Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut [Blu-ray]
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Movie Reviews of Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut [Blu-ray]
Movie Review: WOW
Summary: 5 Stars
Another movie that I felt was going to be absolutely stupid but I was wrong! Great mental movie!Movie Review: not really horror
Summary: 4 Stars
Donnie Darko doesn't strike me as suspenseful horror in any shape or form. More like light elements of psychological weirdness that never really hits you on a deep personal note.
It basically consists of a teenager constantly questioning his reality, questioning the possibilities of time travel, and wonders what would happen if you were to change the past so it never happened. Mental problems perhaps a tad worse than usual for a confused teenager contributes to some wild, hallucinating effects.
Now when I was a teenager, I went through problems similar to the kid playing the role of Donnie Darko. I'd confuse and worry myself silly *almost* to the point I'd wonder if my existence was even real or not. This resulted in questioning whether the universe was actually real among other crazy problems. Nothing really out of the ordinary there- most teenagers go through the same phase. We grow out of them eventually (at least, most of us do) as we accept that death is inevitable, so I can totally see why Donnie Darko is a huge hit among the younger crowd.
Perhaps I'm too old to really appreciate it, but many of the scenes felt rather cheesy with Donnie constantly seeing odd, orb-like transparent snake images floating directly in front of his family members and friends while they were walking around the house. Supposedly the theme is that Donnie was seeing images of a terrible situation that couldn't be avoided. However...
I don't want to spoil the ending because that would ruin everything, but you may be shocked by the conclusion.
If anything, Donnie Darko delivers with an interesting storyline that makes you wonder where it's going, and that's it. I honestly didn't sense any truly earth-shattering deep meaning here. Obviously the rabbit creature *itself* isn't supposed to be scary- it makes you think because it's an unexplainable hallucination. So people who are putting down the rabbit creature because it's not scary... well, imagine looking in the mirror and seeing something like that. Yeah, it would definitely be alarming *then*.
Anyway, I really do like Donnie Darko. There's a variety of characters each with their own assortment of problems and the storyline does a great job focusing and giving enough time to each one of them. However, the ending... haha. That ending is just not too good if you ask me. Perhaps I wasn't looking for a simple explanation after all.
Movie Review: Both versions of exceptional film presented with an unexceptional Blu-ray transfer-4 stars for the film/3 stars for transfer
Summary: 4 Stars
A bizarre, stunningly original film that shows clear influence from writer Philip K. Dick and his surreal novels/short stories and film directors like David Lynch/David Cronenberg, "Donnie Darko" even sounds like a Phil Dick novel title. The plot concerns a giant rabbit in a bizarre twist of the film "Harvey" that tells teenage Donnie that his mission is to save the world and how he has the ability to manipulate space and time. A quirky mixture of cultural satire and science fiction, "Donnie Darko" may be an acquired taste but if you have a taste for the off-beat, then you'll love the film.
My focus here is on the Blu-ray presentation of the film and while it looks better than the two previous DVD releases of the film, the Blu-ray is not a huge leap up. I've been underwhelmed by many of Fox's recent Blu-ray catalog releases and this one isn't an exception. While images are a bit clearer here they still appear flat and the darker scenes aren't rendered with as much detail as one would expect from a Blu-ray.
The major advantage of this Blu-ray is that it features both the "Director's Cut" and original theatrical cuts of the film which feature some different songs and with the former running about 20 minutes longer with a more lucid, involving story than the latter. All of the extras have been ported over from the two DVDs in high def so that's good news for fans. If, however, you already have this on DVD in both versions I'd suggest waiting to buy this on Blu-ray since the image quality while better isn't a huge leap (unlike some other catalog titles). I suspect that this was rush released using older high definition transfers because of the direct-to-video sequel that Fox is releasing in March. Fox should have spend as much time on new, pristine high def transfers for this rather than rely on older elements because it clearly shows in the presentation here.
While this is a terrific film, I can't suggest taking the plunge if you already have the first two movies on DVD. While this looks slightly better than the previous version and features all the extras from BOTH the theatrical and "Director's Cut" of the movie, you might do well to spend your money on something that you don't already have on home video.
Five stars for the movie--3 stars for the transfer and 4 stars for the extras.
Movie Review: Darko on Blu-ray
Summary: 4 Stars
I have to admit picture quality is not the best for BD standards but who cares, this movie is great and I love all the topics (time travel, tangent universe, CellarDoor, deus ex machina, etc). The main difference from the DVD version is that you have the Theatrical Cut and Director's Cut on a single disc, that's all. If you already have DD on DVD don't buy the BD. The extra material is just okay, no more no less.
Btw, that guy from the "darkomentary" is a total freak!
Movie Review: A decent value for the price paid
Summary: 4 Stars
I won't attempt to review the movie since many others have already done that. I'll just say that it was a reasonably interesting movie to watch and I feel like I got my money's worth .. will probably watch it again at some point. I got a great deal on it here at Amazon and as usual, shipping was prompt and it came in good condition. I'm satisfied with the purchase overall.