I just watched it for the first time. I thought it was kinda cool and wacked but coulda been farther out and tighter. anyone else seen it?

I thought Donnie Darko was the best movie I've seen in a bit. I mean, any movie that portrays Patrick Swayze as himself (pedophile) and has the kid from The Bubble Boy is an instant winner. Add in the guy in the bunny suit and the fat guy in the sweatsuit, and it's solid gold. And now to make myself sound like an idiot and discredit myself: THE SISTER IS HOT! Done.

I saw it last night. LOVED it. But yeah, I kinda agree, it could have been tighter. And every time the bunny talked I just started laughing. Great 80's soundtrack, too. I have been singing Echo and the Bunnymen all day.

(yes, you are)

I have seen Donnie Darko approximately 5 times now, have thoroughly critiqued it, and have come to the conclusion that jake gyllenhaal (donnie) is the man i'm going to marry.

but to really GET the movie, you have to read the philosophy of time travel, which explains frank (the manipulated dead) and donnie (the manipulated living) and you get another look at the funky diagrams.

if you explore the donnie darko website enough (donniedarko.com, good for at least 15 of trying to navigate through the website whilst intermittently banging your head against the keyboard and trying to convince the site to divulge the secret password to level 3) you can get the chapters of the philosophy in printable form. they also have little snips of what happens after the tangent universe collapses because of the time travel and what middlesex is like without donnie.

I thought it was a good movie, but I agree that it could have been tighter. I thought the same thing about Memento. I think it would have been cool if they had addressed the whole "fate vs free will" thing.

It seems to me that the rabbit caused it's own problem. If it never woke Donnie up, the jet engine would have landed on him anyway? I'm confused, why did the rabbit wake him up? I love the movie, but every since I've seen it, I can't get these questions out of my head. I've seen it with commentaries, and can't get my questions answered. Also, did the world end anyway? How did he time travel back to his bed? He didn't have a fast vehicle. I really want to like this movie, but I've never been so frustrated! You can e-mail me if you like. Thanks for your time. PS. I've navigated through the Donnie Darko website too, with no relief. funnyfoxs@juno.com

It seems to me that the rabbit caused it's own problem. If it never woke Donnie up, the jet engine would have landed on him anyway? I'm confused, why did the rabbit wake him up? I love the movie, but every since I've seen it, I can't get these questions out of my head. I've seen it with commentaries, and can't get my questions answered. Also, did the world end anyway? How did he time travel back to his bed? He didn't have a fast vehicle. I really want to like this movie, but I've never been so frustrated! You can e-mail me if you like. Thanks for your time. PS. I've navigated through the Donnie Darko website too, with no relief. funnyfoxs@juno.com

If the bunny would have never visited him, just before the jet engine fell on his room, he would have died just like he did at the end. In other words, when the rabbit got him out of bed, it caused it's own problem? It should have just left him alone and Donnie would have been killed.

I have searched the website for much more than 15 minutes and haven't found the little snipits about what the world was like without donnie and the philosophy of time travel in printable format. how do I find it??? please

If the bunny would have never visited him, just before the jet engine fell on his room, he would have died just like he did at the end. In other words, when the rabbit got him out of bed, it caused it's own problem? It should have just left him alone and Donnie would have been killed.

i saw the trailer for it and it looked really cool. then i saw the flick, and the first 45 minutes were cool, but then it started going off in too many directions and lost its focus a whole lot, and i kinda got disinterested. i think women like it a lot cause they like jake gylenhaal or however you spell it.

overall, it just wasnt well thought out enough to be a cool physchological twisty movie, and is just a weird, kinda neat but not that great movie with a cute guy.

Some of the deleted scenes that were pulled to shorten the film (studio heads demanded it) helped to fill in some holes. I agree, though... it certainly could have been tighter. On the flipside, you have to love and admire any movie that will play an entire Duran Duran song!

First, the bunny did not wake him up and prevent him from getting crushed. Donnie is both a skitzo and a sleepwalker. he woke him to try to prevent donnie from sleepwalking. When donnie DID sleepwalk, he saved himself. He believes that Frank saved him. That is why he serves frank. if you observe closely enough, everything Frank wants Donnie to do eventually serves society. If he had not flooded the school, he would not have met Gretchen, making him want to go back in time to save her. The airplane engine is an ancient relic needed to stabalize the tangent universe that exists parrallel to ours. When someone dies dealing with a parallel demention, they get powers. Donnie dies, and the reliv can be returned to the tangent universe. Donnie has powers even in the beginning. He sends a letter to Grandma death about creating a wormhole. He has powers and creates the wormhole. That, not an "Apocolypse Cloud," is what appears at the end of the movie. He dies in the past, and thus preventing Gretchen, Frank, and one other person from dying. They die of his cause. In case noone actually watched it or paid attention, Frank is like the human Frank(Donnie's sisters boyfriend) in the tangent universe.

Hang on there!

"everything Frank wants Donnie to do eventually serves society. If he had not flooded the school, he would not have met Gretchen, making him want to go back in time to save her."

I guess that is true enough. But. If he had not met Gretchen, she wouldn't be running around in Grandma's Death backyard, which lead to her demise. In other words, you could say that all the intervention of the Bunny actually leads to those deaths.

'Donnie Darko' is a good movie, not a great movie, just entertaining. I'm a little put off of how quickly it's become a cult hit. It seems to me that its beloved mostly by high school students and young college kids. Since it's subtext is prettty shallow, and the whole 'philosophy of time travel' thing seems like what overtired drunk 17-olds would discuss if they couldn't get laid.

Nonetheless, here are some quick points why the film should not be overly revered.

1) Bad Title. What the hell kind of name is 'Darko' anyway? Finnish maybe?

2) The 'poetry' of the phrase 'Cellar Door'. I don't believe I've ever heard something so ridiculous - EVER!

3) Donnie's bad Jack Nicholson's character from 'The Shining' impression every time Frank speaks to him.

4) The novel and movie of 'Watership Down' is forever tainted because of this movie.

5) Donnie's parents look exactly like my parents in real life. However, I don't look like Donnie. I look like JD from 'Scrubs'.

6) I went from hating, to loving, back to hating the remade version of 'Mad World'

7) Producers should have been sued for using the EXACT same special effects from 'The Abyss'.

8) Noah Wylie and Judd Nelson both have equally frightening nostrils.

Hey - LOL at #1.
You mentioned The Abyss - love that movie. It killed me when the two were saying goodbye to each other.

The special edition with the weird tidal wave ending (and dumbed down lesson regarding human violence) was not so good, though.

I liked 'The Abyss' as well, I saw it in the theater actually ('88 or '89). I particularly liked the part where Ed Harris has to cut the wire, but he can't tell which is which (a delightful derivation of the trite 'cut the blue wire? They are all blue wires!' schtick).

And yes, the 'special edition' - cool effects, dumb message indeed.

Also, whenever I see that flick I am reminded of the resurrection scene where Ed Harris keeps slapping Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio. You know what I am talking about, Ed Harris shouts something like, "You've never backed down from a thing in your life! Now fight you damn Finn!" It's a powerful scene to be sure, but the girl I was dating at the time we saw it, couldn't stop laughing, as she thought the scene was hysterical. Bizarre.

Aside from the fact that your ex girlfriend found a woman half dead fighting for life hilarious, I am content to agree and chuckle at all you have wrote. I have to say though the only reason I don't like it is because it is brought up every freakin time I talk to a person 2 years younger then me (I'm a young buck) about their favorite movie... that and boondock saints which is a good movie up until the second half...


And that is my incoherent rambling... (I love elipses)

I hated Watership Down.

Formatted Text Signatures are generally retarded. Thanks for sharing, though. - fyi

'Watership Down' was the very first animated feature I ever saw, and it ain't no Disney flick (thanks Mom & Dad). All I know is, I got major 'props' (as the kids say) in grade school because I knew rabbits lived in a warren. And that's all I took away from that film.

Never saw the movie. I was forced to read the book in school. Blah.

Formatted Text Signatures are generally retarded. Thanks for sharing, though. - fyi

Dude, you completely misunderstood everything, seriously, watch it without the drugs and you might get it.

No no - I understood everything. It was just boring.

Look, Donnie Darko was one of THE best thought out movie I've ever seen in my life. If you say otherwise, then you just didn't get it and are a fucking moron...

For those who don't understand what went on in the movie, go here: http://www.tonystuff.co.uk/darko-spoilers.htm

Go, read up on the movie... then, if you still think it wasn't thought out enough, you can say shit. Until then, you'll just look like a stupid fucking fool to me.

You know, I liked this movie and thought it was well thought out and imaginative 'till I found out that a colossal tool like you likes it.

"If you say otherwise, then you just didn't get it and are a fucking moron...

Go, read up on the movie... then, if you still think it wasn't thought out enough, you can say shit. Until then, you'll just look like a stupid fucking fool to me."

Give me a BREAK! are you seriously trying to make people understand something by insulting them?

You suck on several levels.

That was a nice burn, I'll give ya props. It does suck when a little seen/cult flick becomes semi-mainstream, huh? Which is why I am thankful 'Eraserhead' is never shown on cable, and is difficult to rent and buy. Give 'em Hell Gest!

I really enjoy it. Jake Gyllenhaal played his role very well. Its a shame he went from a movie like that to bubbleboy.... Its a thinker for sure, you need to pay complete attention to it and another viewing might help. Frank haunted my dreams the night i saw it.