Just perfect...

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This was a entertaining film keeps you in your toes the whole time. A sharp thriller with some good ideas and a great turn at the end! Reminded me of Ransom in parts but not as polished but still good! Good chemistry between the actors but what do you expect from the trio! I liked the way it was filmed and the whole vibe.For sure see this one when you have chance.A neat thriller that keeps you in the whole time.I did not hear much on this film but glad I caught it.I think it was marketed badly because I never heard of it till on Amazon! Anyone who likes a taught thriller will like this.

Abby (Maria Bello) and Neil Randall (Gerard Butler) seems to be the perfect couple in Chicago with a lovely daughter. He's climbing the corporate ladder. Neil is going to spend the weekend with his boss. Abby is going to see her sister Diane. They hire Helen Schriver from the agency to babysit Sophie for the night. On the drive to Diane, mysterious Tom Ryan (Pierce Brosnan) comes out of the backseat with a gun and news that Helen has already kidnapped their child. He starts telling them what to do like withdrawing all their cash but he throws it all into the river. He tells them to do what they're told for 24 hours and they'll have their girl back.There is a lot of unnecessary breathlessness and yelling overacting. It's all intended to raise the tension, but it's too much of a movie thing. Gerard Butler is pushing too hard. His energy diffuses the tension rather than raise it. Quiet anger would be so much more effective. Pierce Brosnan and Maria Bello are a little better. He does menace well and she's the loving wife. This has the potential for a good 3-person morality play, but director Mike Barker works overtime to pump up the artificial thrills. I was interested in the mystery of the true nature of the story, but I didn't particularly care about the people. The twist ending is fine but it needed a few more breadcrumbs laid out along the way. More hints about the ending would have made the ending more compelling.

A weak thriller by director Mike Barker, "Butterfly on a Wheel" stars Gerard Butler as Neil Randall, a father whose daughter is kidnapped by a mysterious man (Pierce Brosnan). The film's big twist – massive spoilers ahead – is that Neil's own wife (Maria Bello) has concocted this elaborate scheme to punish Neil for his infidelities."Butterfly's" title is an allusion to an Alexander Pope poem, in which the phrase "who breaks a butterfly upon a (torture) wheel" referred to all those who put inordinate effort into achieving something minor or unimportant. The implication is that Neil's wife is disproportionately punishing her husband. As the film takes Neil's point of view, Bello's character becomes an unsympathetic villain.5/10 – Worth no viewings.

Gerard Butler is a successful advertising executive, married to Maria Bello and with a young daughter. They are off out one night when Pierce Brosnan suddenly pops up in the back seat of their car, brandishes a gun and tells them that unless they do what he tells them they will never see their daughter again. He then proceeds to make them jump through a series of humiliating and harmful hoops for no apparent reason.Ultimately there is a reason, and it doesn't cheat the audience. The twist (a double twist) is guessable but not obvious and, when it comes, defuses a number of the "Hang on a minute..." reservations which have built up during most of the film.The film works, just about - I was just starting to get a bit bored with them being bounced about for no apparent reason when the film finally moved on.Brosnan and Bello are both good: Butler is a bit annoying (perhaps it is just his character). I found myself wondering what the film would have been like had Brosnan and Butler each played the other part.