Butterfly Effect 3 (2009)

Time traveling isn't for winners

A man looks on as an observer in the distance as a woman is savagely murdered near a playground area that she took her boy to. He's transported back to present time in an icy bathtub with the help of his sister Jenna. Currently Sam is commissioned by the police department as a resident "psychic" that gives them accurate information that catches their guy to give the family closure. Everything is going fine until the sister of a woman named Rebecca Brown, the first girl he fell for, came by Sam with evidence in a diary that a man the sister was cheating on Sam with named Lonnie, who went to prison for her murder and has an upcoming execution, didn't actually kill her. Sounds simple: go back in time, stop the killer or just observe and get the charges lifted. Except there are consequential rules in place: never alter your own past or go unsupervised. One small misstep happens and he's already changed the past and created a murderer called the Pontiac Killer that he has to stop but keeps getting knocked back by random circumstance, not to mention the police who are now looking at him as a suspect the more he gets closer. He attempts to go to his sister and physics friend Goldburg for advice but they don't want him to get hurt or alter what already is despite his good intentions. Sam goes on his own through a series of trial and error that leads to frustration and confusion from overlapping events. He's digging a hole that keeps getting deeper and deeper and it becomes uncertain if he can ever can totally fix things and get out.

The story unfolds like a choose-a-new-path tale. The non-linear story mode keeps things intriguing and interesting to where it will go next. This causes some of the performers to change around their demeanor for their new time line. There are some built up dramatic moments, though with the pacing, this keeps itself on the move; luckily to its benefit since there are a few areas that if slowed down would have made the tumblers in your head start to work and question some of the inconsistencies and transitions from point A to B. The movie is somewhat shallow at points with drug use, pointless sex and over-the-top murders that you could care less about the victim at hand, though it's still steadily amusing nonetheless in a low-brow type of way. It's not a smart time travel film that goes on about analytical theory but as a thriller it goes into a number of different directions so as to keep your attention for what new twist of fate will occur. The big twist is somewhat obvious from being given too many clues too early on. The film plays on sensations, so the tone can be both grisly and then light in humor at other times to still keep it fun and not totally lurk in the horror realm. This deals with regret, sacrifice as well as letting go to give it a nice wrap up that probably won't stick with you. Although, the experience in the meantime goes by so succinctly that it's a simple and painless but still entertaining movie on the fly for those nothing-to-do, do-the-thinking-for-me days.

Rating: 6/10

Director: Seth Grossman (The Elephant King)
Stars: Chris Carmack, Rachel Miner, Kevin Yon
Link: IMDB

Waxwork II (1992)

Slap stickin' and time travelin'

This is a direct continuation from the events in the first film, though Deborah Foreman is replaced by a head-taller, not-so-look-alike Monika Schnarre as Sarah, not to mention Zach Galligan returns as Mark but looks noticeably older and gained a few pounds. After the two leave the fiery scene from the first, the animated severed hand escapes from one of the zombie sets and follows Sarah home, only to kill her abusive father, aptly wearing a scummy wife-beater. Now, a court case is being filed against her for the act, and no one believes her when the naive Sarah actually tells them the hand did it. In the meantime they find a "cartagrian time-door opener" in Mark's grandfather's secret attic that holds all kinds of strange relics, and decide to use it to find evidence for Sarah's innocence. And, of course, stumble into some adventure in the meantime.

"Waxwork II," pushing away from its title, is a sort of "Friday the 13th" TV series, meets "The Monster Squad," meets "Bill & Ted," and still manages to have some of its own distinction in the end. From Frankenstein to poltergeists to aliens to medieval black magic, the duo has to outrun, outwit and overtake evil wherever the small time contraption takes them. The last half being a place in a King Arthur-like setting where they have to stop an diabolical, shape-shifting man named Scarabis (Alexander Godunov) who's trying to take over the King of England's throne, but find themselves in predicaments of incestuous pre-arranged marriage and rat infested prisons. Definitely the coolest scene in the movie involves Mark sword fighting Scarabis back and forth between different worlds from "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "Jack the Ripper," "Nosferatu," "Godzilla" and more zombies of the "Dawn of the Dead" kind. It makes you wish they included a few more segments or stayed a while longer while at it after having to sit through the nearly throwaway medieval story that's better left up to the "Excalibur"s to flesh out a richer adventure.

"Waxwork II" is edging more on simple fun than serious challenge, which makes the picture a little light in its load. The comedy is made to be cartoonish at points--such as a bag-o-salt being thrown at the exposed ribs of Bruce Campbell's character--the bloodshed is less gory than the first and there aren't as many build ups for atmosphere rather than setting the stage for zingers. The tone slightly shifts as it gets all biblical with a universe of Cartagra being a place where good and evil battle it out in what's referred to as "God's Nintendo game." The Devil and God--though never shown--have at it with time warriors, and what those warriors do there--Mark and Sarah included--can have a detrimental effect on Earth if evil wins.

This has less mysteriousness than the first and essentially causes you think in the now, which isn't always so enthralling to put you on the edge of your seat in anticipation. This has some slapstick, the time travel idea to create fresh places and there are numerous homages given for the meantime. Nods to other films can be a great tool to hook in an audience to relive nostalgia, though this doesn't always feel like it does something more creative than what they're emulating like the first film was capable of. This is still a decent companion piece to the original film, though I've found over the years it's not as replete on its own as it could have been. The concept is definitely cool--this is just before "Army of Darkness" and even "Sliders"--though I often find myself thinking more of where to go than where the filmmakers took me.

Rating: 5.5/10

Director: Anthony Hickox (Sundown)
Stars: Zach Galligan, Monika Schnarre, Bruce Campbell, Alexander Godunov
Link: IMDB