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Posted By: gorehunter at 10:35pm, November 10, 2009
This movie gives me the feeling of weirdness like the old Outer Limits Series or Twilight Zone Series shown on TV. It has gotten a little too involving but it was the weirdness that has kept this movie interesting.This film is hard to place as in the sense that it is a mystery or science fiction or a crazy cult fiction (the many employees part gets me on that) or even a type of science fiction zombie pic. Whatever it was it got wrapped up in the end as some sort of alien force trying to determine if the human species is worthy to continue to exist or not. This I take is some sort of alien race playing the God complex. We all would fail miserably in this category because who wouldn't press the button?
Previous to The Box, writer/director Richard Kelly has brought two films to the screen. The first, Donnie Darko (a truly bizarre, puzzle website)has become a hotly debated cult film with a loyal and relatively large following. Personally, I love Donnie Darko, even though I know it doesn't all add up after you've seen the film a few times. The first viewing was so striking I'll continue to suggest it to people, and I just really love the characters in that film. I also think part of the reason that it's so hotly debated has as much to do with the fact that it's gained so much popularity. I get the feeling it's the kind of film a good number of people just love to hate for that reason and that reason alone.
The second film Kelly brought us, the hotly anticipated Southland Tales was an annoying mess. I like science fiction. I like meandering, half intersecting plotlines, which might serve to do little more than add color to a story. I like deus ex machina events in stories when they're well done. Southland Tales was just a bloated, over drawn, over done, boring, incoherent narrative thrown together around some relatively funny lines and some relatively interesting ideas. It was crap, in whole and total. If you haven't even seen five minutes of that utter barge of ego-tastic crap, count yourself among the lucky.
Now comes, The Box. Can Kelly (a Midlothian native) redeem himself for the degree of disappointment movie goers felt with his second film after developing such a following for his first film as to catapult him into the "Directors to watch" category?
The answer: That depends.
Did you enjoy the ride Donnie Darko took you on enough to be a little less critical of some of it's shortcomings? If so, the chances are pretty good you'll enjoy The Box. This is a leap of millennium and dimensions away from Southland Tales, so I'm not even going to attempt to compare the two.
I can say The Box kept my attention for two solid hours, enough to be mesmerizing in it's own dread, gloom soaked way. I was definitely sitting there, trying my best to figure out where it was going to go next. I'm familiar with the original story, "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson, and I've always loved it, but it gives you no real idea where this film is going. Since the story was so short, to get a complete feature film out of it, you'd absolutely have to add to it. And what Kelly adds is interesting, bizarre, conspiracy theory science fiction which is pretty good all in all. It definitely works as you're watching it. You're following it, and it moves along fast enough to kind of hurry you through some of the less grounded aspects of the reality it creates for itself.
If you're not familiar with the original story or the plot of this film by now, here it is. A married couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) are approached by a man who brings them a box. Inside the box is a device with a button on the top. The man (played by Frank Langella) explains to the couple that they are being presented with a choice. They can press the button, at which point they will be given one million dollars. At the same time though, someone they don't know will be killed. They are given twenty four hours to decide. If anyone else is told, the deal is off, no money. From there, you figure it out.
Both Cameron Diaz and James Marsden handle their parts with competence. Neither of them puts in performances they are going to be remembered for in either the incredibly powerful or incredibly ridiculous varieties. Frank Langella, on the other hand, takes his role as Arlington Steward, the role that is not only the hardest because it has the most exposition and the most outlandish dialogue to deliver but also because of the degree to which the film fails without it working, and nails it. Langella is great as the vaguely creepy, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes apathetic Steward. I really wish Langella was showing up in more films, because he is always gives such great performances.
This film doesn't have the kind of characters to really fall in love with the way Donnie Darko did. But it does have an even more twisting, turning, topsy, turvy narrative that keeps you on the edge of your seat and trying to not only keep up, but get one step ahead. This is probably for the fans out there who really like their sci-fi to come with big BIG ideas. Like Donnie Darko though, I think that after the first viewing and the rush to keep up with it and try to figure it out, I really don't think this film is going to stand up to it's own logic in further viewings. I think there are probably just holes in there big enough to drive a tractor trailer through. Maybe if we get a Director's Cut on Blu-Ray and DVD, it will all be explained further in deleted scenes or something, but as of now, I really don't think it's all there.
For those of you reading this from the Richmond Virginia area, there are Easter eggs galore in this film. Richmond residence are going to be able to watch this film repeatedly just to try and catch all of the extremely Richmond specific things in the film. It's really pretty cool. I was definitely sitting there watching it going, "HEY! That's.........." Those of you who were here in the seventies may even recognize even more of it than I did. That was definitely pretty entertaining, and an added aspect of fun for my Richmond friends.
All in all, this is a fun film, with some flaws that are pretty apparent. It does a really great job of establishing and keeping going an atmosphere of dread, doom and impending calamity. It presents some really fun ideas and some great science fiction tropes in fun and new ways. It also doesn't completely add up once you're done with the initial viewing and try to piece it all together. I could be wrong about that, I'd have to see it at least one more time to be completely sure, but I'm pretty confident I didn't miss anything so necessary that what doesn't make sense to me now would if I'd have caught that sliver of info. If you liked Donnie Darko, you'll be entertained by The Box. If you didn't like Darko, this one is going to infuriate you further and you're probably going to start demanding the death of Richard Kelly. If you do happen to be a Richmond resident though, it may have repeated viewing value for the "is that really in Richmond" game.
Posted By: civilmaggot at 3:45pm, November 9, 2009
wasnt that bad...lol
Posted By: flesheater123 at 11:12pm, November 8, 2009
To all who want to see, beware the movie is very very slow going, but it picks up about 50 mins in... Maybe a little less. And Mr. Digusting is right about one thing it's a huge mind fuck. The movie like kellys others leaves you feeling empty and wanting more questions. This guy should get a freaking job on LOST.... maybe he can write and direct one EP for lost's seasons end. Since everything in this movie screams LOST.... Also just when you think you solved it theres another screwball coming right at you. But the music was good though and the acting was pretty tight.
Spoilers follow...
Okay so we know the dude's and alien well is an alien now, and he controls peoples minds, and the box is a recyled event. But still I don't know what else why in the fuck did the dude pop out of the hangar. Was he dead from that car crash and was sent to the hanagar was that his afterlife. SO many things.
This movie really disappointed me, movie started out like there was potential of it being good. But after 15 minutes it got dull, slow pace and boring. I fell asleep several times and wish I would have spent my money on the Fourth Kind instead.
I thought it was pretty slow at points but the overall feel and acting in the film was great and top notch. Very weird like all of Kelleys movies but still not that bad. I wouldnt go see this in theaters, you should wait until the DVD release.
ok..i was expecting another donnie darko from the review i read up here but it wasnt
it was decent the acting was great and had a few good scenes that really provoked my mind and had a really powerful ending
but the rest i didnt care about..go ee it or rent it
Posted By: Jackcalvert at 4:14am, November 8, 2009
'Donnie Darko' director Richard Kelly's latest film, 'The Box,' stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as Norma and Arthur Lewis, a young couple whose momentary lapse of judgment results in a punishing ordeal.
One day, a mysterious parcel arrives on their doorstep. Inside is a black box with a red button. There is also a note from a 'Mr. Steward' indicating that he will return at 5:00 PM to explain about the box.
The mysterious Arlington Steward, played by Frank Langella, shows up at the appointed hour, nattily attired in a Savile Row suit. He is polite but businesslike, however his most noticeable feature is his face, half of which appears to have been blown off and improperly attended to. Langella is the only thing worth watching in the movie, however he is unfortunately upstaged by his own makeup, which resembles that of Harvey 'Two Face' Dent (Aaron Eckhart) from Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight.' It's like the elephant in the room: you can try to ignore it, but it's a little distracting.
As Steward explains, he will return in 24 hours to collect the button from the Lewises. If, during that time, they decide to unlock and push the button, he will give them $1 million cash. The only catch--and it's a big one--is that somewhere a stranger will die. It might be across town, it might be on another continent, however Steward assures them the victim will be someone unknown to them. As a show of good faith, he leaves them with a crisp $100 bill, theirs to keep whether they push the button or not.
The Lewises are initially skeptical, believing the whole thing to be a scam or an elaborate hoax, however they begin to wonder what would happen if they did push the button? Would they really get a million dollars? Would somebody really die?
Weary of the speculation, Norma slaps the button. Nothing apparently happens, however when Steward shows up the next day with a briefcase full of cash, the Lewises are alarmed. They decide to call the whole thing off, however as Steward tells them, 'It's too late. You've already pushed the button.' As Steward's limo pulls away, Arthur notes the license plate number, which he later learns is registered to the NSA (National Security Agency).
At this point the film begins to veer deeply into unfollowable territory as the secondary characters start springing nosebleeds and flashing peace signs. Meanwhile, the town becomes invaded by a bunch of pudgy, slack-jawed geeks in bad shirts, who start following Arthur around like an advance scouting party for a race of zombie alien nerds. Arthur eventually becomes trapped by the menacing bookworms in the library, where Steward's spinsterish wife shows up--whom we haven't seen till now--and informs Arthur that his only way out is through one of the three vertical columns of cheesy-looking digital water effects. 'What happens if I choose the wrong one?', Arthur asks, seeming far less baffled than he ought to be under the circumstances, and certainly far less baffled than the audience is by this time. 'Eternal damnation,' the spinster says ominously.
It's confusing, I know.
We eventually learn that Steward was once the public relations officer for the NSA, until he was struck by a lightning bolt that destroyed part of his face. He was pronounced dead, but later came back to life, having been transformed into a sort of superman who now serves 'the ones who make the lightning,' and whose powers have enabled him to take over the CIA, the NSA, and NASA all by himself.
And what is the point of all this nattering rubbish? Steward's mission, it seems, is to subject humans to a kind of biblical character test (e.g., the 'Binding of Isaac'), to determine whether they are worth saving. If enough people pass the 'button test' by refusing to push it, Steward's god-like overlords will spare the race. Unfortunately, the people who do push the button, such as Norma and Arthur, must be punished for their moral spinelessness, to which end they are subjected to a series of dreary 'Lady or the Tiger' ordeals that play out like one of those 'Saw' movies without the redeeming gore or the benefit of a coherent plot.
'The Box' represents the sort of pointless mental masturbation that freshman philosophy students like to blather on about after a few beers. Richard Kelly's tedious exercise in existentialist pettifoggery eventually collapses under the weight of its own incomprehensibility; the tortured melange of insupportable ideas eventually congeals, as with the mixing together of too many colors, into a meandering gray goo of a film as insipid as one of those narcotizing in-flight movies the plot of which suffers no more or less from having been interrupted by a leisurely nap.
There is a point in the film where Arthur, who is a technically-minded guy, becomes curious about how the button works. Opening up the unit, he is disappointed to find nothing inside.
Having seen 'The Box,' I know exactly how he feels.
Posted By: cheluvshorror at 2:22am, November 8, 2009
During and after viewing this science fiction wannabe, I felt very much like I was "sucker punched" into seeing this movie (paying full price too) because of all the advertising and not just on this site.
This film was very dull and there was not enough character development for my taste. The premise was shoddy at best. Even Cameron Diaz seemed to be in a daze throughout her role, and definitely suffered the ultimate sacrifice for her "decision". No spoiling here.
Too much hype with out any real spark, so much so that I nodded off to sleep a few times. It was very disappointing to watch, because I had such high hopes. Next time, I will keep my expectations low.
Posted By: Chris is Dead at 1:33am, November 7, 2009
Hilarious....From Cameron diaz's horrible southern accent, to the retro soundtrack, and some other things. i tried to be in this "serious" mind set, but things meant to be weird just came out hilarious to me. it was funnier than some comedies i've seen recently.
Posted By: Mykill Diablo at 1:17am, November 7, 2009
This film proves that Richard Kelly has the ability to show a lot more restraint than Southland Tales led me to believe was thought possible. The Box was an engaging, bizarre, cerebral, retro, and surprisingly subtle film that was honestly a lot of fun to watch. Definitely not a movie for everyone, and I can already see a lot of people leaving the theater perplexed and disappointed b/c it was definitely marketed as a much different (and much more low-brow) film than it really was. A lot of the bizarre sci-fi stuff went way over my head, but it never bored me either. In fact, if anything, it made me want to see the movie again to try to get a better grasp of what was happening. Not at all a horror film, in fact it was more of a personal family-oriented drama than anything, but it definitely had a macabre sense of impending doom that did not disappoint in the very dark and satisfying ending.
Posted By: chainsawboi25 at 8:16pm, November 6, 2009
The creator of Donnie Darko brings you a twilight zone themed tale of the oddest fashion. The film centers on a middle aged young couple living paycheck to paycheck in 1976. One day a mysterious box appears with a red button. Later on that day a spooky gentleman shows up and tells them that they have the choice to press the button and receive a million dollars but someone they don't know will die. It's a disturbing and provocative question suspensefully outlined in the trailer and TV spots. But let it be known that you just don't know what your in for until you see it. At times pretentious and a bit melodramatic the film is ultimately effective because of it's good performances and intriguing subject matter. It would be unfair to ruin any of the plot twists for you but lets just say the film will deliver on the aspects you expect it to and not completely fufill others it begins to outline. There's a lot of apparent symbolism and subtext in the film which is both interesting and annoying as it wasn't so evident in his other superior film Donnie Darko. There isn't too much more to say without ruining the film for you. it's meant to inspire lots of cafe chatter afterwards. However, i'd also like to say It's shot well and has an appropriately aged look to it and it's worth a watch. Check it out.
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