reviewed by Brian "The Naked Gun" Felts
& Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell
Edward Burns (Saving Private Ryan) stars as Travis Ryer, a scientist who works for Charles Hatton,
played by Ben Kingsley (Gandhi,) developer of a time machine that he uses to make millions of dollars
selling hunting safari's to rich people. After an expedition that had an accident, the planet begins
to go through changes and Ryer believes that something happened on the last safari that changed time.
As time goes by, time continues to change as the planet alters and humans are no longer the top species
on the planet and Ryer along with the help of his team and a renegade scientist Sonia Rand, played by
Catherine McCormick (Braveheart,) must find out what happened and go back in time to fix the problem.
I am amazed that Burns and Kingsley are in this film. These two actors try to bring validity to a script
that is not very good. Burns gives his usual performance and is another actor that could easily take on
the role of the new action hero if he so chose. Most of the time, Burns is the only thing on the screen
worth watching. Kingsley is believable as the capitalist who cuts corners in order to make millions. However
he disappears in act three and we don't see him again until the very end. Both of their agents should be
kicked in the genital area for allowing their talent to be in this movie.
The worst thing about this movie was the special effects. The first scene when the crew is shown in the
past, there is a dinosaur that is so poorly computer generated that its as if the movie Jurassic Park
had never been created. It looked like a green gelatin shield and not the skin of a dinosaur. That
actually was the case for every animal in the movie after the time changes took place, completely
unrealistic. I wonder if the entire budget went to the time chamber set because that room was very nice,
but nothing else was.
The worst example is in the first 15 minutes of the movie when the character Ryer is walking with his
assistant and they are supposedly walking down a street in Chicago fifty years from now. The effects were
so poorly done that it looked like the actors were walking in a room with pictures moving by on the walls,
completely two dimensional. Igor Chevalier was the Special Effects art designer and he needs to go back to
school because the S.E. was the only thing to save this movie and it was just plain horrible. If he didn't
have the money than the producers are to blame. A movie with the need for good special effects should not be
released like this.
This movie goes into the category of yet another crappy summer movie in the year 2005. I beginning to
thing the action/sci-fi/fantasy movie is dead because if the movie doesn't have a Star or a Ring in the
title, it is just plain terrible. Skip this movie. In fact run as fast as you can and don't look back.
Brian - the Naked Gun This movie had me excited to some degree, but it was so poorly made, I can't suggest seeing it. "A Sound of Thunder" had so many red herrings and unanswered questions, I didn't really have time to get into the story. When the hunters changed the past, why did the evolution of the future change in "waves?" How did Catherine McCormack's character know that? There no evidence that would happen. Why is it, after one time wave, Sonia Rand's (McCormack) apartment building filled up with bugs, but the rest of the city didn't have the same problems? On the last wave, which changed the physical evolution of man, why were all the same buildings erect from the original Chicago 2055? What need would they have for the now dominating species? Ben Kingsley is the best performance in the movie, but he unexplainably disappears somehow later in the film. I don't mean his character disappears. He simply STOPS being in the film, as if the production couldn't pay him for the last two weeks of shooting. Edward Burns was also good and makes a good leading man, but he didn't stretch himself, and why would he? In fact, that was the theme of the movie; "Look how much money we don't have!" There wasn't a single green screened scene that matched up with its background. The dinosaur they were hunting in the past looked like it was seriously unfinished, complete with computer rendering glitches in the final print. I couldn't believe my eyes. Looking through director Peter Hyams' resume, including "End of Days" and "The Relic," that was the producers' first mistake on this film, hiring HIM. The second mistake was proceeding forward without being able to afford any designing and visual effects talent. Their main sound stage design was good, but obviously that's where all the money went. Overall, if you like Ray Bradbury's original short story this is based on, you will HATE this movie. It completely does not give it justice visually, and is SO distracting, getting excited over the material was very tough. I would skip seeing this movie if I had a chance to relive the moment where I told the cinema's ticket girl, "One for 'A Sound of Thunder.'" Benn - Where's the Humanity?
Just when you think movies can't get any worse, bring on Labor Day weekend and we have yet another
contestant for the worse movie of the year. Ray Bradbury must be rolling over in his grave at the
effort put forth in making his short story into a movie.