Post by Fatal Rewind on May 1, 2021 12:31:59 GMT -5
I'm sure those of you who have heard of Donnie Darko knows that it's something about a giant, evil-looking rabbit giving someone in the movie tasks to do and that's probably about it (which you can see by its very famous theatre shot here). I'd heard some stuff about it for years, especially from an Australian buddy who's a huge horror freak, which I figured that no one else could see the rabbit and it was a straight up horror/suspense movie where the orders the rabbit gave kept on getting worse and worse for someone in the movie. However, I was very wrong there, there's way more to this movie than that, but then, once I found it on dvd at a resale shop in the last year, the entire time I thought Donnie Darko was the name of the rabbit, which it wasn't. (The guy who spends the majority of his time in the movie in the rabbit suit is actually named Frank.)
Jake Gyllenhaal plays the title character (actually), who, at the start of the movie, wakes up at a golf course. Back at home his sister is sneaking into their house and it starts violently shaking. As probably most of us (like myself) thought "earthquake?", no, actually a plane overhead had an engine fall off and smashed into the house. It would've killed Donnie if he were there when it landed in his room. This is when Frank starts showing up, telling Donnie the world will end in 28 days.
Not long after that the horror/suspense premise goes mostly out the window and things get very confusing.
Even though Donnie's a very intelligent teen and he clashes with family, students and school faculty, a lot of the movie has to do with time travel. He's given a book about that in regards to "vessels" and how they're connected (that he can see; or CAN he? He's seeing a counselor during the movie, so who really knows what's actually real or not). Something has messed up the timeline and needs to be fixed. Once you start reading up on the movie, you will see how much more complicated this actually is, as there's three jet engines in order to try to fix this mess at any given time: the one that has fallen off and will smash into the Darko house, the one that's supposed to be the right jet to get the space/time continuum back on track, and the one that's still attached onto the plane that's flying over the Darko house (or something like that). Confused yet?
Surprisingly this has a good cast, despite not costing much and hardly doing anything at the box office, as being released after 9/11 happening with planes hijacked and being flown into buildings was a pretty bad idea (although, how the hell do you market this thing anyway?). Jake's performance is very good, especially with his maniacal grin where he has done some dastardly deed of Frank's. Noah Wyle is also in it, along with Seth Rogan, Drew Barrymore (listed as executive producer in the credits) and Patrick Swayze as an influential speaker that you know something's pretty off about him (hilarious what happened to him too, although kind of wrong to laugh at it though!), and Maggie Gyllenhaal plays one of Donnie's sisters (oh gee, siblings in real life AND in the movie, what an acting stretch!). The 80s soundtrack is also pretty good (the home version's is different from the theatrical one though).
I give this movie a 7 out of 10, although not the 7 where I'll watch it over and over again. Parts of it are hard to watch, especially with how despicable several of the characters are (they make high school bullies seem like Mr. Rogers). Donnie threatening to skull-rape his little sister at the dinner table was terrible enough, but even worse still was his father not doing anything about Donnie's antics throughout the movie, just laughing them off. The guy could've had an extra 50 pounds on him, been bald, was yellow-skinned and said "doh" all the time, he really was that stupid. (At least the mom, played by Mary McDonnell, said and did the right things for the most part, such as when she said it felt "great" when Donnie asked her at one point what it felt like to have a whackball of a son.)
Funny to have never seen this until the last year at resale shops and now I've seen it three times (again just yesterday at one), and luckily I got the director's cut, which has quotes from the time travel book in it, making a little bit more sense. It's still pretty confusing though, as the Gyllenhaals have said in interviews all these years later they still don't know what the movie was even about! You can't beat that for a cult movie, really, and it has a tragic, but I think a sadly fitting end.
And check out the video below for those of us who've seen it (the jokes are better when you've seen it, especially the part about how the Darko name is said throughout the movie, which was a great, I didn't catch that!). Just be wary of what would be an x-rated part near the end, except it's done with...cars? (Huh?)
Finally, of all the stuff on the net about this, one thing I don't get his what the f Frank is doing wearing a rabbit suit for 95-98% of the movie? I can't find that one anywhere. (EDIT: I just found that out upon doing another search. Interesting.)
Clicky for trailer
Jake Gyllenhaal plays the title character (actually), who, at the start of the movie, wakes up at a golf course. Back at home his sister is sneaking into their house and it starts violently shaking. As probably most of us (like myself) thought "earthquake?", no, actually a plane overhead had an engine fall off and smashed into the house. It would've killed Donnie if he were there when it landed in his room. This is when Frank starts showing up, telling Donnie the world will end in 28 days.
Not long after that the horror/suspense premise goes mostly out the window and things get very confusing.
Even though Donnie's a very intelligent teen and he clashes with family, students and school faculty, a lot of the movie has to do with time travel. He's given a book about that in regards to "vessels" and how they're connected (that he can see; or CAN he? He's seeing a counselor during the movie, so who really knows what's actually real or not). Something has messed up the timeline and needs to be fixed. Once you start reading up on the movie, you will see how much more complicated this actually is, as there's three jet engines in order to try to fix this mess at any given time: the one that has fallen off and will smash into the Darko house, the one that's supposed to be the right jet to get the space/time continuum back on track, and the one that's still attached onto the plane that's flying over the Darko house (or something like that). Confused yet?
Surprisingly this has a good cast, despite not costing much and hardly doing anything at the box office, as being released after 9/11 happening with planes hijacked and being flown into buildings was a pretty bad idea (although, how the hell do you market this thing anyway?). Jake's performance is very good, especially with his maniacal grin where he has done some dastardly deed of Frank's. Noah Wyle is also in it, along with Seth Rogan, Drew Barrymore (listed as executive producer in the credits) and Patrick Swayze as an influential speaker that you know something's pretty off about him (hilarious what happened to him too, although kind of wrong to laugh at it though!), and Maggie Gyllenhaal plays one of Donnie's sisters (oh gee, siblings in real life AND in the movie, what an acting stretch!). The 80s soundtrack is also pretty good (the home version's is different from the theatrical one though).
I give this movie a 7 out of 10, although not the 7 where I'll watch it over and over again. Parts of it are hard to watch, especially with how despicable several of the characters are (they make high school bullies seem like Mr. Rogers). Donnie threatening to skull-rape his little sister at the dinner table was terrible enough, but even worse still was his father not doing anything about Donnie's antics throughout the movie, just laughing them off. The guy could've had an extra 50 pounds on him, been bald, was yellow-skinned and said "doh" all the time, he really was that stupid. (At least the mom, played by Mary McDonnell, said and did the right things for the most part, such as when she said it felt "great" when Donnie asked her at one point what it felt like to have a whackball of a son.)
Funny to have never seen this until the last year at resale shops and now I've seen it three times (again just yesterday at one), and luckily I got the director's cut, which has quotes from the time travel book in it, making a little bit more sense. It's still pretty confusing though, as the Gyllenhaals have said in interviews all these years later they still don't know what the movie was even about! You can't beat that for a cult movie, really, and it has a tragic, but I think a sadly fitting end.
And check out the video below for those of us who've seen it (the jokes are better when you've seen it, especially the part about how the Darko name is said throughout the movie, which was a great, I didn't catch that!). Just be wary of what would be an x-rated part near the end, except it's done with...cars? (Huh?)
Finally, of all the stuff on the net about this, one thing I don't get his what the f Frank is doing wearing a rabbit suit for 95-98% of the movie? I can't find that one anywhere. (EDIT: I just found that out upon doing another search. Interesting.)
Clicky for trailer