Donnie Darko Reviews
Top CriticThis set-up and development is fascinating, the payoff less so.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
FilmStew.com
The original was a movie for all those castaways who believe in unexplained phenomenon; the new version reads like a handbook on how to pick up women.
EricDSnider.com
A mish-mash of disparate, non-cohesive ideas, the sort of film that thinks it's brilliant just because no one understands it.
Full Review
| Original Score: C-
Donnie Darko has plenty of problems. But most stem from a young filmmaker overswinging on his first time up to the plate and hitting a deep fly out rather than a home run.
Fantastica Daily
Although it claims to be very original, much of Donnie Darko is derivative.
Just another self-absorbed teen chronicle, with the added twist of a little time travel and a surprise ending.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
Kelly is unable to give the movie the kind of pacing that would make us laugh and shock us simultaneously, because he's too infatuated with an aura of hand-me-down gloom.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Apollo Guide
Donnie Darko promises a feast, but when the film ends, you are left only with the scraps.
Full Review
| Original Score: 68/100
Apollo Guide
A made-to-order cult item.
Full Review
| Original Score: 60/100
Reel.com
There is just too much going on in Donnie Darko.
| Original Score: 2.5/4
If this movie ever figured out what it wanted to be when it grows up, it would be a terrific one.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
First-time director-writer Richard Kelly draws on a number of intriguing elements ... without including a single, crucial gem that pulls everything together.
San Francisco Examiner
The movie remains a discombobulating muddle, largely because Kelly is unable or unwilling to resolve the myriad contradictions and confusions that muddy the waters.
Shows plenty of promise, but it's somewhat self-involved and won't appeal to audiences who like a straightforward -- even if fantastical -- narrative.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Film Threat
You either love it or hate it. For those who loved it, I have only one word: overrated.c
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
E! Online
After nearly two hours of the titular troubled teen asking borderline supernatural questions that are never quite answered, all we get is a head-scratching ending that's more frustrating than intriguing.
Boxoffice Magazine
It's ultimately Kelly's inventive storytelling and the myriad of complex themes he explores that capture one's imagination and, in this reviewer's case, re-ignite one's passion for the medium.
Despite its flaws, this is a compelling motion picture, and offers the kind of 'fresh' experience extended by the likes of Pi and The Sticky Fingers of Time.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Countingdown.com
It's like nothing you've ever seen before, and it sets a great tone that takes you places you've never been before.
Full Review
| Original Score: A
Movie Magazine International
The directors cut of Donnie Darko by Richard Kelly was screened at the Venice Film Festivals a couple of years ago, a film I missed for sure when it was released in 2001 and one of those pearls like Blade Runner that just is haunting screening after scree
Full Review
| Original Score: A
