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When a movie's release date keeps getting
pushed further and further into the future,
you usually have a good idea that it is going
to be a stinker, but nobody out in the real
world far removed from Hollywood could have
foreseen just how deliciously bad "A Sound of
Thunder" was going to be. Based on a Ray Bradbury
short story, directed by Peter Hyams and starring
Ed Burns and Oscar winner Ben Kingsley, the
film seemed like it had enough high-caliber
talent behind it to guarantee a product that
was, at the very least, watchable. But this
movie is just horrible, nearly so bad it is
good. The special effects are laughable, the
script is a muddled mess and the acting is as
wooden as a cigar store Indian.
Burns stars as a scientist who works for
money-mad mogul Kingsley. The time is about
100 years into the future and technology has
developed a way to time travel. Of course, this
means that Kingsley, a sort of cyber Walt Disney-
wannabee, has created a company that takes very
wealthy people back to the prehistoric days
so they can, in a very controlled experience,
kill a dinosaur. Burns leads these expeditions
because he is using the money he makes to further
his study of extinct animals.
I don't know if Bradbury created the "Butterfly
Effect" theory but it is certainly what
happens here. Like that Ashton Kutcher film,
travelling about in time causes a flux that
changes the present. I won't go into details
of what happens here, but it is so ridiculous
and outlandish (and badly executed and badly
performed) that the film becomes an unintentionally
laughable delight.
The special effects here are godawful.
Well, let me clarify that. There are some special
effects which involve real settings. These look
great. When the prop and set department work
here, they do a fantastic job. It is the CGI
effects that are horrible. The most obvious
is when they CGI effects try to depict a normal
street scene. The cars whizzing by (or sitting
at stoplights as they actors cross in front
of them via greenscreen technology) look like
graphics from a bad kiddie video game, the kind
you buy in the budget bin for $2.99. There's
even a scene where, God and an acting coach
help him, Burns and his female co-star walk
down a street and we can tell they are walking
in place while the CGI street scene behind them
moves. It looks like the proverbial shit.
"A Sound of Thunder" makes you feel sorry
for the actors. They trusted Hyams and the producers
and studio here to provide realistic, cutting-edge
CGI effects and they were robbed. Burns, Kingsley
and the others in the cast look ridiculous because
they trusted someone in power to provide the
very basic necessities of a CGI movie. This
did not happen and the actors, in effect, look
like they are walking around in a film made
using the same technology that existed back
when "Tron" wads made. They look foolish.
This is a film that sets back CGI digital
technology at least 20 years.
Notes:
Renny Harlin was originally set to direct
Pierce Brosnan in this film. Harlin dropped
out to do "Mindhunters."
Filmed in Prague in 2002 where record floods
damages sets and delayed the film. The production
company working on post also went bankrupt delaying
the film which was set to be released in 2003.
Viewed in Austin in September 2005.
Report Card
Script: F
Acting: C
Cinematography\Lighting: F
Special Effects\Make Up: F
Music: F
Final Grade: F
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