The Box
2009 Directed by Richard Kelly
Synopsis
Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. However pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world; someone they don't know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the cross-hairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.
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Richard Kelly's directorial debut, "Donnie Darko" remains my favourite movie of all time. This follow-up was an aesthetically pleasing and authentic looking seventies set sci-fi.
Based on Richard Matheson's short story "Button,Button",I would be lying if I said this was easy to follow, it isn't. I would be lying if I said I totally understood it, I didn't. But there lies Kelly's true vocation. He makes movies that aren't generic and with previous films "Donnie Darko" and the impenetrable "Southland Tales" he showed that although sometimes he meanders a little,he certainly makes things that require the viewer to make up their own mind.
Featuring a cast including both Cameron Diaz and James Marsden,Kelly has produced something reminiscent of an old… -
I absolutely love the Twilight Zone. It is a show appealing to the imagination, with episodes ranging from the bizarre to the terrifying. It had the occasional stinker, but the overall quality used to fit my overactive imagination to a tee.
I also love Richard Matheson as an author. He has written some amazing novels and some great short stories. One of those, 'Button, Button', was a wonderfully twisted story filled with dilemma and suspense, sporting a tremendously twisted ending. It was then turned into a Twilight Zone episode from which Matheson distanced himself as they changed the ending, making it more open, thus suiting the series better.
This film is based on that episode and story which both basically…
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I can't think of another movie that better captures the experience of a nightmare.
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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6 million ways to die by The Box... Choose one...
You pick whatever you want, I'm going with 'Death by Snoo Snoo'.
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Whenever you hear 'based on a story by Richard Matheson', you know you're in for something golden. I haven't read 'Button, Button', his short that inspired Richard Kelly's movie, but the concept at the heart of The Box fascinated me; a moral and ethical dilemma over pushing a simple button and the consequences of life and death that ensue on those given the choice. For the first half an hour, Kelly presents us with that compelling scenario... and then reminds us how much of a whack-job he is by spooling the narrative off into an increasingly bizarre, increasingly distancing and far-reaching set of ideas that undercut the promise of the central nugget at the heart of his movie.
Because Kelly…
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There's a box with a button on the top, if you press it you're given $1,000,000 but you'll also kill someone you don't know. I expected this to be the grounds for a film that looked into individual and collective greed and morality, instead what I got was a Twilight Zone episode written by a seven year old.
One of the spoof episodes of the Twilight Zone featured in Futurama ends with a mocking voice saying "You've watched it, YOU CAN'T UN-WATCH IT!" which is pretty much exactly how I felt as the credits rolled on this stinker. The Box asks far more questions than it answers and although the first 45 minutes or so are definitely intriguing, it soon…
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The Box is based on a short story by Richard Matheson, and it most definitely feels like it was supposed to be a short story. There's enough story here to maybe fill an episode of Twilight Zone or Tales From the Crypt (though not a very good one), but stretched thin to fill two hours, it is excrutiating. By the time we got to the last half hour or so, I didn't even care how it ended, just as long as it ended.
What story there is starts out slightly intriguing, but it takes some serious wrong turns and the unfolding explanation is head-shakingly awful. One last crime the film commits: being set in the 70's for absolutely no valid…
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What's with all the hate? Seems like people hate this movie for the very same reasons they liked Donnie Darko - for turning into a barely comprehensible mess with cool visuals in the second half. I enjoyed it, yet cutting a bunch of stuff out didn't do this one as big of a favor as for DD.
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Fell asleep halfway through
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good while it lasts
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A film that has no real reason for being a period piece, a wavering southern accent by Cameron Diaz, and goes too far in terms of believability. It's just too preposterous to be a serious drama. 2/5
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I really like the initial idea of this film, being a huge twilight zone fan. The first 45 min - hour of this film had me on board. I love the score of this film, which is very twilight zone/hitchcock in nature. I want to live in there house, so very 70's, so cool! And all the Nasa stuff is awesome. But it get's bogged down by its ending, and overly complicating things. Should have just let this be a thriller about a tough moral choice, and not throw it all in the trash with some weird unnecessary sub plot.
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6 million ways to die by The Box... Choose one...
You pick whatever you want, I'm going with 'Death by Snoo Snoo'.
-
Richard Kelly's directorial debut, "Donnie Darko" remains my favourite movie of all time. This follow-up was an aesthetically pleasing and authentic looking seventies set sci-fi.
Based on Richard Matheson's short story "Button,Button",I would be lying if I said this was easy to follow, it isn't. I would be lying if I said I totally understood it, I didn't. But there lies Kelly's true vocation. He makes movies that aren't generic and with previous films "Donnie Darko" and the impenetrable "Southland Tales" he showed that although sometimes he meanders a little,he certainly makes things that require the viewer to make up their own mind.
Featuring a cast including both Cameron Diaz and James Marsden,Kelly has produced something reminiscent of an old…