About this product: Despite box-office dominance during its opening weekend, The Butterfly Effect is better suited to guilty-pleasure viewing at home. When writer-directors Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber (who penned Final Destination 2) aren't breaking their own haphazard rules of logic, they're filling this sordid thriller with enough unpleasantness to make eternal damnation seem like an attractive alternative. In a role-reversal from his That '70s Show persona, Ashton Kutcher plays a college-age psychology student who discovers, by re-reading his childhood journals, that he can revisit his past and alter traumatic events, hoping to improve their previously unfortunate outcomes. Instead, this foolhardy experiment in chaos theory (the titular "butterfly effect," popularized by Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park) results in a variety of nightmarish permutations, each having dire consequences for him and/or his friends. This intriguing premise is explored with a few interesting twists and turns, but with subplots involving child pornography, animal cruelty, and profanely violent children, it's a stretch to call it entertainment. --Jeff Shannon
About this product: The premise of The Butterfly Effect 2, that one's mind can schizophrenically create its own set of realities as a defense mechanism against painful memories, remains the same as in the original movie, though the circumstances for the split differ. In this case, the protagonist, Nick (Eric Lively), takes his girlfriend, Julie (Erica Durance), and their two best friends, Trevor and Amanda, out camping, when upon return they are all crushed to death by a big rig. Nick survives, though plagued by migraine-like seizures that induce in him fantasies starring his friends, during which he's promoted to VP at his place of employment, rather than fired for incompetence. Subplots get less and less tangible, as his fantasies turn to nightmares, and Nick experiences his deceased friends' deaths repeatedly and from various invented causes. As a sequel to the first lame Butterfly Effect, Butterfly Effect 2 has even less going for it since it doesn't star the hunky Ashton Kutcher. Butterfly Effect 2 aims to be a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style editing experiment, but its intention to be a psychological thriller fails due to a weak script and acting. The result is utter chaos, leaving the viewer confused and bored. --Trinie Dalton
About this product: Zero Effect follows private investigator Daryl Zero and Steve Arlo, his reluctant representative, through one particularly tangled case involving blackmail, murder, revenge, and a set of lost keys. Zero is the world's best private investigator, suave and totally in control while on a case, but socially inept when off the job. The diversely talented and prolific Bill Pullman is excellently cast as Zero, switching seamlessly from one persona to the next, and the ever-charming Ben Stiller is his perfect sidekick. In a deadpan description of his method, or the "Zero Effect," Zero details his brilliance for Sherlock Holmes-like deductions, based on his strict adherence to objectivity and observation, or, in Zero parlance, "the obs." Somewhat predictably the obs falter when the case of the missing keys brings Zero to Gloria Sullivan, a winsome and mysterious paramedic played by Kim Dickens. Thankfully, writer-director Jake Kasdan is no less brilliant than the Zero he creates, and the potential corniness of the developing romance is balanced by a razor-sharp wit and the nail-biting suspense of the unfolding plot. --Laska Jimsen
About this product: Do yourself a favor and buy some canned goods, a flashlight, and a radio before you watch this film. Unfairly dismissed by the critics and missed by the public, this pre-Y2K suspense film by writer-director David Koepp (the writer of Jurassic Park and Apartment Zero) is a chilling, sobering experience that will turn any practical person into a paranoid, apocalyptic loon. When the power goes out in the big city and society starts to break down, husband and wife Matthew (Kyle MacLachlan) and Annie (Elisabeth Shue) find out that not even suburbia is safe. Complicating the situation is their mutual friend Joe (Dermot Mulroney), who stays with them during the blackout, partially because of his interest in Annie. Koepp's inventive and authentic take on interpersonal relationships (Shue and MacLachlan are great as a foundering couple) and the assault on the white-collar male ego are spot-on. Koepp doesn't stop there. He also plays and builds imaginatively on suspense conventions (including the casting of character-baddie Michael Rooker), race relations, and our prejudicial, judgmental attitudes toward strangers. The concatenation of events, how they affect us without our knowledge, and our dependence on the machinery and power that prop up our society complete this involving, perceptive analysis of our very weak social fabric. (The DVD includes some interesting production notes, including the fact that Annie and Matthew live on Maple and Willoughby, a nod to two famous episodes of The Twilight Zone, one of them being the paranoid "The Monsters Are Coming to Maple Street" episode.) --Keith Simanton
About this product: Hip clothing designer, Amer Atrash, is perpetually on the brink of success. Now, with time running out, he is undergoing a crisis in his business and in his marriage. Soul searching, he attributes his misfortune to bad karma from a wrongdoing committed fifteen years ago and sets out to right this wrong, experiencing a spiritual awakening in the process.
About this product: Ace vampire slayer reeve tracks his arch enemy the duke to hong kong. The duke is hunting for kazaf the fifth prince of the vampire nation. With kazafs blood & the ancient vampire bible the duke will bring a new age of darkenss. With all the odds against him out hero gets some unexpected help. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 09/25/2007 Starring: Jackie Chan Charlene Choi Run time: 88 minutes Rating: R
About this product: If the '80s were the ultimate party, welcome to the hangover. The Lather Effect is an ensemble comedy about a group of high-school friends in their mid-30s who reunite for an out-of-control 'Come As You Were' weekend. But the morning after may expose that some flames still burn, certain secrets must be revealed, and the greatest song of all time is always up for debate.
About this product: Citizens United Productions examines the phenomenon that is Barack Obama. HYPE The Obama Effect examines the Junior Senator from Illinois and his record. Is he the new Kennedy or recycled Jimmy Carter? Is he the one who will finally change Washington, or will challenge reveal politics as usual? Will he provide the unity that this country desperately desires, or create a larger divide? HYPE The Obama Effect seeks the answers. Including interviews with political leaders, media experts, and social commentators, HYPE provides the in-depth analysis that can only occur in a full-length feature documentary.
About this product: A complete guide to effects pedals with Michael Casswell. This groundbreaking DVD teaches you all you need to know about effects pedals, new and old, and guides you through the various combinations and sounds that can be achieved by pedals including; Flanger, Wah Wah, Distortion, Compression, Delay, Reverb, Volume pedal and many more!
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