A Sound of Thunder (2005)

[riley 1]

I don't know what they were thinking when they made this movie. It's the absolute worst thing I've seen that had a wide theatrical release. It's on par with a SyFy original.

They tried to do way too much with their effects budget. Unfortunately, there are a lot of effects shots in this movie so the viewer is constantly bombarded with terrible CGI. Most of the film take places in a futuristic city. All of the cars are computer models and they only made 3 or 4 different ones. As a result, there's a ridiculous amount of traffic, all traveling at the same speed, and all made up of only a few unique vehicles.

Even worse than that, though, are the green screen walking scenes. At one point it becomes clear that two of the actors are simply standing in place and shifting their weight back and forth rather than walking on a treadmill in front of the screen. That's the level of film making you're dealing with in this movie.

The biggest surprise for me when I saw this is that it features Sir Ben Kingsley. That's right, they roped Ghandi into this crapfest. There's a lot more shit to see in this movie, but I'll leave it at that and invite anyone brave enough to experience it on their own.

[sillstaw 414]

Fun fact: It's from the producers of "Battlefield Earth." The lawsuit that brought to light the budget inflation of "Battlefield" is part of the reason "A Sound Of Thunder's" effects are so cheap and terrible.

[linuslee 0]

The poor man's pirate DVD of the Butterfly effect.

This train-wreck ran out of funding after one of the locations got severely flooded and took half the equipment & the budget with it.

Released late, over budget and with appalling, not-even-close-to-post-production special effects.

[thestray 361]

One of the most absurdly bad movies I've ever seen. I'll let wikipedia explain:

 

"The film received overwhelmingly negative critical reviews.Common complaints against the film included its poor special effects, uninvolved performances, scientific errors, and Ben Kingsley's hair. As a result of the poor reviews and lack of promotion, the film which was estimated to have cost $80 million — grossed less than $12 million in worldwide release. A Sound of Thunder currently holds a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 96 reviews."

[ShiftyBea 4]

Yeah, it is a bloody awful movie, truly dire. Based on the Ray Bradbury story, too, it's a great premise, how can they mess it up? Watch the film and you will see exactly how they could mess it up.

 

This film is actually a perfect example of 'how did this get made?'

[sillstaw 414]

This movie was posted before, but rather than lecture you on searching for the movies you want to suggest, I'll just rephrase what I said in the last thread.

 

Fun fact: It's from the production company that made "Battlefield Earth." "Battlefield Earth," as you may know, was reported to cost a little above $70 million, but the actual money spent on production totaled up to $44 million, which meant that the producer pretty much embezzled about $30 million off just that picture.

 

When the financiers found out about this, they sued and bankrupted the mini-studio that was producing "A Sound of Thunder." This, in combination with other pieces of bad luck (like the sets for the movie being destroyed by flooding in Prague), meant that money ran out partway through post-production... resulting in the atrocious special effects.

 

Personally, I don't think that this movie had any chance of working. Even aside from production problems, the short story is basically everything it can be. It worked as a half-hour short on "Ray Bradbury Theater," but it can't be extended without reworking the plot substantially.

[thestray 361]

My bad, I did do a search but failed to take note of the fact that searches can't contain words under four letters, so it didn't return any results. Woopsie! My apologies.

[ThePeterWhitney 2]

the SFX were better in movies ten years older than Sound of Thunder

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

To be fair, by the time it was released, I wouldn't be surprised if "Sound of Thunder" WAS ten years old.

[Thor99 2]

Sir Ben Kingsley, Rachel Weiss and Ed Burns star in in this time travel debacle.

 

This movie has bat monkeys, human catfish and the worst cgi/green screen if all time.

Please, please, please do this movie.

[AntoinetteLeilaniNelson 2]

i second this one.

[RyanCacophony 0]

This movie would be perfect! Poor acting, cheap-looking special effects, and a nonsensical plot playing havoc with the laws of physics, evolution, rationality and logic. A very entertaining and enjoyable movie in spite of all that! I really hope this happens!

[seanotron 2307]

Plus it spits in the face of the late great Ray Bradbury, who wrote the story it's (supposedly) based on.

[CarolineFulford 2]

Saw this a couple weeks after it came out. Conditions were perfect-- we were totally alone in the theater, which was days away from closing. I had no idea what I was about to witness.

 

Based on a Ray Bradbury short story, this steaming pile of mid-naughties sci-fi crap features terrible CGI, high-concept nonsense, and a cast of nobodies, with the exception of the always ethnically ambiguous Ben Kingsley, sporting a ridiculous wig.

 

This movie seems to have slipped into obscurity without much appreciation. Anyone else even seen it? IMDb page here. The director seems to have also been responsible for Timecop (1994).

[thestray 361]

You've made the same mistake I did! There's already a thread http://forum.earwolf.com/topic/4024-a-sound-of-thunder/

[CarolineFulford 2]

Whoops! Nothing came up when I searched for it. Oh, well.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

Anyone else remember the episode of "The Sopranos" where Christopher kept hounding Ben Kingsley to be in his horror movie, but Kingsley kept dodging him because he was above that sort of material? I remember the episode being particularly funny, because it aired right around the same time that Kingsley was popping up in total bullshit like "Suspect Zero", "Bloodrayne", and THIS, so no, he certainly wasn't above doing a shitty horror movie at that point in his career. Nice to see him back on the A-List again.

[PhillipMedoc 648]

Oh man, this looks great, I gotta see this.

 

Check it out, they're brothers from another mother:

 

 

That's Exeter from This Island Earth, if you didn't know.

[CarolineFulford 2]

The career of Ben Kingsley would make for pretty good HDTGM fodder. I'm preparing myself for his Maori face tattoo in Ender's Game.

[Johnny Unusual 525]

I remember hearing about how bad this movie was, but the question is this: is it ENTERTAININGLY bad. Has anyone scene this to say what would make it fun to talk about. Oh, and Kingsley doesn't surprise me, Basically, he approaches acting like a job and despite his great skill and Sir Title, he'll star in just about anything if you can pay his fee. Michael Caine sort of works the same way. Got to respect that really: bring the best you can to any project... even if it is garbage.

 

[thestray 361]

Oh yes, there's more than enough fodder here. It's been a while since I seen it, but when I saw it when I wasn't laughing my jaw was dropping. Maybe I'll give it a watch again this weekend so I can point out some specifics.

[Bob Drillboids 181]

 

The poor man's pirate DVD of the Butterfly effect.

 

 

Anything worse than "The Butterfly Effect" seems like an excellent film for HDTMG. Speaking of which, how has "The Butterfly Effect" not been suggested in the forums yet??

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

This would be a fucking amazing movie for them to cover.

 

Terrible greenscreen, Baboon Lizards, some of the worst science babble (fucking timewaves) i've heard in a long time, and alot of otherwise decent actors in roles im sure they all regret.

 

The shot of Ed Burns love interest in the movie turning into a catfish hybrid is among the more magical moments in film history.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

Its pretty essential this movie is covered at some point.

 

 

[RaySmotherman 0]

I was just reminded of this "film" this morning. It must be done! It is one of the three worst movies I've ever seen.