Reviews

**Very weak potential spoilers (events, not really plot)** Ridiculously stupid movie, but by design so why such negative responses? Look, it's nothing more than one of those poopy joke, stick-it-up-your-butt-to-hide-it movies with nonstop innuendo about all the guys being maybe a little gay. With that in mind, it's fun for what it is.

I see other user reviews comparing this weakly to other Franco/Rogen movies, but I have seen none of them so I don't have that gauge to measure by.

By now you know the plot (and the meta real life drama it created) so I won't rehash. Instead, random impressions: beautifully photographed; a surprise there. The guy playing Kim Jong-un was too handsome and masculine to accurately portray the real guy, but OK. Diana Bang was actually kinda brilliant in her switching demeanors between ice-cold officious and guard-down horny, winning the best moments of the film in her reaction to Rogen's bare chest and the shot of her giddy and vicious as she shot a massive gun thru a door. And really, that's about it. Oh, and a particular shot getting me to aloud shout "OHHH!!!" when a tank ran over a jeep (there's more to it than just that). But maybe that's a guy moment only we would "enjoy." Perhaps I'm being kind to this silly venture because it was my first comic de-stress release since a certain big event here in the US (but let's not go down that road here); my point being that when I watched this I was very in need of escape into mindless laughs and this movie delivered.

"PA4" felt like a bridge between where the story was in the past, which the filmmakers seem ready to abandon, and whatever else their imaginations can plan for the future. A necessary bridge that finally extricates the storyline out of the same family and opens up the franchise to the evil forces attacking persons, families or situations as unlimited as future sequel numbers. So if you want to keep track of the entire franchise through the already-announced PA5 up to the likely PA12, 13, and so on, here's all you need to know about PA4 (without having to see it): it's the one where the filmmakers transitioned the franchise from an endearing little series of films made with ingenuity in effects and suspense, to a predictable series of familiar horror movie staples.

I actually liked PA3 (especially the kitchen furniture trick) and thought the slowly-panning camera amusing for it's deliberately slow action: though some viewers might have thought it made the pace too slow, I thought it cleverly built suspense in a "meta" self-conscious kinda way. At this point I don't much remember PA2 save that I liked it.

"Admired" might be a better word rather than "liked." I admired this franchise for it's fun and fright on the cheap. They certainly seem inexpensively-made movies, and yet were inventive within that limitation. And I admired the filmmakers' success ($) in doing so.

But at this point it seems the filmmakers have tired of needing to be inventive and low-tech and have lost their sense of fun and ability to create suspense and replaced these with the desire to make movies filled with standard stuff from the marketing department's catalog of predictable horror elements.

Some of the things in PA4 that, to me, signaled a shift from what has made this franchise fun to watch and toward schlocky run-of-the-mill cheap horror not worth my time:

1) The acting. Through PA3, the actors were believably 'real;' I felt I was watching actual family video. Unknowns who might not have had sufficient acting training to be overly 'acty.' That changed in PA4. While everyone was fine enough, I felt, this time out, that I was indeed watching actors.

2) Hackneyed horror stunts:

2A):(MINOR SPOILER HERE): as the boy was riding his Big Wheel through the kitchen, a chair moved backward into his path. More subtle and creepy, I thought, would have been to have had the chair simply fall backward into the boy's path.

2B) (PRETTY MAJOR SPOILER): the levitation scene (which, I read online, was an idea contributed to the directors by magician David Copperfield. Directors: don't take your horror tricks from a schlocky magician if you don't want a schlocky effect). And this action accomplished nothing in the story; no demon mechanic worked on her undercarriage or drained her oil, so to speak, while she was up there. It was just raising her up for no reason but to show it. Useless.

2C): (MAJOR SPOILER): PA4 went from suggested horror in earlier films to hackneyed demon-face makeup. Oh, please. Crossing that bridge opened the door to showing it again in future movies, but of course next in acid-saliva dripping digital detail, in 3D, and so on. Ho-hum. The suggested is more scary than the blatant.

2D): while the idea of the Xbox Kinect demonstrated the ingenuity of previous PA films, it's mere presence opened another door, a door leading to enhanced visual effects. Whereas previous PA films relied on inexpensive effects like a door mysteriously opening slowly or a light flickering - things that would creep us out at home if we actually saw them - OR, jerry-rigged ingenuity like a video camera duct-taped to an old fan (an on-screen idea that mirrored the behind-the-scenes budget) - now we've got high-tech gadgets implemented and manipulated digitally in post. (By the way, bothersomely-accomplished in PA4: the Kinect sensor dots projected into the room looked different in different sequences; when the dots were going to show us something creepy, the dots looked larger and more like they were overlaid onto the scene in post - kinda like the way badly-accomplished snow falling in old movies looks like its not naturally part of the scene.)

PA4 was a bridge and a gate, over and through which walked a fun little original series into the domain of predictable ideas that have already been done in a thousand other horror movies. If I were the Producer, I'd demand the future films adhere to a low-budget aesthetic of simplicity in execution (this will force creative originality) and if something looks like it's been done already in some other movie (ugh, that demon make-up), demand another way. And there's humor in suspense - audiences tend to laugh a little after the build-up and release - ensure that 'humor' maintains.

Ridiculous! I can't BELIEVE they spent over two years filming this (on weekends and vacation time), and that the actors actually put themselves at risk swimming with actual sharks. Taking that risk for THIS?!

** Here's the spoiler ** What was up with that ending? I wasn't even sure what happened to the man, at first. Directing, editing and "script" on that was completely vague. So it was up to the actress, I suppose, to convey that he had died. (And how idiotic that she'd just push him off, instead of hang onto him / retain his body for a proper funeral / use him for flotation / use his equipment (knife, e.g.) for possible tools of survival). And then when she submerges herself I said, "Is that it? Is she drowning herself? Is she just 'hiding' from sharks?" (Ha!). And then, fade to black. Uhh, yeah. Whatever. Talk about inability to write a scenario and direct with competence!

Two more annoying things: 1) That boob shot. It stood out like a sore ..thumb. So glaringly gratuitous. I felt embarrassed for the actress because it was so unnecessary, despite what the Producer said in the optional Commentary on the DVD. Which brings me to annoying thing #2): The optional Commentary on the DVD: the Producer (the director's wife) must be one of the most irritating people in the biz. In one breath she's trying to be 'deep' about the bland story, and in the next she's "selling" this entire cheap project as something stupendous. Shut up!

Fade to black.

The following regards the DVD release of the original version.

Throughout my many years of looking at User Comments about countless movies here on IMDb.com, I am on occasion amazed at the glaring lack of insight of some people to appreciate the creative genius that most other people agree exists in certain films. Unfortunately, in the case of "Donnie Darko," I now find myself to be one of those morons. Sorry, but I just didn't see in this film any of the stupendous achievement that most other viewers have found. I found the film neither highly original, profound, nor particularly intelligent (beyond a plot construction that the viewer must wrap his brain around).

My lack of appreciation makes me ponder not what I've missed in the movie, but myself: Have I "lost it"? Why don't I find "Donnie Darko" to be the ingenious gem that most others agree it to be?

One theory: I'm too old for this movie. Of the people I've known personally who've said they enjoy "Donnie Darko," I realize that they all have been teens to twenty-somethings with a creative bent and perhaps who also possess a soupçon of general life-angst and who are, perhaps, like Donnie Darko himself, more intelligent than the people around them; young people who feel isolated because of their superior ability to doubt or challenge what others around them accept blindly. If that description fits you, then see "Donnie Darko."

Regarding that particular plot construction: there have been movies somewhat similar (David Lynch's "Lost Highway" comes to mind), but not one that pushes the buttons of today's youth. So that's my assessment: "Donnie Darko" is a film that creative, intellectually-superior-to-their-peers, mentally/socially fettered youth can rally around as one that speaks to them.

However, if you're a FORMERLY youthful, creative social misfit like myself, you'll probably not care too much for this film. You've already gone through your phase of attraction to science fictional phenomena of wormholes, time travel and evil-looking imaginary friends to assist you out of your teen-angsty life. We older creatives have already embraced and abandoned such phenomena; but now here they are, presented anew, for a new generation. Every generation of us needs such a film. Enjoy it, my younger brethren.

** Spoiler ahead ** Extras on the DVD include extended and deleted scenes. Some of the deleted material puts a divine spin on the story, which I agree with the director (in optional Commentary) inclusion of which would be too revealing, too explanatory (and, being an atheist, would turn me off). Better to let events be of mysterious origin. Oh, and for the record, I found the Bunny Boy of the movie "Gummo" far more intriguing and symbolic than Frank in "Donnie Darko."

This is the first Fellini film I ever saw (and thank heavens I saw it on the big screen); I absolutely FELL IN LOVE with its now-legendary star Giulietta Masina (in the title role of Cabiria). Watching the movie, I wanted to shout to her to "watch out!" and to jump into the screen to take her away from the parasites who wanted to feed on her. So entranced was I by Masina's performance. Telling the surface plot is unnecessary here; the film's substance happens between the lines: Cabiria's emotional depth between the devastations, her perpetual longing for better and, despite it all, her indomitable happiness. It's the story of predators and prey (Cabiria), and it's a picture of the enduring human spirit. Only an actress of transcendent powers could pull off such a task, and Masina manages it beautifully. Look at the IMDb "Awards & Nominations" page for this film: in 1957 Masina won "Best Actress" at Cannes; in 1958 the film won the Oscar for "Best Foreign Language Film;" and in 1959 the film was nominated for a British Academy Award for "Best Film From Any Source." Three of the film's magical moments: 1) the "Hypnotist" scene. 2) After falling asleep atop a cliff where one of those "predators" had taken advantage of her, she awakes and the sea below this cliff is now covered by a misty shroud (you interpret what "being above the clouds" means). And 3) after a final personal devastation, she joins a small troupe of carefree youth in their singing and dancing as they walk the road. Joining them, her dirt-smudged and tear-swollen face regains its radiance and we feel happy that she's smiling again. But the real brilliance of this moment - one of the most affecting in all cinema - is when Cabiria glances briefly INTO THE LENS, smiles and nods AT *US* that she will be alright. Watching this movie that first time I was happy that she was smiling among these young troubadours, but not until she glanced, smiled and nodded directly TO ME did I feel released from my need to rescue and protect her, free to leave the theater and let her go on her own (without me). Personally, no other actress has ever been able to penetrate so completely to my emotional core. Brilliant director, brilliant actress. SEE THIS MOVIE.