all over the place

Rating: 1/10 (9 December 2002)

this movie has become harder to appreciate, what with jake's rising status as the new heart-throb, which has resulted in this movie's post theatrical boom. i personally can't stand him, and i think that he is a one-dimensional actor, but this was the first time i had seen his only act, so i appreciated it at the moment. as for the film itself, it is all over the map, not sure what it wants to be, possibly trying to play itself off as a movie that is above the average viewers intelligence. it's funny that most people who really enjoy this film are under the age of 18. one of the most unnecessary elements is the setting, which is the late 1980's. apart from a few bush/dukakis remarks, and a reference to "married, with children", nothing is 80's about the look of the characters (especially gyllenhall). with that out of the way, some of the issues tackled in this film are well thought out, and you'll find that to be even more true if you watch the deleted scenes. truthfully, this should have been re-edited into a directors cut for dvd, because no one saw this in the theaters anyway. at some point i started to notice a similarity to "the last temptation of christ", and much to my surprise, the director put that title on the marquee of the theater that they watch "evil dead" in. since it is supposed to be some sort of fright night double feature, it is obvious that the director is showing us that he was influenced by this picture. the ending is very similar, but comparing this nobody loser of a kid to jesus christ might seem a bit of a stretch. this brings me to my final point. while this movie has many many high points, and i do give it a nine out of ten, no one cares AT ALL about any of the characters in it, ESPECIALLY donnie. here is the director's true downfall, and it is what he will need to improve upon with further pictures. otherwise, he'll have just been a flash in the pan, much like our good mr. gyllenhall is turning out to be.