Butterfly Effect 3: Revelation - 8 Films to Die For DVD Review
Butterfly Effect 3: Revelation - 8 Films to Die For DVD Review
Can I go back in time and unwatch this?
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Time travel is a pretty pervading plot these days — with movies like Timecrimes, Jumper and Push, or TV fare like Life on Mars, Heroes and Lost, that's an undeniable fact. Just how successful the conceit is, depends entirely on the way in which it is presented.
I enjoyed the first Butterfly Effect movie (a big screen release, starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart) for what it was; can't remember the second one (though I know I reviewed it!); and now have found the third one initially intriguing but ultimately disappointing.
Casper Van Dien lookalike, The O.C.'s Chris Carmack, plays our time-tripping patsy, Sam Reid. Sam is trying to make up for a mistake he made involving a fatal fire in his family's home when he was a kid by playing "psychic" to the local police department. Balancing his karmic checkbook, Sam has solved dozens of murder and kidnap cases for the city over the years by traveling through time to see whodunit. But there is one slaying he cannot get a grasp on: that of his college sweetheart, Liz (Sarah Habel). The more he goes back in time to try and salvage the events of his own life — aided by his lackadaisical sister, played by Horrorfest fave Rachel Miner — the more of a mess things become.
Revelations has promise, but it's mired by ill-advised, shoe-horned scenes (a nude romp between Miss HorrorFest, Mistress Malice [credited as Melissa Jones], and Carmack is particularly ridiculous), and expository dialogue that doesn't quite roll off the tongues of the cast (although some of the bit players are quite good). There is a nice twist about 40 minutes into the movie that will perk you up for awhile, but before long the sugar-crash comes and the movie runs aground. Furthermore, it seems completely unrelated to the first two flicks; Sam's method of traveling through time is totally different, and he doesn't have any discernable connection to the core characters.
Harrowing for all the wrong reasons, Revelations doesn't even have a decent gore factor for fans of horror… all we get is a movie worthy of SciFi Channel or Lifetime (sappy romance alert!).
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson