Donnie Darko was excellent....although I do have to admit that you will need to watch the movie to completely get the whole thing and everything that the movie is trying to get out to you. It is an exciting movie that has you guessing whats going to happen next. I recommend it, and if you don't get it by the end just google it and you'll find the answer.

October 1988 and small town USA is about to witness the end of the world. Its home to Donnie Darko, a brilliant but troubled teenager, plagued by visions which only he knows the meaning of. With his classmate and soulmate Gretchen and a mysterious ex-teacher , nicknamed Grandma death, he must unravel these strange occurrences.

it is richard kelly's debut film. its a daring, original vision packed with mind boggling ideas and intelligence and also has a wonderful performance by jake gyllenhaal as the troubld main character. Synopsis: A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large creature that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.

I've already reviewed the originally released cut of 'Donnie Darko' so I am not going to review the film again. Instead, I'll comment on the differences between the two versions; unfortunately most of the differences took away from the original film, which I think is truly excellent.

I traveled two hours round-trip with several friends to see the Directors Cut since it was not playing in Milwaukee at the time, and while I am glad that I saw it, I feel that the original is the superior version. There were many superfluous scenes in the new cut which did not add to the film; rather I almost felt that they made the pacing falter a bit. For example, the new scene between Donnie's parents in the café – a completely unnecessary scene which did not add anything relevant to the story. There were a handful of scenes like this, as well as some added dialogue that indeed added to the development of some characters, (Drew Barrymore's character, the teacher 'Karen' was enhanced a bit) for some it just seemed silly (One of Donnie's bus stop friends telling Cherita that he 'hopes she gets molested' turned him from just being an incidental character into being an incidental character who is a jackass.)

Another major difference between the two films was the addition of several special effects to the new cut. There were a lot of dream-like sequences (the file cabinets floating among the clouds ala Rene Magritte) and all of the stuff focusing on Donnie's eyeball, computer-ish codes, etc, that just did not work in my opinion. Also, some of the most subtle changes, soundtrack for example, were disarming. The opening song was 'The Killing Moon' by Echo and the Bunnymen in the original, which provided a great backdrop in the introduction to Donnie, his environment and his family. Kelly used 'Never Tear Us Apart' by INXS in his directors cut. Certainly, a good song, but after using a perfect song originally, it is hard to get used to an inferior replacement.

Which is how I sum up my feelings about Kelly's directors cut in general? Why mess with (near) perfection? 'Donnie Darko' is a fantastic film that was so thought-provoking it made some people run the other way. Only those who were interested in something beyond the ordinary stayed to ponder and theorize its meaning, and still are to this day. Kelly's new cut does not enhance the film, rather, it made it plodding and a little dumbed-down – two adjectives I never thought I would ascribe to this film. See the directors cut to play 'spot the new stuff', but stick with the original.

It didn't get interesting till about...eight minutes in? The whole symbolizing of the rabbit confused me, but the confusion some how gave me chills and the weird voice definitely added to it. The graphics didn't look like they came out in 2001. It looks more like a 70's movie, its quality, but it just has that slight blur and color distortion, and acting..To just make it seem more like a 70's movie. The main boy was pretty cute, and the acting of the boys (being pervy) was right on queue lmao. Donnie's grin gave me chills. This is one of those movies where you shouldn't judge the cover by the movie itself. It was pretty good, I feel as if "Comedy" should be added to the tags..Because it had funny scenes in it! I'm not in to the funny/scary movies, but in someway I liked this. Definitely worth the watch. If you're into gore this isn't the movie for you, its mostly kind of that movie that gives you shock, and chills. Not bloody scenes and torture. It also has some of that "young love" in it, which is cute and makes you grin, and remember your first love. Some parts were just like "wtf" scenes for me, also. I went through stages watching this "Bored, Confused, Understood, bored, funny, weird, odd, sad, understood, etcetc" I wouldn't really call this a horror movie, if there was a "creepy" movie tab this would be in it.