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147 out of 178 people found the following review useful: Should never have been made, 3 May 2009 Author: maddern from Australia
As huge fan of the first Donnie Darko I was very excited to see this. It was such a shame that the original director didn't make this film. The film is trashy and brings nothing new to the table. It take a handful of special effects and concepts from the first one and turns it into a crappy teen flick. The main characters made me cringe and after the first half an hour I thought this is a disgrace to the original film. This film is not worth wasting your time on. The sad thing is that some people will see this film without seeing the original Donnie Darko. This film should never have been made.
111 out of 142 people found the following review useful: Arrrrrgggggg, 3 May 2009 Author: andy-salter from United Kingdom
well where do i begin. i never expected much from this film but i hoped for so much more than i got. the plot is randomly all over the place with hints of donnie darko crow bared in to make it relevant to the original(and probably the idea was to interest fans of the original). the acting is very wooden, the story is totally rambling and the end is stupid in so many ways. it seems very much like the makers have gone way out of the way to appeal to fans of the original, well i am very much one of those fans and i hated it with more than a passion, i only found out about this movie about an hour before i sat down to watch it, i wish i never found out about it.its obvious why it went straight to DVD. so if you are a fan of the original stay away from this one and just keep on loving donnie darko.
88 out of 98 people found the following review useful: I Doubt Chris Fisher's Commitment to Sparkle Motion..., 8 May 2009 Author: Otto-Maddox
S. Darko is one of many sequels that has no reason to have been created at all. But even if one puts the original film out-of-mind, and only look at the sequel on it's own merits, the movie still falls completely flat.The film picks up 7 years after the original left off, Samantha Darko and her friend Corey are on a cross-country trip heading for Los Angeles. When car problems leave them stuck in a little town by the name of Conejo Springs (which is populated by a community of horribly written character's), the girls are forced to mingle with the townies, and Corey finds herself at home with the boozy losers, while Samantha, still in pain over the death of her brother (Donnie), finds herself drawn to the Outsider by the name of Iraq Jack, a disturbed Gulf War vet who has learned through bizarre visions that the world is coming to an end on July 4th, 1995.It seems that Nathan Atkins is a fan of Richard Kelly's work (including Southland Tales because the character of Iraq Jack seems similar to the character 'Pilot Abilene' & the end of the world date being on 'July 4th') But Atkins can't write believable dialogue to save his life. And the director 'Chris Fisher' doesn't seem to understand what made the original film so good, which was the feeling of being able to connect with the characters going through something this crazy. And if the audience doesn't care about the characters on-screen it becomes very hard for them to feel any effect of the narrative structure.S. Darko is a hollow cash-grab by producers who must have never understood what Kelly was going for, but they now control the rights to the Darko universe, and they're hoping to collect any profit from this wannabe Donnie Darko replica.
102 out of 128 people found the following review useful: How does one suck a F***?, 3 May 2009 Author: shaun-woods from United Kingdom
As soon as I had heard about this hybrid sequel (and it is a sequel), I immediately thought that they had gone and done it again, I thought they just couldn't help themselves, I thought that it was just another money spinner and it was produced to simply draw in the gradual pulse of Donnie Darko fans.After watching it though, it really didn't disappoint, my initial gut instinct was right. This film follows in the footsteps of other previous solo films that they just couldn't leave alone.This film has so many Donnie Darko cliché's, it's unbelievable, the visual effects (which I could have done myself), the stylised music of the time, the time lapse scenes (which are OVERUSED), the times caped school scene (with Tears for Fears)... Everything... Everything that made Donnie Darko the artistic and visually spectacular film it was, has been transposed to this and it has been transposed, woefully.They have even cast a couple of Jake Gyllenhaal lookalikes for some of the parts, and there is NO way this is an accident, because they act so badly, they must have been cast on their uncannily resemblance to J.G.It's a bit like when Dennis Leary, Ripped off Bill Hicks, it's rather sad seeing someone else trying to imitate someone else's joke, you still laugh at it for a minute, but afterwards, you just want your money back.This film is a bit poo, I can't even comment on its "plot", because, you can see "the plot", has been moulded around the model of Donnie Darko, you can see that the plot was the last thing they thought about, which funnily enough, in a Donnie Darko fashion, was probably the first thing though about in Donnie Darko.I don't know though, for some strange reason, this feels more like a bad re-make, than a sequel, and people probably will say something like "You have watch this movie, independently, don't think that it's a sequel to Donnie Darko, try to see it for what it is.", okay, that would be a fair thing to say. But as soon as you release a movie, with one of the same actors from the original, with the same title as the original (nearly), with the same freaking emblem as the original, pfft... well... You can't cook a cookie from a recipe and say it's your own.Now, let's get to the acting. The acting is awful, there really doesn't seem to be any interACTION, between the actors, it just feels as though they are saying the lines to each other, it really does, there doesn't feel like there is any co-character development, there doesn't seem to be any rapport at all, and more importantly, there doesn't seem to a distinguishable emotion, throughout the movie, honestly, watch it... The best actor throughout, is one of the actors who hardly has a scene John Hawkes, from, From Dusk Till Dawn and Identity.There are also 2 shady looking characters in the film, who don Men in Black attire. They look like two bloody elephants in a fridge, they really do, they look SO out of place and so uneasy on the camera, that they were probably just picked from the town that they filmed in, either that or they are two tecchies from the production team.As I've said before, the production looks shoddy, it really does, the effects from Donnie Darko, looked much better and that was.. what? 8 years ago? And 8 years, is a long time in technological terms. Even in one scene (this is supposed to be set in 1995), you can see post 95 produced Cars in the background, and an up to date Budweiser sign.(I wish I could do the time travel thing and go back in time and NOT watch this film.)All-in-All, this film is bad, I suppose my advice could be to watch it with an open mind, but I would be misadvising you, this film is obviously aimed at making a few quid from Donnie Darko fans and with that in mind, I just can't get past the audacity of the reason for this film. It is a much asked question of films, especially sequels, but I am going to ask it anyway.Why?I have given this film a 4/10, and that is primarily because I think that the lead is hot, she walks around a hot state, with practically nothing on most of the time and the fact that she looks like Jessica Biel, that is how skin deep I feel, after watching this film, which is no doubt, how the producers thought throughout the process of making this film.If you are thinking of buying this on DVD for a present for someone you know who is a Donnie Darko fan, then don't, A. It will disappoint them and B. It will only spur on, more crap like this.And as for one KILLER line in the movie..."Like... Drugs and Anus Sex!" Best line in the whole movie.
53 out of 71 people found the following review useful: I just had one thought running through my head while watching this . . ., 2 May 2009 Author: BremenDruid from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I just had one thought running through my head while watching this . . .WTF? Seriously, that was pretty much the only thought running through my head as I watched this movie. Every time something happened, I thought, WTF does that have to do with anything? And I don't mean that the movie is mysterious, I mean there's a lot that just doesn't make any sense.Okay, Donnie Darko is my favorite movie of all time. Even after watching Donnie Darko the first time I didn't quite understand everything that happened in it, I was wondering why certain things happened and how some things affected other events. So the first time I watched Donnie Darko I was also wondering: WTF? But even with that I still understood the idea that Donnie went through this whole movie so that in the end he would sacrifice himself for the sake of the world. (It also made me obsessed with Mad World).Having said that I don't understand what the whole point S Darko really was. In S. Darko, (Here comes the spoilers, but trust me it may be better to read about it than to actually waste your time watching it) the whole thing starts when a dead version of Samantha appears before a man who goes by "Iraq Jack" and tells him that the world is going to end. (Another messed up thing about Iraq Jack? He's the grandson to Roberta Sparrow, what bearing that has to do with anything? I have no clue).Anyways, Iraq Jack gets obsessed with the dead version of Samantha (and even more messed up is that Samantha apparently turns into her dead self at night when she sees a glowing feather . . .WTF?) So this dead version of Samantha tells him that the world is going to end, and he goes about making a mask that is supposed to replicate the look of Frank the Rabbit from the first movie, apparently she shows him a drawing that Donnie did of Frank the Rabbit and he creates a mask that looks like the drawing.Now . . .There's a problem with that. Okay, Donnie first meets Frank the Rabbit on the night when the Tangent Universe opens when Frank calls him outside to avoid being killed by the jet engine. When he goes back into time to save the world, he goes back to exactly the same night that he was called outside and therefore the tangent universe never opens. So, unless he decided to randomly draw Frank the Rabbit while waiting for the engine to crush him (Oh, and storing it somewhere in his room where it won't get ruined by the said jet engine), that drawing shouldn't exist. (Except, of course, the sketches that Frank had, but I doubt that he knew Samantha well enough to give her a copy).So anyways, he creates the mask that invariably kills Samantha later on (which actually Samantha dies twice in this movie, but I won't get into that too much, because the first time is actually quite pointless). So now, the world is coming to an end, Samantha is dead, and the dead version of her springs Iraq Jack from jail so that he could go back into time and die by the meteorite.Okay, so they're pretty much replacing Donnie with Iraq Jack (who happens to be Roberta Sparrows grandson, but really, who cares?). Here's the problem with that, Donnie was a pretty messed up kid, but the experiences he goes through in the movie moves the audience to feel for him when he does actually die. This doesn't work for Iraq Jack, because quite frankly no one cares about him. Seriously, the only shots you see of him are him rambling like a lunatic, or him digging through trash, or other random shots of him talking to the dead Samantha.No one cares for him, the audience doesn't care about him, so when he does die (smiling and waving at the meteorite like an idiot) it doesn't have any effect on the audience. It's like watching someone step on an insect, no one cares.That's just the main plot, but then you have some other stuff in the movie that's just completely inane. Like, for instance, this random rash that (I don't even remember what the name of the character was, seriously he was that unimportant) some dude got from the meteorite, that apparently ate away at his skin and also made him super aggressive. WTF? Here's another thing that didn't quite make sense. Samantha has the Philosophy of Time Travel book. . .Why? For those that don't know or maybe for some reason or another might have forgotten, Donnie receives the book from Dr. Monnitoff, his science teacher, when he starts asking him about time travel. His inquiries are all brought on by the fact that Frank the Rabbit talked to him about time travel, so if Donnie went back in time to the point where the tangent universe opened and died, he never received the book. So that means that Dr. Monnitoff should still have it (or if you go to the Donnie Darko website you find out that it was actually given to the Library of Congress Rare Books Division after Dr. Monnitoff died in a car accident.) These are just some of the things that I've noticed, but right now I don't think I could continue to rant about this movie. I think instead I'm going to find Nathan Atkins (the guy that wrote the screenplay for S Darko) and I'm going to get a refund for what I believe 2 hours of my life wasted on his piece of crap movie is worth.Don't waste your time.
44 out of 57 people found the following review useful: More like "ASS Darko", 13 May 2009 Author: jason-coffman from United States
I was honestly shocked that this film was actually worse than I was expecting it to be. It really seems like the writer and director got hired for the job, watched about half of the first film before they got bored, and then set off to make something roughly similar. Awful dialogue, careless (and painfully obvious) anachronisms, and some jaw-droppingly bad CG effects. I'd be willing to bet they had more money to make this than Richard Kelly had to work with on the original, and none of it's up on the screen. Maybe it cost them a lot of money to license "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe" by Whale.*cough* Anyway, as far as cash-grab sequels go this has to be one of the all-time worst. A suggestion: tape an episode of "One Tree Hill" or "Gossip Girl," then put on some red-and-blue 3D glasses, and pretend one of the cast members is saying stuff like "Remember the future" and "My farts taste like cherries." Then watch the show on rewind for about twenty minutes and do it all over again. Repeat for 102 minutes total, and you've had roughly the same experience. Utterly shameful.
38 out of 46 people found the following review useful: A great movie that will have you watching it over and over and..what?, 13 May 2009 Author: satellitepictures from United States
What? Oh S Darko? I thought you said Donnie Darko. Oh...well that changes things. Um... Let me take all of that back then.OK on a serious note there are a lot of posts on here that will say that they A.) Were huge fans of Donnie Darko B.) Thought the girls were hot and scantily clad C.) Thought the effects were not so special d.) Thought this was kind of rehashed I agree with all of these statements. I also tried looking at it like it wasn't involved with the first movie at all and you end up with a no so brilliant, watered down less than mediocre movie. The problem is this is a Donnie Darko movie. You have fans who have watched the original over and over, read countless summaries of not only the movie but the "mechanics" of how that universe worked and then came to your own conclusions. You have fans that (myself included) donned (no pun intended) the skeleton costume and grey hoodie for Halloween. When you try to add to a cult phenomenon like Donnie Darko, unless you do your homework, you are going to fall flat.To me this movie felt like someone watched Donnie a few times, wrote down some key elements from the movie in a notebook and then tried to incorporate it into a new movie.As a huge fan of the original I can't find myself "hating it" in the same way that I can't hate the Star Wars prequels, so I gave it a 3 out of 10. I don't want to betray it even though it betrays the original and its fans. It was by no means one of the worst movies I have ever seen, but it is a let down of a sequel. I also gave it a 3 because I understand what this movie was trying to do (involving others in the timeline plot to change destinies) but I don't think it was done well. You still have some of the mechanics involved in the first, although altered. Even the characters are somewhat the same (the sexual deviant priest vs the sexual deviant motivational speaker, etc)Even some of the lines used are to try to get a reaction from original fans. It just comes off as a bad rip off.When you were done watching the original, you felt as though you wanted to watch it again and learn more. You felt a sense of witnessing something special.
37 out of 49 people found the following review useful: If you thought "How can they make a sequel to Donnie Darko?", 10 May 2009 Author: jh-goldsmith from China
If you thought "How can they make a sequel to Donnie Darko?" then you should be warned. This movie fails as miserably as you would expect. It also lacks in the quality of the cinematography of the original. It is almost unwatchable.The ending to the original Donnie Darko was absolutely superior. It absolutely completed the story and left the viewer to ponder the meaning and philosophical implications of the work quietly to themselves. There was no antagonist to be reviled from the dead to fight again and no antagonist, having saved the world once to be brought out of a failed marriage and rehab somewhere to save the world again. I do not mind watching movie series even movies such as Saw or Rocky. But Donnie Darko is not the type of movie that could possibly lend itself well to a series and it doe not deserve to be put in a category with those types of movies and the attempt to do so is a complete failure.
29 out of 34 people found the following review useful: An embarrassment to the Darko name, 29 June 2009 Author: Enz from Canada
Before anyone gets on their high horse saying I am one of those Donnie Darko fans not giving this new movie a chance, I gave this film a chance and spent the five bucks to rent it straight away after learning it existed.The only good thing about this film is that it ended. OK, that may be harsh, the film's colour and surrounding landscape it unfolds in is pretty cool but that is it. The only other interesting elements, whether technical in filming style or plot-wise of this film, were ripped straight from the first film. What was cool in Donnie Darko is merely imitation here.The plot is weak and has logic holes which fail the Donnie Darko/tangent universe test from the first film. As fans of the original we cannot help but compare the two films because s.Darko centres on characters and memories from the first one and rotates on the principles that drove the original as well. How can you not compare the two? What almost borders on insulting in this film are the straight repetitions of acts, scenes and quirky characters from the first one replicated in this one. I don't want to spoil the film if you are drawn to sit and endure it but you'll see what I mean, you cannot miss the weak, formulaic repetition, especially if you are a fan of the original.Basically, s.Darko is the same model car like Donnie Darko but has different paint colour and chokes along on a four-cylinder engine whereas the first one rumbled along on six.
31 out of 40 people found the following review useful: Wake up!, 10 May 2009 Author: Alexander-M from Italy
I can start by saying that I'm a great fan of Donnie Darko. When I watched that movie the first time I was amazed and started thinking about all the possible meanings it could have had. When I heard about this sequel I was quite skeptic. I watched this movie for about 45 minutes then I paused it and started asking myself questions... so I said to myself : "Ok you can do this". Started watching the rest of the movie and in the end I was completely distraught. There was nothing to this movie.. the characters were not interesting at all. It just looked like they took bits of Donnie Darko and applied them to a random plot.. Oh wait.. Which plot? Donnie Darko was hard to understand of course, like any work of art, but you can't make a movie without meaning expecting the public to see something that just isn't there.I gave this a 1 out of 10 because as I recently heard in One tree hill "Sometimes the beauty is in the attempt".
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