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Donnie Darko Customer Reviews (124 - 126 of 213 Reviews)

28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds.
Donnie Darko is a the cool/rebel kid in a middle class family in modern day suberbia. After escaping death as a jet engine crashed through his bedroom, that he avoided due to instructions from a demonic bunny in his head, Frank, Donnie now feels he must fllow Frank since he saved his life. Frank's direction to Donnie are destructive, sadistic, but still productive in the community. Darko is rebellious, goes against the grain, but wants to do good, and "save the world" if he can. Frank tells Donnie the world is coming to an end and only he can save it. Donnie is working on the theory of time travel to save us all.

"Damn it Donnie, why'd you have to get so smart on us?"

Richard Kelly, who was only paid $9,000 to write and direct this film, delivers a stunning and brilliant piece of work. He develops each character to perfection. You do not have to know everything about a character to get a feel for them, and Kelly provides just enough screen time for his characters so that you feel you know their persona. There were a few flaws in this film, but the pros far our weigh the cons.

"What is feces?"
"Baby mice."
"Awww."

Donnie Darko is a brilliant film. Jake Gyllenhaal who stars as Donnie Darko does a superb acting job. His character, lines, and persona are delivered with such strong emotion and conviction. He definitely grabs you with each line, and you are dying to see what his fate is, as it cannot be good. Is he insane? Maybe, but his theories and will is not. My only complaint of the whole film, which I hoped would be corrected in the Director's Cut, was the transition from Darko sitting on the car at the end, to the final sequence (I don't want to give anything away now do I). It is easy to understand the differences of the two story lines, but not what truly happens.

"...and Bethany, if you feel the need to vomit up there, just swallow it."
"Thanks Mom."

Donnie Darko was a must have for my DVD collection. It is a film that when any friend visits you ask, "Have you seen Donnie Darko?" Requiem for a Dream has that same effect on people, though Donnie Darko is not as powerful. It is a rent first type of movie, as not everyone will not understand the film, enjoy the content, or appreciate its greatness. It is a marvelous film that everyone should give one solid viewing.

"Why do you wear that stupid bunny suit?"
"Why do you wear that stupid man suite?"

Grade: A


The most original movie I have ever seen
I had not actually really heard about this movie and knew just a little about the plot, but I still decided to buy it. And, wow, that was a good choice. This is the most original movie EVER!! It has lots of dark humor (absolutely hilarious moments), drama, science-fiction, and horror. The movie also has great acting, notably by Jake Gylenhaal as Donnie and his dad was great also. Jena Malone also does a great job as Donnie's cute and sweet girlfriend. The movie also has stars Patrick Swayze (he was hilarious and great) and Drew Barrymore. The movie is about Donnie Darko, a troubled youngster who goes to a psychiatrist. He is visited by his imaginary rabbit reptilian, human sized friend called Frank. He talks to him, telling him to do things and about what will happen in the future. One very strange but amazing moment comes when the engine of a plane lands in Donnie's room. Donnie is bothered by some bullies at school and is very open to tell everyone what's on his mind (his teacher and a public speaker). But, Frank tells him to do bad things, which I won't give away but the greatest mystery is when Frank tells Donnie when the world is going to end. The voice of Frank is powerful and absolutely brilliant, but the actor that carries the movie is Jake Gylenhaal. His emotions, expressions, movemets, and powerful sentences are brilliant. Everything in this movie is brilliant and the ending still has me confused and shocked. That's why this is like Memento a movie that you need to rewatch. This movie is so original that you just have to be amazed and absolutely love it. This one will make you think and think over and over. Believe me, this one's awesome and a must see.

"Burn it to the ground"
Even though I usually only write music reviews on amazon.com, I just felt obligated to say how awesome this movie is. The acting is superb all around, as is the dialogue, which turns what could have been an over-the-top and ridiculous premise into something believable and familiar. Set in the fictitious late 1980's suburbia of Middlesex, this film at once stuns you with its accurate portrayal of family and social life in such a locale, and it extends itself beyond the cliched boundaries of typical suburban teen dramadies (for example, Donnie's father is not a complete jerk). This movie combines elements of science fiction, horror, drama, tragedy, suspense, and even comedy into one eclectic yet effective amalgam that grips you from beginning to end. Jake Gyllenhaal is utterly believable as Donnie, a teen suffering from what seem to either be psychotic hallucinations or ominous visions of a six foot tall rabbit named Frank, who upon their first encounter informs him that the world will end in "28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds". This meeting occurs late one night, when in some sadistically sardonic twist of fate, a jet engine plummets from the sky and lands right on Donnie's room. Fortunately, he is not there at the time because Frank has drawn him outside, and thus "saved" him from what was sure to be an extremely unpleasant demise. Because of this fact, Donnie feels indebted to his new "friend," and follows any instructions Frank gives him. This leads to no small amount of trouble in Middlesex, as Donnie becomes increasingly reckless and unstable, much to the dismay of his parents (skillfully played by Mary McDonnell and Holmes Osborne) and especially his gym teacher Mrs. Farmer, played with an effective amount of self-righteousness and obliviousness by Beth Grant. The rest of the cast is spectacular as well, especially Noah Wyle as the cautiously helpful Prof. Monnitoff, Drew Barrymore as Donnie's sympathetic English teacher Mrs. Pomeroy, Katharine Ross as Donnie's caring psychiatrist Dr. Thurman, Patrick Swayze as oblivious self-help guru Jim Cunninham, and most of all Jena Malone as Donnie's troubled girlfriend Gretchen Ross, who becomes one of the only things keeping Donnie going. As the movie progresses, Donnie begins to feel more and more isolated, his only sources of solace being Gretchen and a book given to him by Monnitoff called "The Philosophy of Time Travel" written by Roberta Sparrow, a local recluse whom Donnie and his friends lovingly refer to as "Grandma Death". With the aid of both Monnitoff and Sparrow, Donnie believes he has discovered the secret of time travel. All of these characters and plots converge on one fateful Halloween night, causing Donnie to finally lose it in one of the films most heartwrenching and chilling scenes. In the end, Donnie makes an extremely sad, but somehow optimistic decision to, ah, well, you'll just have to see the movie. Along with all the magnificent elements already defined, this movie features several other things for which I must commend it, the first of which is its soundtrack and score. Utilizing a combination of popular songs from the 80's and a stellar, beautiful, and melancholy score of instrumental works by composer Michael Andrews, this film is appealing on more than one level, which is more than I can say for many movies. Another thing which I must take the time to acknowledge is the extremely realistic and effective subplot involving a student named Cherita Chen (played very well by Jolene Purdy) who is teased by her classmates for being overweight and foreign. This sad scenario is all too real in many schools, and is brought into the spotlight in this movie with a haunting and sorrowful authenticity. Overall, director Richard Kelly has outdone himself to say the least (especially considering this is his first movie), and one can only hope that he continues to manufacture material of the same calibur as this. If you haven't seen this movie yet, then by all means do so: I can honestly say that it is one of the best films I have ever seen. (NOTE TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE SEEN THIS MOVIE, DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVE NOT: I know there is some debate as to whether the entire movie was real or just Donnie's imagination, and I just have to weigh in on this matter: the jet engine that crashes through Donnie's room obviously came from the plane his mother and sister were flying in when it ran into the wormhole that manifested when the end of the world was set to occur, so therefore he must have discovered the secret to time travel in order to allow himself to go back and alter the course of time and restart the entire thing. Just my thoughts.)

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