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Donnie Darko

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,669
1,713
chez moi
The movie is impenetrable by itself, because you never get to see what's in Roberta Sparrow's book. Check the extra features and it should be in there.

I hated it the first time I saw it because I thought it was a pretty lame hipster game to make a movie that was simply incomprehensible at its root, but I have grown to love it.

The director's cut lays it out there by including interludes with the pages from the book, but I didn't like it as much.
 

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,145
16,539
Riding the baggage carousel.
Read the Wiki article, that coupled with the fact the my wife managed to follow along makes me think I perhaps shouldn't have watched it after 2 whiskey old fashions and a couple beers. I'm normally a huge fan of mind bender movies, I will watch it again.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
definitely weird stuff...I had to internet the crap out of it to get the story straight. Reading "the book" helps, and so does knowing that it's not necessarily a metaphor, or has any secret to it; it's genuinely a movie about time travel and destiny and shizz.

There was a website that showed the book, and I think it's on the DVD as well. First time I saw it I thought I was high because it was so confusing.
 

J-Dubs

Monkey
Jul 10, 2006
700
1
Salem, MA
I've watched it a few times now because I guess I'm supposed to like it, but I still think it's cheesy and contrived.
I fully understand the premise, and being a student of much physics/science/engineering, I do enjoy that aspect of the movie. Unfortunately, the writing, acting and direction was definitely trying to 'blow my mind' or some such, and I just got annoyed.
I prefer Pi.

Oh yeah, and that rabbit figure was ridiculous. Bad move.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,573
24,191
media blackout
If you can get your hands on the Director's Cut, there's a few scenes and snippets added back in that help make things a little more cohesive.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,241
20,022
Sleazattle
Just watched this, really enjoyed it. I am more confused about how someone couldn't understand the movie. You just had to think about it a little afterward. I like the fact that it didn't spoon feed the plot and foreshadow everything so much that you could figure out the ending in the first five minutes as most movies do.

I guess more people would have liked it if the special effects were better, a few car chases and explosions would have helped.
 

badphish

Monkey
Feb 28, 2008
294
0
Times 3.

Anyone seen Primer? Another good time travel movie.
That is a good one too. I saw it right when it came out. I remember being confused when they ran into the homeless looking guy that was freaked out. I think it was a friend or relative, father-in-law maybe?
 

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,669
1,713
chez moi
Just watched this, really enjoyed it. I am more confused about how someone couldn't understand the movie. You just had to think about it a little afterward. I like the fact that it didn't spoon feed the plot and foreshadow everything so much that you could figure out the ending in the first five minutes as most movies do.

I guess more people would have liked it if the special effects were better, a few car chases and explosions would have helped.
I must be dense. I still can't figure out where the plane engine originated. It comes from the parallel dimension, and Donnie may have or may not have used telekinesis to pull it off the plane himself, but he most certainly creates the wormhole and sends it back in time (along with himself, because his past self knows what happened) to crush himself, which he only avoided being crushed in the first place because Frank pulls him out of bed. But isn't the wormhole itself that the engine falls through the cause of the unstable parallel dimension in the first place??

Yep, crystal clear.

And without the extras which tell you about Roberta Sparrow's book, I'd get the time travel, but not necessarily the parallel-future aspect so clearly. And certainly not the fact that the creation of a parallel future would destabilize the fabric of the universe and cause the world to end.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,241
20,022
Sleazattle
I must be dense. I still can't figure out where the plane engine originated. It comes from the parallel dimension, and Donnie may have or may not have used telekinesis to pull it off the plane himself, but he most certainly creates the wormhole and sends it back in time (along with himself, because his past self knows what happened) to crush himself, which he only avoided being crushed in the first place because Frank pulls him out of bed. But isn't the wormhole itself that the engine falls through the cause of the unstable parallel dimension in the first place??

Yep, crystal clear.

And without the extras which tell you about Roberta Sparrow's book, I'd get the time travel, but not necessarily the parallel-future aspect so clearly. And certainly not the fact that the creation of a parallel future would destabilize the fabric of the universe and cause the world to end.
I certainly can not explain that. I guess I was happy understanding that the engine was the connection between the tangent series of events and the eventual reality. I don't really care about the actual mechanics of it, seems rather irrelevant. No more a leap of faith than waking hallucinations of a dead guy in a bunny suit.
 

BurlyShirley

Rex Grossman Will Rise Again
Jul 4, 2002
19,180
17
TN
Great movie.
Now I notice the head mom from "Sparkle Motion" in every damn movie I watch.

Just saw Extract the other day.... she was in it.
 

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,669
1,713
chez moi
I certainly can not explain that. I guess I was happy understanding that the engine was the connection between the tangent series of events and the eventual reality. I don't really care about the actual mechanics of it, seems rather irrelevant. No more a leap of faith than waking hallucinations of a dead guy in a bunny suit.
Hmmm, the story itself seemed so hooked on the mechanics of it all, plus there's the fact that I'm a professional investigator...(although I wasn't at the time I first saw it I suppose.)

You and I had the same perception of incompleteness, then. I just thought it was a bit weak whereas you don't mind.

And after more watchings, I really do like it. Hell, we own the original and the director's cut.

But, if you're a true hipster, it's time to disavow that played-out shiznit and jump on the hate train.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,573
24,191
media blackout
I must be dense. I still can't figure out where the plane engine originated. It comes from the parallel dimension, and Donnie may have or may not have used telekinesis to pull it off the plane himself, but he most certainly creates the wormhole and sends it back in time (along with himself, because his past self knows what happened) to crush himself, which he only avoided being crushed in the first place because Frank pulls him out of bed. But isn't the wormhole itself that the engine falls through the cause of the unstable parallel dimension in the first place??

Yep, crystal clear.

And without the extras which tell you about Roberta Sparrow's book, I'd get the time travel, but not necessarily the parallel-future aspect so clearly. And certainly not the fact that the creation of a parallel future would destabilize the fabric of the universe and cause the world to end.
My understanding was that it was a time loop. He escaped getting crushed/killed by the engine the first time, only to manage/figure out how to go back and get killed - which was the universe's way of correcting itself - because Frank got Donnie out of the house in the first place (when he was supposed to have died).
 

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,669
1,713
chez moi
Great movie.
Now I notice the head mom from "Sparkle Motion" in every damn movie I watch.

Just saw Extract the other day.... she was in it.
That woman is in EVERYTHING. As pretty much the exact same character.
 

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,669
1,713
chez moi
My understanding was that it was a time loop. He escaped getting crushed/killed by the engine the first time, only to manage/figure out how to go back and get killed - which was the universe's way of correcting itself - because Frank got Donnie out of the house in the first place (when he was supposed to have died).
So why did Frank get him out of the house in the first place?
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,241
20,022
Sleazattle
Hmmm, the story itself seemed so hooked on the mechanics of it all, plus there's the fact that I'm a professional investigator...(although I wasn't at the time I first saw it I suppose.)

You and I had the same perception of incompleteness, then. I just thought it was a bit weak whereas you don't mind.

And after more watchings, I really do like it. Hell, we own the original and the director's cut.

But, if you're a true hipster, it's time to disavow that played-out shiznit and jump on the hate train.

As a nerdy engineer I usually am hooked on the mechanics. It seemed clear to me from the beginning that we were not necessarily going to be given the mechanics so I turned off the logic engine that normally rules my brain and enjoyed. From a purely neutral perspective maybe the movie wasn't that great but it was a nice departure from the normally banal and formulaic flicks.
 

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,669
1,713
chez moi
Yah, I've read the Wiki. Whole thing still doesn't add up 100%. You just have to smooth over that in your mind and enjoy the atmospherics, like Westy.

Shirley, I'm so glad that DVD arrived scratched, and died a skipping death within an hour. I was so mesmerized by its horrific-ness I couldn't get up to turn it off, or even find the remote. I have seen very few movies quite that bad; it just honestly thought it was that good which made it so unbearable. The wife liked the Eddy Izzard Mr. Kite bit, but I found it only barely more tolerable than the rest.