Rating: 
Summary: Incredible
Review: Director/Screenwriter Richard Kelly's debut is absolutely incredible. I first saw this film on HBO, flipping channels and just expecting another movie. After ten minutes, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. I immediately ordered the DVD because I had to watch it again. Yes, be warned, you'll probably have to watch this movie multiple times before you fully grasp it. It's easy to see why this movie didn't go mainstream, but rahter has become somewhat of a cult classic. Jake Gyllenhaal was incredible, especially considering he was only 19 when this was filmed. The rest of the cast was perfect too, which you might not think looking at some of the names. All in all, a must have for any film buff's collection.
Rating:
Summary: Truly Excellent!
Review: This film is by far the best movie I have seen in years. Though hollywood is in the middle of a slump, I was greatly relieved by this intriguing, well-written masterpiece. It is full of great acting, clever ideas, and good screenplay. In fact, the ideas and concepts involved in the film left me shaking at the end. This is "some deep shi*" as my friend put it. The only reason I am dissipointed is because I never got to see it in theaters. I'm sure that would have added to the already great, eerie atmosphere. So if your in the mood to be chilled and intrigued, get this movie.
Rating:
Summary: If you see one film see this.
Review: This is honestly one of the most moving peices of recent cinema i have seen. Jake Gyllenhaal was good in October Sky, he is phenominal in this film. This film parrelles with Fight Club in the sense that it shows so much about human existance and society. Donald Darko is the most disturbed charecter i have ever seen in a motion picture. His imaginary friend Frank is also the most terrifying creatures i have ever witnessed, and that is not attributed to his cheap mask, but to his presance his horrifying ideas. Please, i beg you to see this movie.
Rating:
Summary: sleeper hit
Review: great, thought-provoking movie...you'll probably have to watch it a couple of times and spend time pondering it before you come up with your own conclusions.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, Original, and Engrossing Movie
Review: This movie is about a not-so typical teenage boy, Donnie Darko, who is played by the(gorgeous and talented)Jake Gyllenhaal. Donnie is a paranoid schizophrenic. However, unlike many movies about people with serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, this movie provides a more three-dimensional perspective than usual. As the movie progresses, the many subplots, such as town idol and motivational speaker Jim Cunningham, Gretchen Ross and her relationship with Donnie, and Sparkle Motion, the youngest Darko's dance squad, keep the movie from feeling stale- in fact, it feels anything but. The movie strikes the perfect balance between being funny, sad, and scary. I definitley recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A movie with a genre of it's own...
Review: ...BR>If you sit around and try to say this movie is one thing or another then you don't get it. Sometimes a movie is just a movie. Donnie Darko is not a horror, sci-fi, drama, comedy, or edgy indie film! If you expect it to be any of those things then you are in for a rude awakening. It is a story. Period.
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I highly recommend this movie to anyone who is tired of the "hollywood-got-to-blow-something-up-every-few-seconds" types of movies. And if it leaves you with you asking questions and wanting to talk to someone about it in the end then I think it did its job.
Rating:
Summary: Dismantle Your Feeble Philosophies...
Review: I don't have much time...but let me tell you...this film is AMAZING. I thought it was going to be some teeny-bopper horror film by looking at the poster...so I passed it up in the theatre. Huge mistake. My friend popped it into the dvd player last month out of the blue and said, "Are you ready to have your mind blown away?" I said, "Yeah."Boy, was my mind blown away. I'm not going to tell you a thing. Surprise yourself with this philosophical poem of a movie. It is a beautiful, moving, exciting, thrilling, pychadelic experience. Best viewed with 5.1 channel surround sound in the dark with the volume turned WAY UP... This movie changes minds...and perspectives...and lives...way more thought-provocing than the matrix...(and the music, the cinematography, and the editing is unparralled). I bought the soundtrack as well. Anyway, enjoy the ride...and remember...play it with lots of volume for the full effect! PS...I already bought 7 of these dvd's...and gave them all to my best friends. I've never bought so many of the same movie before...if that's any indication of my feelings for this phenomenal film.
Rating: 
Summary: What to do when a giant bunny rabbit says the world will end
Review: "Donnie Darko," with a DVD chock full of interesting extras, is a surprisingly good, creepy little period movie. (Of course, the movie's set in 1988, and its soundtrack, featuring a lot of Tears for Fears music is killer.) In the film itself, Jake Gyllenhaal, one of the great new young actors, gives a performance that stays both vulnerable and frightening as the title character, a disturbed boy seeing a psychologist because he sleepwalks, remains disdainful of his parents (who consider him "changed" even before the freaky events of the plot happen) and visualizes, at times, a giant bunny rabbit named Frank who tells him the end of his world is coming in less than a month. Around the time he begins seeing Frank, Donnie's house is hit with a piece of airplane fuselage, which destroys his bedroom. The wreckage is unidentified, for no plane at the time reported losing any of its equipment. At Donnie's school, the staff and students have become involved with an inspirational speaker's new program involving a narrow scope of emotional honesty. Donnie, seeing all as hypocrites, is encouraged to rebel violently by Frank, but Donnie also begins to piece together clues regarding hidden secrets, an uncertain future and, strangely, time travel that hint that Frank may not be all that he seems. All of this leads to an ending that, more or less, makes sense and remains haunting, though it takes multiple viewings to quite "get" the film and Donnie's choices at its end. Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle, Katharine Ross, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Drew Barrymore, who also served as a producer on the film, are on hand to give key performances. But the movie belongs to Jake Gyllenhaal. His nuanced performance gives the movie its creepy center.
Rating:
Summary: Dark, Chilling, Reavealing, and EXCEPTIONAL!
Review: I originally wanted to see this movie because of it's stellar cast. Drew Barrymore, Jake Gyllenhaal, Noah Wylie, and Mary Mcdonnell are all exceptionally cast. Gyllenhaal plays Donnie Darko, a tainted young man who hears voices and sleepwalks. One night he is drawn from his bed onto a golf course. While there he meets Frank, a 6 foot tall rabbit who tells him that the end of the world is coming. Donnie narrowly escapes death as an airplane engine falls into his bedroom and lands on his bed where he should have been sleeping. Upon finding out this information, Donnie begins to notice things that normal people don't see. He starts to question life, and the theory of time travel. It eventually becomes obvious to Donnie that he was not suppose to survive the night of the engine crash. Now he must put all the pieces of the puzzle and figure out how to undo the damage before he loses all those closest to him. Anyone with an interest in time travel or a love for dark films should see this. A++ film.
Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing and Fascinating
Review: I've watched this movie three times now. It never ceases to grab me and I'm not sure why. Jake Gyllenhaal's performance maybe. It's beautifully strange, filled with pain and innocence. Maybe the story, because I'm constantly trying to figure it out. Maybe the music, that is so in tune with the story. Or maybe it's the effect it had on me when it ends, and they show all the people Donnie touched, the looks each has on their face. I dont' know. I can't explain it.
Mary K
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