Change Your Image
glynnec2002
Reviews
Donnie Darko (2001)
...it just kept getting more and more profound....
I'd read some favorable reviews online, so I rented this DVD and watched it one night before going to bed. It had a dark atmospheric quality that drew me in as a viewer. When it ended, my first impression was that it was a well-acted movie with a slightly ambiguous plot....was it sci-fi or was Donnie delusional? But something about the movie stuck with me.
A day or two later, I stumbled across the DVD chapters of Roberta Sparrow's book. The text on my TV screen was just on the verge of readability (was this on purpose?), so I went online. I read the first page....hmmm, this sorta explains XXX. Then I read the second page....hey, this explains YYY. By the third page, I had goose bumps and the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. Then I watched the commentary track....then the deleted scenes....it just kept getting more and more profound on these subsequent viewings.
SCTV Network 90 (1981)
It rewarded the dedicated viewer
Unlike SNL, which is 30 minutes of comedy crammed into 90 minutes, the entire hour and a half of SCTV was hilarious. In fact, the shows intricate plot lines usually built and built and built upon themselves, rewarding the dedicated viewer with great comic payoffs near the END of the show.
It's truly unfortunate that when the shows are re-broadcast, these 90 minute gems are chopped up into 30 minute "episodes". The pacing and the build-up of comic energy, that was so integral to the original show, is completely lost. Indeed, I feel very fortunate to have watched the original airings. I doubt we'll see anything like it again.