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Dom Robinson reviews

Donnie Darko 2-disc Director's Cut Edition

Distributed by
Metrodome Video

Cover Blu-ray:
DVD:

Cover As Donnie Darko begins, the date is October 2nd 1988 as Dukakis and Bush Snr are running for the Whitehouse.

We see Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) waking up in the middle of the road as morning comes and he realises he fell off his bike. Typical of most teenagers, he spends a lot of time out at night, but unlike some he's on medication to control his behaviour and moods swings.

In the middle of the night, a voice tells him to wake up and that it's been watching him. He goes out into the garden where a rabbit called Frank tells him the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds. He asks why. We don't find out the answer. Later that night there's an explosion at his house, which turns out to be an aircraft engine having landed in his bedroom, despite there having been no trace of a plane in the area. However, Donnie wasn't at home because when he wakes up he finds he's spent the whole night asleep on a golf course.

Another time, he's told by Frank to break into the school at night, take an axe to the water main and flood the place, followed by buring the axe in the head of a bronze statue and spray-painting the words, "They made me do it" in front of it.

There's so much more to come but if you haven't seen it yet then it's well worth a look. Just a few of the weird encounters include a bizarre conversation between Donnie and two of his friends about Smurfette having sex with all the other smurfs, there's an old woman known as "Grandma Death" who stops traffic by standing in the middle of the road, occasionally and repeatedly checking a mailbox; and this socially-inept lad even manages to bag a girlfriend in the form of new girl Gretchen Ross (Jena Malone).

I watched the regular version, as I heard the Director's Cut gives too much away, and I really enjoyed it. It was very bizarre at times but I followed what was going on and it came together very well. If I had any complaints it's that there's just too many characters trying to get in on the gig so, in some cases, they don't really get more than a few minutes to make their mark on the movie. However, I'd highly recommend a viewing and I was impressed on a couple of occasions when early song pieces, Echo & The Bunnymen's The Killing Moon and Tears For Fears' Head Over Heels, were accompanied by a great mix of footage at regular, slow and fast paces.

It was interesting to see Jake's real-life sister Maggie play his sister Elizabeth, and the late Patrick Swayze makes a great job of the slightly creepy evangelist-type character, Jim Cunningham, promising to make everyone's lives better. Jena Malone's also wonderful as Donnie's girlfriend, Gretchen, a girl who looks as lost in this world as Donnie often is.

Cover Presented in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic theatrical ratio, there is nothing to complain about other than a slightly shimmering picture in the opening scene. This is the kind of thing we sometimes get from Optimum titles. Are they from the same source? Other than that it's sharp, detailed and flawless. For the record, I'm watching on a Panasonic 37" Plasma screen via a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player.

Audio-wise, you get a 5.1 DTS HD soundtrack, although I had to go for the 5.1 DTS equivalent, which brillianty brings across the dark nature of many scenes including when Donnie gets to share screen time with Frank as well as the music, and is also functional for dialogue.

The extras on disc 1 are as follows:

  • They made me do it: Art Gallery (3:11): As this extra states: 14 leading artists emerging from the UK graffiti scene were asked to complete a piece on canvas, in 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds, inspired by this film. The exhibition ran for 28 days at Dreambagsjaguarshoes, London.

  • Deleted and extended Scenes (31:50): A massive 20 scenes here, but none I'd really put back into the film.

  • Audio commentaries: One from director Richard Kelly and one from the cast and crew.
Disc 2, which features the director's cut, contains the following extras:
  • Production diary (40:44): A diary recorded over the course of 28 days...

    Bizarrely, like the deleted scenes, the counter never moves so while you can skip through to later chapters, you can't see how many there are or how far through the piece you are.

  • They made me do it too: Director's Cut trailer (0:55): Shown in letterboxed 2.35:1, at this point I've still only seen the regular version, but this trailer doesn't feel like it's given anything extra away.

  • Audio commentary: From director Richard Kelly and Kevin Smith.

The menu is a set of blue-tinged images from the film set to music from the film along with Frank's warning about how long the world has left. There are subtitles in English only. The chaptering seems like it's been let out to Optimum as there's only 12. It's a LONG film, so why skimp? This goes for both versions of it.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2010.

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