I see pretty much every film released in cinemas but I don’t always write a full length review.  I only have the time and patience to write two or three full reviews each week.  For the rest of the films, I simply give the grade and leave it at that.  I’ve fulfilled my quota this week and had no intention of typing this very review for A Sound Of Thunder.  I have no choice however because this film is an utter disgrace and the public needs to know.

Has anyone heard of this film before?  I hadn’t before I saw it.  A quick check on the internet tells me that it was made in 2002 and has sat on a studio shelf for a long time.  That can’t be good.  The reason given for the delay was the bankruptcy of the company which produced it – they ran out of money during post-production.  That also ain’t good.

I try to avoid sensationalising my reviews but sometimes I can’t help myself.  So here we go.  This is the worst film I’ve seen in ten years on the big screen.  How does that sound?  Not too overdramatic?  I’m probably wrong and I’m probably forgetting about another film I carved up but right here and now, I stand by my comment.

The film in set in 2055 and centres on a safari company which has perfected the art of time travel.  For an enormous fee, you can go back 65 million years, kill a dinosaur and return to the real world.  Don’t ask me why this company has exclusive rights to time travel.  Things go wrong however when the inadvertently change the past and in doing so, change the future.

So bad were the dialogue, story, acting and special effects that the audience was laughing openly during the final 20 minutes.  No one could understand how the characters had that magical “sixth sense” to know exactly what to do in any life-threatening situation.  Even more frustrating was the fragmented story.  I thought that scenes had been left out.  That’s how disjointed it felt.

On the Internet Movie Database, the film currently has an average review of 3.8 out of 10.  This is voted upon by the public and over 1,500 people have registered a vote.  The Rotten Tomatoes website reveals that of the 82 major critics in America who reviewed the film, 76 of them gave it a negative review.  If you really feel like a laugh, you should read some of their reviews!

With both the public and the critics united in their disgust for A Sound Of Thunder, I thought I’d close with an extract from the review of Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle – “It’s somehow refreshing to know that the spirit, if not the flesh, of Edward D. Wood Jr. lives on.”