worthless crap...

Rating: 1/10 (8 March 2003)

I've seen a large amount of creative, innovative, insightful, thought-inspiring movies. Donnie Darko would be one of Harlan Ellison's favorite pet-projects for his "Glass Teat" column in the last year of the sixties. To use his words, this movie is "soul-robbing and dehumanizing. It requires that the viewer stop thinking, completely." I have never seen a movie more worthless than this. Drew Barrymore's performance is appalling. Patrick Swayze's character and performance are mind-numbing. Jake Gwyl-whatever's performance ranks up there with the dumb-a** guys in "Dumb and Dumber," "American Pie," and "Dude, Where's My Car?"
Something immediately comes to mind when reading reviews for this sad excuse for a "film." Those who like the film always seem to attack the intelligence of those who don't. Comments about "not getting it" abound. This is sad. Just because someone posts an unfavorable review of a movie you like doesn't necessarily mean they are less intelligent than you. In fact, the opposite case may be true...
So to state it plainly, the acting in this film is deplorable. the story starts off interesting, but deteriorates into drivel. No one can really care about Donnie or his family... they are boring. The idea of putting an overweight Asian girl as a pathetic love-interest in Donnie is the saddest attempt by a filmamker to be "politically correct" (let's make sure we cover ALL the bases-- what hasn't been tried before; but we can always fall back on "fairness" if we get slagged for it).
Comparisons to "Memento"," David Lynch, "Jacob's Ladder," etc are unwarranted. This movie cannot ever aspire to the heady, thought-inspiring genius that these other achieve. Those who attack others' ability to "get it," need to ask themselves "what is there to get?" The answer is, "nothing."
Rating: negative one, out of ten.