He’s your Leo

DiCaprio type, super-duper movie star, bad boy party animal off

screen and in dire need of a public relations makeover according to

his agent and manager. So Rosalie (the adorable Kate Bosworth),

enters a contest to meet Tad, wins, and falls head-over-heels for the

meaty actor. Poor Pete, played by Topher Grace, is left to wander the

aisles of the Piggly Wiggly with a hole in his heart.

But of course, there’s a real Hollywood twist: Pete is gay and is

in love with Tad himself. All right, another big lie. You already

know from the opening credits that Pete loves Rosalie, Rosalie loves

Tad, and some irrelevant character -- who pops up as arbitrarily as

the Easter Bunny -- loves Pete. Oh, and there’s the obligatory Kimmy

Gibbler friend around for cheap laughs (she acts like a crazy bean

curd when Tad is around).

Practically all the scenes I laughed at were also the same scenes

shown in the trailer. And while the beginning of the movie is fun,

the last 1/3of the movie was seriously predictable, boring,

disappointing and (add your own adjective here).

If there’s any consolation, the cast is a relatively young bunch

of charismatic personalities.

There aren’t any stellar Oscar moments, but then again, the script

is as clever as my dog.

All in all, this movie doesn’t come close to being like John

Hughes’ “Some Kind of Wonderful,” but it is very viewable and a wee

bit better than some of the other movies on the teen lot. I suspect

many girlfriends will drag their boyfriends to see this film, but I’d

recommend staying home and turning on PAX TV -- you’d get the same

cheesy, noxious feeling for a lesser cost.

* ANDREW NGUYEN, a freelance writer, resides in Costa Mesa.