Search - A Sound of Thunder (Widescreen Edition) on DVD

Jennifer D. (jennicat) from ST AUGUSTINE, FL
Reviewed on 12/30/2014...

Awesome. A thinker.

0 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Harold G. (Gig) from HOUSTON, TX
Reviewed on 5/14/2011...

It is really unfair of me to have used te star rating as I have not yet seen the movie,so I just arbitrarily clicked "didn't like" so the system would allow me to continue.

Why would I want to write a review on something I haven't seen? Let's look upon it as issuing a word of caution. While I agree with another member as to Edward Burns' fine performances in "Saving Private Ryan" and "15 Minutes" , for the most part, I have found all his other works tremndously disappointing . He is truly at his best when he is writing, directng and starring in his own material, like the fabulous "Brothers McMullen" which he brought in for about $28K, largely because much of the filming was done at his parents' Valley Stream, Long Island home.

The fact that the system presently has (17) copies of this DVD available could possibly influence my thinking as to how worthwhle a film it is, but will not allow that to enter into my judgment and what I have said here quite likely will not have any influence as to whether you order it.......just trying to perform a public service.

1 of 14 member(s) found this review helpful.

Jason C. (JJC) from NEWARK, NJ
Reviewed on 12/28/2007...

I was pretty siked when I heard that Ray Bradbury's short story "A Sound of Thunder" was being made into a movie. It was also three years prior to its release when I heard that, when Pierce Brosnan was to lead the film under the direction of Renny Harlin ("Die Hard 2", "Cliffhanger"). The film went through some severe changes during production when Brosnan left to do "Die Another Day" and Renny Harlin went to pursue another project. Peter Hyams, who is no stranger to sci-fi with "2010", "Outland" and "Timecop" on his resume, was hired in place of Harlin with Edward Burns now in the lead role, not too shabby. Filming commenced during the big 2002 floods in Prague...but nothing was ever said about it again.

Well, with no publicity and hardly any advertising and an extremely low distribution run, "A Sound of Thunder" made its way to U.S. theaters on September 2, 2005. The odds were already against this film, being a much delayed production, in which the production company went bankrupt during filming, and to put icing on the cake, test audiences panned the living hell out of it. But, I gave it a shot anyway, that's just me.

The year is 2055, time travel has been perfected and Charles Hatton (Ben Kingsley) is using it to make millions. Hatton has created a laboratory in which he sells hunting safaris in the Jurassic period. The client would be sent back in time millions of years to hunt a dinosaur with the aid of Hatton's scientist team led by Travis Ryer (Edward Burns). This is also a tricky process, where as nothing modern can go back in time, not even bullets. To kill the dinosaurs, they use nitro-glycerin guns that shoot ice bullets at full speed. Also, the team cannot step off the portal path; no signs that anyone was ever there are to be left.

During a "session," something goes wrong where the nitro guns don't work and chaos erupts. As the team finds a way to kill the dino, a dirt footprint is seen on the portal path as they go back...someone stepped off. Back in present time, Ryer realizes that something is wrong, plants are 100 times there normal size and animals are morphed into other forms of different species; ex: giant apelizards. With help of scientist Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), who helped Hatton and Ryer perfect time travel (but disapproves with everything Hatton has done with it), Ryer realizes the Earth is going though transitions every 12 hours. Plants and animals have evolved into something else, it's only a matter of time until mankind evolves. So Ryer and Rand & company must find out what exactly happened during that session and try to go back and stop it from happening...which is easier said than done.

I liked "A Sound of Thunder," only one big problem...the visual effects are crappy. Actually it's more like, some effects are good and some are just thrown together and extremely rough (the dinosaur and the futuristic exteriors are horrendous). Plain and simple, they ran out of money! What a shame, because even though "Thunder" rips off many better films and can get cheesy in places, I was entertained...it's the work of Bradbury and his theory on how one small thing can change the face of evolution is wild. And the flick does hold your interest, it's far from awful.

Another small problem I had was Edward Burns. He's a decent actor and was great in "Saving Private Ryan," "15 Minutes" and "Confidence"...but here his acting is too wooden and unbelievable, it felt like he didn't belong. This role was written for Brosnan! It's a shame this movie got caught up with problems...it's a b-flick by standard...but an enjoyable one.

Only a sci-fi fan can see passed its major flaws and have a good time.

9 of 9 member(s) found this review helpful.

The sound of a flop-A misstep causes time to be undone and a

Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 04/24/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"A seminal Ray Bradbury short story "A Sound of Thunder" receives an inferior translation to the screen. Directed by Peter Hyams ("The Relic", "Outland", "2010"), "A Sound of Thunder" finds humanity at the mercy of evolution when a time traveling visitor to the past changes everything with one misstep. Clearly Warner knew they had a dog on its hands as the film was shot in 2002 and originally set for release in 2003 but sat on unreleased for two years as the studio struggled with what to do with the project.



In the future the wealthy travel through time killing dinosaurs that were already going to die anyway courtesy of Charles Hatton's (Ben Kingsley) company. Led by scientist Travis Ryer (Edward Burns)each party "kills" the same dinosaur in the past without altering the future because that dinosaur was going to die anyway. When one of the hunters (Corey Johnson)accidently steps off of the failsafe paths, Ryer returns to find Earth torn apart by timewaves that alter species up the evolutionary chain with each one. One of the designers of the computer system that allows time travel Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormick)has figured out that something will go wrong at some point and she appears to be the only one that can help Ryer undo the past and reset our timeline on its proper course before humanity as we know it and all of our accomplishments will be wiped out.



Boy, where to start? Crippled by a small budget ($52 million compare that to the CGI intensive Steven Spielberg "Minority Report" which was budgeted at $100 million 2002)the studio elected to make the film in Prague in the Czech Republic to try and strecth every dollar. Add in subpar visual effects by Furious FX, Black Mountain Studios, Big Red Pixel and others (to be generous if they had the resources of ILM for "Jurassic Park" or the budget the visual effects might have been better) the overuse of green screen (allowing for digitally rendered sets and futuristic backdrops) that look like they are out of a cheap video game, "A Sound of Thunder" took a misstep off the path of success from the moment it was greenlit.



After director Renny Harlin was fired for making a creative decision that put him at odds with author Ray Bradbury, Peter Hyams was brought on board to save the film. Hyams does the best he can with the limited resources he had. The film IS suspenseful even if the script often fails to live up to the potential of Bradbury's short story and the visual effects fail to convince. The problem though with "A Sound of Thunder" is with the screenplay which went through three credited writers (not including uncredited rewrites by Hyams). Unfortunately Hyams was on a sinking ship and even the over-the-top performance by Ben Kingsley (who clearly knows he's in a piece of junk and digs in to have fun with his role)can save the film nor can the dour performance by lead Edward Burns.



Could "A Sound of Thunder" worked? Yep with a proper budget, screenplay and visual effects the film could have worked. The ideas in the script are pretty decent (time waves changing the different species on Earth starting from the bottom of the evolutionary ladder on up with each successive wave)but I doubt that even the best director could have salvaged the massively rewritten, reduced script which truly called for larger-than-life visual effects and production touches.



What we're left with is material right at the level of a Syfy original TV movie--an ambitious project dumbed down, undone by lack of talent and money."