Christopher WaldeckThink before you open The box.
November 6th 2009 22:10
When donnie darko first came out there was enough following to make it a cult classic and a huge success for Richard Kelly on his first debut film. Even though Donnie darko was far from the best film of the year the fans were rabid enough to degrade your family just to prove that it was. They believed that the film was so inventive in it's style and artistic vision that it must mean something fantastic. Unfortunately, they were right and it also proved that Richard kelly is a bit to obsessed with his own artistic ambition and philosophy that he took a great concept and muddled it into an overlong and confusing acid trip. That concept was the story known as The Box.
This movie is derived from the story called Button, Button, and is about a couple who receive a box from a disfigured man who promises them that if they press the button, someone they don't know will die, but in return they will receive one million dollars. Cameron Diaz and James Marsden star as the hammy acting couple who can't decide what to do with the box. Frank Langella stars as the ominous and seemingly evil disfigured man who gives them the box.
I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just say that after the first fifteen minutes of truly great suspense and filmmaking, a potentially awesome thriller takes a ton of acid and just goes into Richard Kelly's usual demented time travel slash other dimension science fiction garbage. I was really hoping that this film would fare well considering that kelly has plenty of talent and his style is great until he gets so warped in his own twisted logic that his films lose their edge in confusing subplots and become annoying and agitating because of the wasted potential.
i will say that if this was a different story and didn't feel like two giant movies in one that this film would have been great. This film has some truly creepy and truly ingenious moments that can make anyone jump, but they couldn't blend in with each other. A simple moral dilemma went a bit too far into multi dimensional government conspiracies, zombies, and much more. This film had the feel of a greta Twilight zone episode and quite frankly I'd love to see Kelly direct a Twilight Zone movie because it involves heavy science fiction and it's right up Kelly's alley. I'm sure we'll see another Richard kelly film, but I'm hoping that it will be like this in it's artistic ambition without going to far into the WTF territory because we need more artistic commercial films like this.
At least it was better than Southland tales.
Review B
This movie is derived from the story called Button, Button, and is about a couple who receive a box from a disfigured man who promises them that if they press the button, someone they don't know will die, but in return they will receive one million dollars. Cameron Diaz and James Marsden star as the hammy acting couple who can't decide what to do with the box. Frank Langella stars as the ominous and seemingly evil disfigured man who gives them the box.
I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just say that after the first fifteen minutes of truly great suspense and filmmaking, a potentially awesome thriller takes a ton of acid and just goes into Richard Kelly's usual demented time travel slash other dimension science fiction garbage. I was really hoping that this film would fare well considering that kelly has plenty of talent and his style is great until he gets so warped in his own twisted logic that his films lose their edge in confusing subplots and become annoying and agitating because of the wasted potential.
i will say that if this was a different story and didn't feel like two giant movies in one that this film would have been great. This film has some truly creepy and truly ingenious moments that can make anyone jump, but they couldn't blend in with each other. A simple moral dilemma went a bit too far into multi dimensional government conspiracies, zombies, and much more. This film had the feel of a greta Twilight zone episode and quite frankly I'd love to see Kelly direct a Twilight Zone movie because it involves heavy science fiction and it's right up Kelly's alley. I'm sure we'll see another Richard kelly film, but I'm hoping that it will be like this in it's artistic ambition without going to far into the WTF territory because we need more artistic commercial films like this.
At least it was better than Southland tales.
Review B
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