Who thought a sequel to Donnie Darko would be a good idea? Especially when the original writer/director isn’t involved. It’s more of a sideways remake than a sequel and this just makes it feel worse.
Samantha Darko (Daveigh Chase) and her best friend Corey (Briana Evigan) are on a cross-country trip to get to California. Samantha is still feeling the melancholy from the death of her brother Donnie, under strange and mysterious circumstances.
Sam and Corey’s car breaks down and they’re stranded in the tiny burg of Conejo Springs, Utah. Corey takes up with local boy Randy (Ed Westwick). The gals stay at the hotel of Phil (John Hawkes), who appears to be obsessed with UFOs. The locals are fearful of a disturbed man dubbed Iraq Jack (James Lafferty).
There’s also Pastor John Mellit (Matthew Davis), the law is represented by Officer O’Dell (Bret Roberts), and a nervous lad named Jeremy (Jackson Rathbone) takes a shine to Sam. Sam soon starts to have visions that the world is about to end with shades of her late brother.
S. Darko just seems like a bad idea. Donnie Darko was a cult film that spun a serpentine tale of time travel, predestination, and all manner of odd happenings. Even though it’s a sequel, S. Darko seems more like a sideways sequel as many of the things that happen in the first film happen again, just to Sam.
A seemingly upstanding citizen is reveled to be a child molester, the town lunatic turns out to know more than they let on, the weird rabbit mask makes another appearance (cameo?), and the world is going to end…again. I wish they would just hurry up and snuff it so we don’t have to see more pointless sequels and remakes. Waits. Oh, well guess I’ll keep tying since the world didn’t stop in the time I paused in this review…dammit!
Where the first film used the plot and twists creatively, this sequel (I still argue it’s a remake) doesn’t do too much with them. I again argue it’s because we’ve seen them all before in the first film.
Jake Gyllenhaal did so well in the main role in the first film, it’s hard to top and Daveigh Chase just isn’t up to the challenge. None of the cast is exactly noteworthy and James Lafferty almost seems like a Gyllenhaal cousin in looks. If you’re a fan of the first film this one will only serve to piss you off and wonder why any budget was wasted on it.
S. Darko is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary by director Chris Fisher, writer Nathan Atkins, and cinematographer Marvin V. Rush.
There are also 6 minutes of deleted scenes, the 15-minute “Making of S. Darko,” the 2-minute trailer, and the 6-minute “Utah Too Much” about the song the cast wrote during the boredom of location shooting in Utah. There are also previews of other Fox DVDs.
S. Darko should really have never been made. It’s only going to make fans of the original mad and I doubt it will pick up many new fans.
S. Darko is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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