This was an extremely cool movie! Like uber-cool. But, wait, what the hell was it about? It was visually nice but suffered from, what I call "Fight Club" syndrome, each scene good, but together it doesnt meld. At least "Fight Club" got to a somewhat-plausible solution, "Donnie Darko" gives us the feeling that it is solved, but after further analyzing you are left with a big bunch of nothing.
Eccentro, I definitely have to retire for the evening, but I am starting to wonder why you have to "attack" (is that too strong?) all these cool movies that you see. Donnie Darko's greatest success seems to be that when it actually reveals what happens, it makes more sense than it did before hand. Now if you weren't into some kind of sermon about "greater love hath no man" buried within a sci-fi fantasy/ angry teenage flick, OK, but maybe someone else can take over now.
"Naked Woman, Naked Man Where did you get that nice sun tan?"
Posts: 12874 | Location: Behind the Orange Curtain | Registered: 14 May 2004
Don't even put Fight Club and the incredibly solid Donnie Darko in the same sentence. I have to agree with Mark f's assessment. They play DD at a midnight theater twice a year where I live, and it's always a sell-out. There's a massive cult following for this film. Just check out metacritic user comments for the movie...
Posts: 314 | Location: Cali | Registered: 14 May 2004
quote:Originally posted by mark f: Eccentro, I definitely have to retire for the evening, but I am starting to wonder why you have to "attack" (is that too strong?) all these cool movies that you see. Donnie Darko's greatest success seems to be that when it actually reveals what happens, it makes more sense than it did before hand. Now if you weren't into some kind of sermon about "greater love hath no man" buried within a sci-fi fantasy/ angry teenage flick, OK, but maybe someone else can take over now.
Oh, I have nothing against "cool" movies--Quentin Tarantino's flicks are my favorites--just these two I found a bit dissapointing. Actually, I highly enjoyed "Donnie Darko" and actually understand it, but only after listening to the DVD commentary. Maybe, I missed something, but this was just too confusing for my taste.
Uh...Donnie Darko...most over-rated movie ever. Seriously, I fail to comprehend how this movie has such a huge following. And a town that plays it twice a year in a theater? Of all the movies in the world they choose Donnie Darko? That's just messed up.
I also agree that Fight Club and Donnie Darko should never be compared to one another. Fight Club is on a totally different level (a much higher one at that). I'm sorry, but almost everything about Donnie Darko was simply average. I must say when I first saw the movie I had really high expectations, and as you can probably tell, I was met with a mediocre film. Other than performances and such, the other thing I dislike about the film is that it gives the impression that it's saying something profound, but then at the end you're just left with a "twist" if I may. I wouldn't have a problem with this if it didn't give me the idea that it was indeed trying to say something. If it presented itself simply as a movie that sought to entertain, then whatever. But unfortunately I got a totally different feel from it. Basically, the movie thinks it's much smarter than it actually is.
K-Dog
Posts: 196 | Location: Purgatory | Registered: 04 June 2004
to me donnie darko was a big mess of good nothing. most of it didn't make sense but it was interesting. i still don't understand the ending and i try not to. i just enjoyed it and it really opened a lot of doors about time travel for me.
Yes, although some changes don't necessarily sound for the better.
I have to say that I like Donnie Darko and enjoyed the alienation/teen angst aspects of it, but could have done without the weird time travel philosophy the creator made up. The more I read about it, the more I just kind of go "Whatever ..." and it diminishes my liking for the movie.
Stuff like this (from the Donnie Darko website):
"The Manipulated Dead will often set an Ensurance Trap for the Living Receiver to ensure the Artifact is returned safely to the Primary Universe.
If the Ensurance Trap is successful, the Living Receiver is left with no choice but to use his Fourth Dimensional Powers to send the Artifact back in time into the Primary Universe before the Black Hole collapses upon itself."
WHATEVER!
And in fact, understanding more of what the story means definitely makes it less likeable to me. What was actually going on is a little bit different than what I thought was going on ... I should have just watched the movie and left it at that.
quote:Originally posted by KT: Stuff like this (from the Donnie Darko website):
"The Manipulated Dead will often set an Ensurance Trap for the Living Receiver to ensure the Artifact is returned safely to the Primary Universe.
If the Ensurance Trap is successful, the Living Receiver is left with no choice but to use his Fourth Dimensional Powers to send the Artifact back in time into the Primary Universe before the Black Hole collapses upon itself."
It sounds like a card game, or an overcooked RPG.
Posts: 570 | Location: Boston | Registered: 17 May 2004
I only watched this movie once, and barely remember it now, mostly because I thought it was boring at the time. Usually I can remember at least a scene or something from a movie, this film-nothing. Oh well, to each his own...
"If it were beneficial, their father would produce children already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every respect." -Jesus, from the Gospel Of Thomas
quote:Originally posted by Smenkharon: I only watched this movie once, and barely remember it now, mostly because I thought it was boring at the time. Usually I can remember at least a scene or something from a movie, this film-nothing. Oh well, to each his own...
So Smenkharon, let me get this straight, you write in this column to say that you don't remember the film?
Wha-ever! Talk to the hand coz the face ain't listenning!
i think the beauty of donnie darko lies in the mystery which many have found in this board to be detrimental to the film's strength. i know everytime i sit down and watch it, i notice something new, or think of something i never thought of before, and that's what makes it great. if you are angered by the ending leaving you hanging and failing to describe any sort of coherent meaning, maybe that was the point. with films like this, i get the feeling that by not going into detail and explaining everything, you are left to decide things on your own, which is much more powerful.
if you watch the extra stuff on the DVDs, the director talks about the idea of the film being about spiritual enlightenment or discovering faith, but he also makes it a point of saying that he dislikes films where they have to spell everything out for you. i like this aspect and i think donnie darko is a great example of it....
Well, Mister E, I will say that I don't remember this film in the same way I don't remember anything from Charlie's Angels. They were both vapid and afraid to make a statement of any kind, and not coincidentally, share the same producers. I didn't care to remember anything from Donnie Darko was my original point. There are lots of movies I have unfortunately forgotten the details of, but this was one I was happy to forget.
"If it were beneficial, their father would produce children already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every respect." -Jesus, from the Gospel Of Thomas
quote:i get the feeling that by not going into detail and explaining everything, you are left to decide things on your own, which is much more powerful.
Yes, that's how the movie itself is, but then the creators felt the need to create websites and stuff that explained exactly what they meant the movie to mean. And it was that that ruined the film to me. As soon as started playing with the website and figuring out what was supposed to be going on I was highly disappointed. I had a very different (and in my mind, better) explanation for what I had seen and I wish it had just been left that way.
Yes, if you haven't seen any of the filmmaker's explanations, and enjoy the mystery of the film, DON'T do any further exploring. He has this weird sci-fi type theorem with all of this crazy jargon and I think it's better to do without.
Hell, I just thought it was magical realism, subcatagory teen, subcatagory suburban. But well done.
I mean we can think psychiatric disassociation.
Or we can think wormholes and quantum mechanics, but why ruin a wet dream?
I mean the Aliens pics is monster in a box. Predator is creatures hunting man. And since their sequels never expand much beyond the original premise, they get tiresome after a point, just higher body count as the story gets more ridiculous. Then we see cross-overs. I mean Alien v. Predator is coming out as a movie, but in the comics, Alien had already met Superman AND Batman.
Donnie Darko has it right: the suggestion that random events occur in the universe, and that much of that universe is a mystery, and Donnie for the most part don't have a clue.
Big deal Dart Vader turns out to be Dad...
Posts: 171 | Location: LA/Chicago | Registered: 05 July 2004
after i watched the movie i kept thinking about it until i sort of started to get the ending and ended up thinking too hard that i was left with nothing. months later i made a joke to someone and realized that the joke i said was the exact plot to donnie darko and i was so happy that i figured it out. thought that was kinda funny. the movie was pretty good: 7/10
