Just saw "Donnie Darko" WOW!!!!! [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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Worf101
08-24-2004, 09:07 PM
Man what an amazing film. It slew me. I was physically and emotionally rung out after that one. Heads up folks, there's a new film in my top ten. I just can't say enough about it. And thanks to Drew Barrymore for seeing the potential of this work and producing it. Man, I'm still stunned. What a great, great film... Thanks HBO!!!!!!!

Da Worfster :D

topspeed
08-26-2004, 01:57 PM
I don't know a damn thing about this film so I checked out their website http://www.donniedarko.com and guess what? I still don't know a damn thing about this film :mad:!!! That has to be one of the most infuriating websites I've ever been to. If I wanted to play games, I turn on my f@#*&'n PS2!

Without giving it away, what is the premise of this thing?

ToddB
08-27-2004, 01:15 AM
I saw this movie thanks to my brother. I agree with your assessment, it does a good job of capturing and escalating the tension inherent in the uncertainty of the story. And the clues they drop throughout the movie do nothing to telegraph it's ending, they just add to the confusion. I also thought that it's quirky premise was executed very well.

Worf101
08-27-2004, 08:11 AM
I don't know a damn thing about this film so I checked out their website http://www.donniedarko.com and guess what? I still don't know a damn thing about this film :mad:!!! That has to be one of the most infuriating websites I've ever been to. If I wanted to play games, I turn on my f@#*&'n PS2!

Without giving it away, what is the premise of this thing?

I'm so jazzed on this film I really, really can't tell you the premise or anything about it without giving it away. I will say if you saw "The Butterfly Effect" then you're "kinda" prepared, but not totally. I just talked the local "art" theatre into showing the "Directors Cut" I'm gonna go see it again. I have to....

Da Worfster :o

kexodusc
08-27-2004, 10:11 AM
I'm so jazzed on this film I really, really can't tell you the premise or anything about it without giving it away. I will say if you saw "The Butterfly Effect" then you're "kinda" prepared, but not totally. I just talked the local "art" theatre into showing the "Directors Cut" I'm gonna go see it again. I have to....

Da Worfster :o

Yep, it sure smoked "The Butterfly Effect"...which wasn't bad, but since I saw Donnie Darko first, I couldn't help but compare the two.
And was that one mean freaky lookin' rabbit or what?

chimera128
08-31-2004, 01:00 AM
I'd be more scared if he looked like the Easter Bunny. At least looking as satanic as he did you knew what he was about =). The local budget theatre was showing it this last week so I finally got to see it. Have to agree that it is much better than "The Butterfly Effect".

topspeed
09-01-2004, 10:22 AM
Evil Rabbits? Butterflies? Now I get it! I've seen this flick. What was is called?

Hmmm....

When Easter Bunnies go Bad! That's it!

It was on Fox, right?

Kam
09-01-2004, 05:46 PM
hey worfster!! how ya been, i've ben absent for a while, but am back, nyc has been crazy. i haven't seen the director's cut yet of this, but have heard the extra 20 mins or so don't really "explain" the ending or anything that much more, they just add to the whole ambiance of the story, which is to say, what the f is going on? and loving every minute of it.
i loved this the first time i saw it and immediately bought the dvd, and find new things in it everytime i've seen it, really enjoyed it and you're right, no real way to describe what this movie really is about.


SPOILERS

The ending what i always thought happenned was the fuselage of the plane that gets sucked into the time portal/ worm hole is fueled by human emotion, and mainly by Donnie's emotion. i have to see it again to go over his talks with the Noah wylie character and his letter to grandma death at the end, but i thought it was donnie that created the worm hole that sent the plane's fuselage back and himself as well the "second" time around to join the fuselage and die, and prevent all that had happenned (both good and bad) from happening. the death of the jena malone character fueled donnie's decision, he opens the worm hole to go back, and goes back with the fuselage. the "first time" however, he doesn't because he has to see the consequences first before deciding whether or not to live with them, i.e. the whole "time umbilical cord" thing. i guess maybe another way, is from the moment of the fuselage crash, we are watching donnie's "time umbilical cord" and see it to its progression, he doesn't like it i.e. jena dying, so stays in bed. err... now am just confusing myself, which i guess is the point of the movie.
anywho, my two cents!

peace
k2

Worf101
09-01-2004, 07:27 PM
Been wonderin' about you and figured you were hip deep in some film projet. Glad to see you're alive and survivin' in my ole home town. We missed you around here although Lex has almost been keeping this board alive all on his lonesome. As for Darko.... man what a move. I have to see the directors cut. How do you feel it compares to "The Butterfly Effect". Not movie to move because face it, DD's much better, but as it relates to the whole question of the "time paradox" and alternate futures? I'm glad I finally caught this film and that you've checked back in..

Da Worfster :D

Kam
09-08-2004, 11:22 AM
I thought the premise was interesting enough, but i'd have to check the archives for my original review, i had some problems with the time paradoxes created in butterfly, but i cant' remember what they were.
i liked the premise, that was pretty cool how reading the events of the past could bring him back to them. But i guess, just going on memory here (and i saw a special screening of this a few weeks, i think, before the release date) some of the things that bothered me are (and before anyone jumps on me for the whole, just-shut-up-and-enjoy-the-movie-kam, which i can do, this is a sci-fi movie on time travel, you SHOULD think or it should make you think and analyze it):

When he jumps back to being a kid, he seems to have his older self mentality with him, i.e. he is not really jumping back in time, but going back with his older self and taking over the body of the younger self for that critical time frame.

I do remember there being some good story moves, like when you first see the mom come upon him as a young boy in the ktichen holding the knife, and then later explaining it somehow (i dont remember how, but i remember i liked it).

Thinking back, i really have to see it again, because i have a big problem with the father attacking the son scene, but i don't remember why, something about twin paradoxes, since the father had the same ability (i think) and so did the son, what would happen when they both did it, or something, just rambling here.

Overall, i guess i thought donnie darko was a truly original take on the whole time travel genre and story, in that it was truly just a great story, and then the ending made it a "what-the-hell-just-happenned" type of movie, in a good way. Butterfly seemed like it was a great pitch and vehicle for Kutcher to try and break out of his goofy image, which he did a good job in the limited role, i just didn't care. i guess that's the problem with multiple timeline/story ideas, in that you don't really get to know the characters and so dont have any attachment to them. i didnt care for any of the characters and any 'reality' seemed fine to me. although i did like the whole balancing idea, that one change in the past will be balanced out in another way in the present/future. that's a cool idea. so saving X in the past means Y will die in the future, and vice versa.

i guess because there are such great time travel movies out there (ala donnie darko) butterfly effect, which i guess is an average movie, drops lower when compared to the better ones.

kinda like pearl harbor, sure it's a piece of crap, but then you compare it to ToraToraTora, and you see how amazingly big a piece of crap it really is. tough to have a movie stand alone and judge it in a vacuum.

just some ranmbling thoughts, as usual. some things never change!!
peace
k2

Geoffcin
09-09-2004, 04:55 PM
The ending what i always thought happenned was the fuselage of the plane that gets sucked into the time portal/ worm hole is fueled by human emotion, and mainly by Donnie's emotion. i have to see it again to go over his talks with the Noah wylie character and his letter to grandma death at the end, but i thought it was donnie that created the worm hole that sent the plane's fuselage back and himself as well the "second" time around to join the fuselage and die, and prevent all that had happenned (both good and bad) from happening. the death of the jena malone character fueled donnie's decision, he opens the worm hole to go back, and goes back with the fuselage. the "first time" however, he doesn't because he has to see the consequences first before deciding whether or not to live with them, i.e. the whole "time umbilical cord" thing. i guess maybe another way, is from the moment of the fuselage crash, we are watching donnie's "time umbilical cord" and see it to its progression, he doesn't like it i.e. jena dying, so stays in bed. err... now am just confusing myself, which i guess is the point of the movie.
anywho, my two cents!

peace
k2

Did Donnie have a choice, or not? I vote NO. Those "things" coming out of peoples chest that he was able to see seem to motivate people to do things. (remember his sister skipping, and his father going to get a beer) Donnie was also irresistibly motivated to go to Grandma death's house. So was there any choice in it on his part? Grandma death had been part of the loop even before Donnie was born. It seems that the whole thing had been predetermined, and Donnie, even though he became aware of it (several other people seemed to have been unconsciously aware of it too after the fact), had no control at all about what happened.

If we're casting votes; I will put this in the 10 best moves I've seen in the past 5 years.
It's rare that a movie gets you to think for hours on topics that you never concidered before.

dean_martin
09-10-2004, 09:22 AM
Did Donnie have a choice, or not? I vote NO. Those "things" coming out of peoples chest that he was able to see seem to motivate people to do things. (remember his sister skipping, and his father going to get a beer) Donnie was also irresistibly motivated to go to Grandma death's house. So was there any choice in it on his part? Grandma death had been part of the loop even before Donnie was born. It seems that the whole thing had been predetermined, and Donnie, even though he became aware of it (several other people seemed to have been unconsciously aware of it too after the fact), had no control at all about what happened.

If we're casting votes; I will put this in the 10 best moves I've seen in the past 5 years.
It's rare that a movie gets you to think for hours on topics that you never concidered before.

I watched this for the first time last weekend and was blown away! The storyline reminded me of Butterfly Effect (at first) and the style reminded me of Virgin Suicides. Unfortunately, my 2-bit rental place only had the VHS version. (The DVD will head my Christmas list.) After doing a little research online to discover what it's all about, the key is the book the Philosophy of Time Travel by Roberta Sparrow (Grandma Death). Half the fun of this movie is piecing the puzzle together AFTER you've watched it. I would NOT recommend finding and reading the book excerpts before watching the movie. The Director's Cut included with the summer dvd release (which I have not seen) may give a few more clues as to the phenomena occurring, but I still don't think it's in-your-face obvious. If you've seen the movie, however, by all means track down the book. That's all I'll say.

Dusty Chalk
09-22-2004, 09:57 PM
...except, I got nothing to say. I finally watched the film. Liked it, a lot. Very good film. Think I liked Butterfly Effect better (I think it hit me in the tragic bone a little more).

I didn't understand the whole "glass shield" thing, at all. Was he being prevented from doing something? WTF.

And nice cameos from Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, and Noah Wyle. Well, a bit more than cameos, but the real stars were the kids, Donnie, his family, and Gretchen, especially.

I loved the scene in the school auditorium and the parent teacher conference. I know it's a bit of a stereotype (stuck up schoolmarm type), but I've known people like that (the principle, teachers, and students). I definitely need to see the director's cut when it comes out. Next summer you say? :(

dean_martin
09-23-2004, 07:09 AM
...except, I got nothing to say. I finally watched the film. Liked it, a lot. Very good film. Think I liked Butterfly Effect better (I think it hit me in the tragic bone a little more).

I didn't understand the whole "glass shield" thing, at all. Was he being prevented from doing something? WTF.

And nice cameos from Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, and Noah Wyle. Well, a bit more than cameos, but the real stars were the kids, Donnie, his family, and Gretchen, especially.

I loved the scene in the school auditorium and the parent teacher conference. I know it's a bit of a stereotype (stuck up schoolmarm type), but I've known people like that (the principle, teachers, and students). I definitely need to see the director's cut when it comes out. Next summer you say? :(

Hey Dusty - the Director's Cut came out THIS Summer. It's supposed to have some extra footage that hints more heavily at what is actually going on. It also contains the excerpts from the book The Philosophy of Time Travel given to Donnie by his teacher played by Noah Wylde (sp? - the ER guy). These excerpts turned a light on (like an epiphany) for me. They can also be found on the web, but I wouldn't recommend the official donnie darko website unless you have some time to navigate it. Run a search with the book title. I discovered that the occurring phenomena in the film has less to do with time travel than I originally thought. The book excerpts will also help you figure out "the glass shield" thing.

I was a little uneasy letting my son watch this movie because of the language (he's 15), but I didn't find it gratuitous. We discussed it and located the book excerpts together and then discussed it further for almost a week. My wife thought we were crazy. (She also thought we should be wearing glasses taped at the bridge of the nose and pocket protectors in our shirt pockets!) OTOH, she won't let me get the Director's Cut because she wants to get it for me for Christmas.

Interestingly, this movie came out in 2001- in September I believe - but didn't do well at the box office because of the dark tone and the airplane.