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Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $11.24
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "dakro cheats death"
Review: when i heard from my friends about this movie i knew from the second i heard what it was about that it was gunna be awesome. and i was definately right. this is jake gyllenhaal's first movie and the best. i think all the actors in this movie did an awesome job. donnie darko is about a troubled teen sturggling with skitzofrenia. he, one night sees a giant bunny that tells him that the world will end in 28 days. after that the movie takes off with a plot that is hard to explain, but pretty much darko cheats death, gets a girfriend, does what frank(the bunny), tells him to, and then decides to wander about time travel. i think that if this movie would have been in theatres it would have sold out the first weekend. donnie darko is possibly one of the greatest movies of all time. the best part in the movie is the end, which makes you think and at the same time is very sad, but enjoyable. i hope everyone likes this movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Mad World
Review: One of the most surprising and memorable indie gems of the last years, "Donnie Darko" is a gripping and intriguing cult movie and a fine addition to the coming-of-age genre. Well, to define this movie`s genre is not easy, really, since it goes into sci-fi, teen drama, thriller, suspense and black comedy territory. But the most surprising element is that it actually suceeds at combining all that genres.

A powerful experience about growing up, the building of personality, communication, schizophrenia and the frontiers between sanity and madness, "Donnie Darko" is a superb achievement. Jake Gyllenhaal is excellent as the confused, smart and offbeat Donnie, that spends most of his time going to school and talking to a giant rabbit.

Richard Kelly`s debut as a director is strong and convincing, providing captivating and absorbing cinematography with an unique mood and an ethereal, oniric and dream-like atmosphere (similar to some David Lynch, Atom Egoyan and even Tim Burton works). Delivering enough surrealistic and gothic details, Kelly truly creates a personal and identifiable style here. The haunting score also helps to keep things interesting, capturing the zeitgeist of the eighties and providing a nostalgic dark feeling (Gary Jules` song "Mad World", a cover of a Tears for Fears hit, is particularly deep and compelling).

"Donnie Darko" is an amazing cinematic experience that wisely focuses alienation in suburbia, giving a peculiar portrait of teen depression and the coming of adulthood in an original way. This is what independent cinema does better, to offer innovative perspectives about old, been-done-to-death subjects. Richard Kelly`s directorial debut is one of the most interesting american movies of the last years that looks like nothing else. A real alien.

Highly Recommended.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Has cult classic potential
Review: It's quirky. It's weird. It's memorable. And it has a cool soundtrack.

Think "American Beauty" style satirical family commentary, throw in equal measures of teen angst, mental illness, time travel and one hilarious monologue on the sex life of the smurfs and you get the idea. All the ingredients are there for a great film but while I would say the film is certainly Very Good, it never quite pulls all the threads together sufficiently to make it Great.

The film opens with our hero Donnie waking up in the middle of the road beside his bike. We don't know if he was hit by a car or hit by lightening or quite what happened (which sets the tone for the whole movie and in particular the ending - we never quite know what happened). But one thing is for sure, things started to get weird for Donnie from then on. (Look out also for the fantastic opening track "Killing Moon" by Echo and the Bunnymen).

Donnie is a moody, troubled teen with a bit of pyromania in his past. He takes medication for some type of mental illness, fights with his sister, uses bad language at the family dinner table and sleepwalks. He also hears voices that tell him to come outside at night where he meets a rather sinister six foot bunny rabbit called Frank for the first time who tells him that the world is going to end in 28 days. Interested yet? And it's just as well that Frank wanted to speak with Donnie because while they were chatting about the end of the world a jet engine falls from the sky and crashes into Donnie's bedroom. You've gotta say that's original.

The whole mood of the film is fantastically dark and ominous and there are enough twists and turns to hold the interest right the way through. I've found myself thinking about this movie for some time after having seen it and pondering its themes of second chances and sacrifice.

Where Donnie Darko lets itself down is that it never quite brings together the various threads laid by the large supporting cast. There is just too much going on. There's Donnie's girlfriend (is she/isn't she, my what a strange family she has), his father (distant and juvenile), mother (earnest and caring), school teachers (too many to mention other than to say that Drew Barrymore is badly miss-cast and Carter from ER knows more about time travel than he is letting on), a creepy motivational speaker who turns out to be a child molester (Patrick Swayze), Grandma Death (no idea how she was supposed to fit in), a shrink, Donnie's school friends and acquaintances - the list goes on and on. I'm just not sure what all these characters had to do with the story. And because there are so many of them, they don't get developed very well and the whole thing just doesn't tie together as neatly as it could.

I'd sum it up by calling it an interesting and thought provoking film with interesting themes and a gloriously dark atmosphere.

Rent it and see for yourself.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Booya - Time Travel Is Frickin' Sweet
Review: This weird little dude figures out how to travel in time and uses to save his girlfriend (who is a smoking hot underage girl) but kills himself in the process. The whole time I was watching this movie, I couldn't stop thinking about his sweet looking girlfriend and also about time travel. How sweet would it be to go back in time and write a movie like stars wars a week before george lucas did and sell it to the same poeple and everything and basically become george lucas by stealing his own idea. Also though, you could change a few key things in star wars - like you could make princess leia black so she would have a sweet ghetto booty. And I'd also make luke a robot like 3P0 'cause he was always kind of a douchebag anyway.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a wierd journey worth taking
Review: Part Greek tragedy, part teen-angst drama, part music video, part surrealist set-piece; Donnie Darko tells the story of a young man living, like a stranger, within his own family while dealing with very real demons of schizophrenia and self-imposed isolation and an (imagined?) demon in the form of a hellish looking 6' talking rabbit named Frank. There is a seething undercurrent of rage, frustration, and teenage existential confusion throughout the movie, which is brilliantly woven together with supernatural and science fiction elements. Jake Gyllenhaal is perfect as the title character who's above-average intelligence and disconnected, fatalistic viewpoint and morbidly ironic sense of humor eerily portray the mindset many loners who find themselves on the fringe of high school society. The "Sparkle Motion" dance sequence evokes memories of Nirvana's "Teen Spirit" video with its slow-motion film style and backdrop of anarchic destruction intercut with a school talent show. Notable performances given by Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, and the star's real-life sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal (playing Donnie's sister, Elizabeth Darko). The moody score and dark 80's new wave soundtrack heighten the sense that this movie conveys visually and narratively; a sense of foreboding and of imminent disaster and that the protagonist is on a journey of discovery, but one that may lead to answers he may not be prepared to cope with; one which he is compelled, like a prophetic dream, to see through to the end. The DVD has the added bonus of containing the music video for Gary Jules' brilliant and haunting cover of Tears for Fears' "Mad World" which, now three years after it's inclusion in Donnie Darko, is gaining much deserved radio play.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: They made me do it...and i am not complaining
Review: This movie is just awesome. It was an impulse buy, i was looking for a Horatio Hornblower DVD (which i did find). And hidden near the anime section, i found this great movie. But I first heard it from my friend Micheal (who makes Donnie look normal). So really was this an impulse buy..maybe not but who cares, i have seen this movie 10x and i want to see 10 more times. Buy it, you will not regret it and if you do...then...yeah i dont know what to tell you

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Weird. 15th april 2004.
Review: It is ever such a weird film to me, i can't even explain it perhaps its because i didn't get the storyline of it cos it wasn't that good, and i couldn't take it in propally. I only had it because i thought donnie was drew barrymore.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Don't judge it by the cover.
Review: Donnie Darko is a good movie if you're looking for a suspense flick. The cover makes it look like a "cheesy-horror," but it doesn't do it justice at all.
Time travel is an interesting subject by itself and this movie uses it as the main theme. It keeps you wondering what is going to happen all the way through the movie.
This movie shocks you at the and keeps you at the edge of your seat throughout from the beginning to the end. The ending is quick and is hard to figure out. It is the kind of movie that you sit back and watch the end credits starring at the screen thinking about the ending...if you like those kinds of movies you should check it out! I promise you won't be disappointed. If nothing else, you can see Patrick Swayze not dancing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not amazing but enjoyable
Review: After watching this movie 3 times, I can say that I like it, but theres a couple problems. One is that at times it seems a little "pretentious"... for some reason the scene in which it shows Donnie's school with cheesy 80's music in the background reall pisses me off... I think it would be a better movie if it took place today. Though besides that it is pretty entertaining. Might leave a couple questions unanswered but I dont think its THAT confusing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: HAHA
Review: I really like this review that someone else made. Whats wrong with this person. "These damn kids smoke their drugs and watch these druggy movies. Why can't they watch great classics like 2Fast2Ferious or xXx with Vin Diesal or any movie with the Rock in it." Go watch something where things blow up since you have the attention span of a goldfish.

Donnie Darko is another time-warp movie. There's some
originality to the plot, but the overall idea is not too original, or particularly coherent. This is another example of a movie made by drug addicts who put their crazed minds on screen, to pollute the American general public. Stupid movie with terrible acting. Avoid. You won't get anything interesting; only to make the drug addict filmmakers and their souless studio executive backers richer so they could buy more illicit drugs.


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