Donnie Darko: Zero Box-Office. Sweet-Looking DVD! (1 Viewer)

[luke cav]

Watched most of the extras, a few days ago. A cool dvd, 2 audio commentaries, tones of deleted scenes and classicly bad infomercials from the film. The film has had zero promotion or has not even got a UK cinema release date. The film would play very well if given a chance in the UK. It is not too mainstream for arthouse cinemas. Except they need to change there marketing campaign since the US one, was so far off track. Promoted as a horror thriller in the vain of Final Desination which it is not at all.

 

[Randy Schissler]

I've never heard of this interesting sounding movie. Are there any links to reviews or descriptions of it?

--Randy S.

 

[JonZ]

I bought DD today but I wont be able to see it until tomorrow.

The DVDFile review was pretty negative about the films video transfer.Im really looking foward to seeing it.

 

[Joseph S]

"An All-Star Cast In a Classic Psychological Thriller!"- Compuserve

It is pretty sad when a movie this good is left with one liners from "Compuserve" on its cover artwork. Apparently all the critics missed it entirely. Too bad for them.

There are two commentaries and 20 deleted/extended scenes with commentary as well. The DVD is packed with stuff and another nice effort by Fox.

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

Watched it last night, and despite the darkness of the transfer, I thought it was a pretty good disc for a really good movie. Plus, I smiled just about every time they played a song from the 80's -- the music selection was choice! Definitely one I will be watching again soon!

 

[JonZ]

I usually keep my brightness a bit low anyway and I still had to turn it way down for this disc. After that, it looked quite good.

 

[Robin Warren]

I saw this on the stand yesterday but only had budget for OZ season one. Will have to pick it up next week. I read the cover and was a little surprised to see that Compuserve quote as I remembered Ebert gave it a marginal thumbs up. But I really choked when I saw them compare it to Final Destination. EEK.

 

[Shawn Shultzaberger]

I went to Wal-Mart and Blockbuster to try and buy but no luck. So I rented it from BB. (gonna see if Best Buy has it tonight).
I was thoroughly impressed with this movie. But I don't really know what to think of it. It's definitely memorable and makes you think. I don't quite "get it" though. It's going to take another viewing or two to maybe understand it.
I really liked this movie even if I don't get the ending. I guess I would clasify it as a dark comedy with a little sci-fi thrown in.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Got the DVD today and I have to admit that I'm not crazy about the transfer, which indeed looks hazy. I got the razor-sharp "Sexy Beast" from Fox too and I think that the transfer problems aren't Fox's fault, but rather that of Silver Nitrate Entertainment, who put the DVD together (much to writer-director Richard Kelly's annoyance). Sexy Beast and Joy Ride wrap up after the end credits with a logo for Universal's DVCC (Digital Video Compression Center), while Darko jumps right to the main menu. Very irritating.

It's not horrible, but I don't remember it looking this bad in the theater and even the theatrical trailer looks much better than the feature. Good extras though.

 

[RogerB]

I watched it last night. The movie was EXCELLENT! The below average video quality wasn't too much of a distraction. Sound quality is great - the rabbit's voice is super creepy. Highly recommended. I can't wait to watch it again.

 

[JonZ]

DVDfile give a explaination about the transfer in their review for this DVD.

It has to do with the Kodak film they used, but surely they couldve have tweaked the picture for a better transfer.

 

[RogerB]

I just read a very interesting interview with Steven Poster, the cinematographer of Donnie Darko. Here's quote:

Whenever I've been told about shooting anamorphic, and I've done a lot of it over the years, everybody always says "Well, you have to stop these lenses down," or "they're terrible, they're too soft." I totally disagree. In a movie like this that's dark, there's a quality to it that you don't necessarily want to see everything. In these situations, I find that it's perfectly fine to shoot these lenses wide open if you need to. When you choose a set of lenses, you work them for the optimum stop, but you should never choose a lens that you can't trust wide open as well. Of course at the optimum stop you're going to get more depth of field, you're going to get a little more sharpness. I had no problem shooting them wide open if I needed to.

Here's a link to the entire interview:
Steven Poster Interview

 

[Dwayne]

I first heard of this film not through conventional advertising (I didn't see the damn trailer in either the theater or on TV), but after seeing the poster on IMDB. Intrigued, I entered the title on the site and read about it there. Then I found the quicktime trailer at apple.com. My interest was stirred. Although it wound up playing for a couple of weeks at some local theaters, I regretfully never got a chance to see it. That's until now.
DONNIE DARKO IS A WONDERFULLY CRAFTED PIECE OF FILM. What's even more amazing is that this film represents the debut of director Richard Kelly. For me, all of it came together for Donnie Darko. The script, music, photography, and certainly the performances. About the music, although there are some great eighties tunes, the score by Michael Andrews is hauntingly beautiful while remaining simplistic in it's approach (listening to some of it now ). This has to be one of most impressive directing debuts ever, and not only that, but it's original and refreshingly.....well....FRESH, AND IT DEFINATELY CONNECTS ON MANY DIFFERENT EMOTIONAL LEVELS. I can't reccomend this film enough.
P.S. There is alot of dark humor in this film, so don't be surprised to find yourself laughing quite a bit.

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

After I saw the trailer on the Apple Quicktime site, I wanted to see this film so bad. But, of course, it never made its way to a theater here. So, I had to wait until last night to watch it. Let's just say it was well worth the wait. As strange a film as I've ever seen, it was also perfectly crafted. I kept worrying about the ending because as the film went on and kept diving farther into chaos, it seemed like there was going to be no way in hell there was going to be a usable conclusion. But, the ending was terrific and really brought out the power the rest of the film held. A first rate film that will be seen by far too few.
Donnie Darko :star: :star: :star: :star:
Bruce

 

[Joseph Young]

Late last night I reached the scene right when the jet engine crashes through the house
and it was so deafeningly loud that my roomate swore a jet engine had indeed landed through OUR roof
In trying to turn it down and in my panic, I pressed 'volume up' instead, waking probably half the neighborhood.
Ah, the glories of an HT.
Joseph

 

[Chris M]

I so wanted to buy this DVD today... but the retail price appears to be $40 CDN! And even on sale it's over $30... that's VERY odd for a Fox title! Anyone know why?
BTW, there are quite a few movie reviews at rottentomatoes. Here's the Collection
Looks like most of the reviewers actually liked it!
Chris.

 

[Darcy Hunter]

Chris

Where did you look for it? Future shop had it listed in their latest ad for 27.99 (that's what I got it for). It's still a little higher then the normal Fox prices, but still reasonable. I also HIGHLY recommend this film! At least give it a rental if you don't want to risk buying it, you won't be dissapointed.

 

[Dharmesh C]

I didn't like the film, not because it's wierd, but seemed very patchy. Still, worth watching because it's very different from what I was expecting.
Loved the use of surrounds, very spooky

 

[Jens Raethel]

I just saw this movie and I love it!

What a great story, and cast!

 

[EricW]

there's 2 eggs at:

within the "philosophy of time" book, when you see the diagram pages, press up. one a deleted scene between Farmer and the Barrymore character, the other is a second trailer.

hope that helps.