Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut (2004)
Average Rating: 8/10
Reviews Counted: 43
Fresh: 39 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.2/5
User Ratings: 10,480
My Rating
Movie Info
In a funny, moving and distinctly mind-bending journey through suburban America, one extraordinary but disenchanted teenage is about to take Time's Arrow for a ride. October 2nd, 1988: just another ordinary day in Donnie Darko's teen-aged existence. He's taken his medication, watched Dukakis & Bush debate, and had dinner with the family. Then an outrageous accident occurs, which just misses claiming Donnie's life. As Donnie begins to explore what it means to still be alive, and in short order to
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All Critics (43) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (46) | Rotten (4) | DVD (7)
The film feels like a collision between a John Hughes teen comedy and a David Lynch freakfest.
What remains unchanged is the realization of just what a superb actor Jake Gyllenhaal is.
It's a dreamlike, intuitive movie that has much to say about life and death and points in between.
The new Darko is just as marvelous as the old.
Contains about 10 additional minutes and is as fabulous and enjoyable as ever.
If Kelly felt it necessary to add the new material, that's all to the good. It just means there's more to love.
Get in contact with your inner emotionally disturbed teenager today!
Oddly not as good as the theatrical cut.
The resulting film reveals an artist who has seriously reflected on his work and carefully considered what to add, what to alter and sometimes what to remove.
...other additions -- most egregiously at the climax -- are just intrusive and reduce our interpretive choices by replacing them with one choice, purely science-fictional in a George Lucas 'midichlorians' sense, that's a diminishment, not an illumination.
All that said, Fox's edition of Donnie Darko: Director's Cut is everything a DVD should be.
Friends and neighbors, this is a Great American Movie.
it cannot be discounted that the substantial supplementary features went a long way towards backing up the film's legitimacy to its ever-increasing population of followers.
The problem embodied by Donnie is at once mundane and painfully special.
Like Being John Malkovich and 2001: A Space Odyssey and too few others, this is one of those mind-melting cinematic achievements.
The director's cut explains more than it should, and so the movie loses some of its hazy, conceptual beauty...
This movie is addictive.
The director tells us he wanted to reflect more concretely the science-fiction aspects of the plot....the possibility of other, tangential dimensions helping to shape our own.
...in the years since the film was made, the country and the world have become even more divided.... Maybe the movie is more meaningful today than ever.
This "remix" of the film is a totally different beast, as is the collection of features collected on this accompanying 2-disc DVD edition.
Initially an interesting disappointment, Donnie is now a favorite
To Read review visit www.EmanuelLevy.com
The longer version ... packs more of a kick and has a grander, gloomier vision: It represents four weeks in the mind of a smart, anguished, lonely guy who doesn't think he's fit to live.
This is the kind of movie that creates friendships among its aficionados.
Richard Kelly's revamped version of his creepy, cool debut is neither a bold revelation nor a bland over-elaboration.
Audience Reviews for Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut
Super Reviewer
[b]My mind to me a kingdom is,
Such present joys therein I find,
That it excels all other bliss
That earth affords or grows by kind:
Though much I want though most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.[/b]
- [color=RoyalBlue]Sir Edward Dwyer[/color]
[b]I find a little giggle-gas before I begin gives me immense pleasure.[/b] -[color=SandyBrown] Orin Scrivello[/color]
[b]Many times I've lied, many times I've listened
Many times I've wondered how much there is to know.[/b] - [color=Gray]Robert Plant[/color]
[b]I told myself I'd make an entry about my Halloween costume, but that sort of never materialized. Perhaps I'll resurrect that endeavor, seeing as how my journal is collecting stale fingerprints from users shuffling past it to all the other updates in this asylum. Maybe later tonight I'll update? Yeah, no. Also, this is the best quote you've ever read.[/b] [b]I'll quote myself to prove it. Yeah. No. [/b]- [color=Green]Neum Daddy/Neumthor/NeumDagger/Neumorado Sexington/Somebody Else[/color][b]
Perhaps, if I am lucky, the feeble efforts of my lifetime will someday be noticed, and maybe, in some small way, they will be acknowledged as the greatest works of genius ever created by Man.[/b] - Jack Handey[color=Red]
[/color][b]
Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen.[/b] - [color=Red]John Ciardi[/color]
[b]You know, if I were to die right now, in some sort of fiery explosion due to the carelessness of a friend...well, that would just be ok.[/b] - [color=YellowGreen]Spongebob Squarepants
[/color] [b]The problem with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.[/b] - [color=Red]Bertrand Russell[/color]
[b]I've finally found someone I can love - a good, clean love...without utensils.[/b] - [color=DeepSkyBlue]Frank Drebin[/color]
[b]The vision and the faculty divine;
Yet wanting the accomplishment of verse.[/b] - [color=Sienna]William Wordsworth[/color]
[b]It's always darkest just before it goes pitch black. [/b]- [color=DarkSlateGray]...uh, modern proverb?[/color]
[b]Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is.[/b] - Vince Lombardi
[b]Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions. When it ceases to be dangerous, you don't want it.[/b] -[color=Navy] Duke Ellington[/color]
[b]We ask for strength and you give us difficulties which make us strong;
We ask for wisdom and you send us problems, the solutions of which develop wisdom;
We plead for prosperity and you give us a brain and brawn to work;
We plead for courage and you give us dangers to overcome.
We ask favors and you give us opportunities;
Therefore, Great Spirit, we ask you bless us and assist us according to thy will.[/b] - [color=DarkOrange]Unknown[/color]
Super Reviewer
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