Movie Review ~ The Box
The View Crew: Mom.
..... I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO DESCIRBE MY FEELINGS TOWARDS THIS MOVIE.
IT'S JUST.... STRANGE. I didn't HATE IT, I didn't LOVE IT, it was just.... woah.
I can't really even describe the plot of this movie. Well, I try to at least. This movie was based on an episode of the Twilight Zone from the 1980's, and also a short story called "Button, Button." It starts off with a box being delivered on the front porch. FORESHADOWWIING. The movie then shows the life of a mundane family living in Richmond, Virginia, and the husband (James Marsden HAI THERE CYCLOPS/PRINCE EDWARD) works for NASA base with the wife being a school teacher. After this -drawn out- show casing of their lives (and had a really bad bomb shell day of both economic hardship and mentally depressing), this guy comes along WHO HAS HALF OF HIS FLIPPING FACE FRIED off and offers them a deal regarding the box. IF you push the button on top of the box, two things will happen; someone in the world you don't know will die, and, in payment, you will recieve a cash payment of one MILLION dollars.
So at the end of the allotted time to decide whether or not they will push it, the wife eventually cracks and pushes it (with the consent of the husband). With this, the plot is set in motion and a whole slew of *CRAZY* events begin to unfold about the mystery of the box. They discover how a lot of the program is related back to Arthur's job, and we seriously take a trip in the Twilight Zone.
THE GOOD:
The tone/atmosphere of this movie was completely different than any other I've seen. It ranged from mysterious and horrifying to creepy and depressing. It was like Silent Hill meets The Prestige (if anyone knows what both of those things are, congratulations, you win a cookie). The whole mystery of the box and the consequences for pushing said box all relate back to a common moral of the movie: "NOTHING that good comes without huge side effects." If it's too good to be true, then it's probably a horrible test meant to examine the sinful and greedy psyche of humanity. With the way everything played out, it showed how one person's sin can trickle down and affect so many others and cause so much grief (even when you don't think it affects anyone important. What comes around, goes around, and the greedy nature of humanity is being our downfall. The question being: Have we gone so far in the realm of not caring if other people die that this would even be a complicated decision?
The metaphor of the box and its shape is DEFINITELY one worth quotable when someone asks Mr. Scarface's bad-arse older brother "Why box shaped?" I don't want to give it away, it's just that good.
James Marsden as usual gives a better than good performance. You can tell he is disgruntled and conflicted, and incredibly full of emotion and character in the ending. Cameron Diaz is well... Cameron Diaz. And while she's not that exhilarating, I think this is one of her best movies she's done to date. Frank Langella gives a chilling and mysterious performance as that random provider/tempter, being one of the best actors in the movie on par with Marsden. All in all, a pretty good slew of cast.
THE BAD:
Some of the scenes in this movie were just too drawn out, some being completely unnecessary. Especially in the beginning this was the most evident; those scenes just dragged on and on. I was like "OKAY COOL I GET IT HE WORKS AT NASA YEAH AWESOME. WASN'T THERE A - OH, I DON'T KNOW - AN IMPENDING AND MYSTERIOUS BOX IN THE HOUSE!?" so it kind of makes a person feel unattached early on. But once the film picks up steam, it really gets going - and I mean GETS GOING. For example; if you miss one scene and don't think it's that important and forget it, it could come back as an important plot point. So you'll be sitting there all "WAIT WHY IS HE DOING THAT WHERE DID THAT COME FROM WHO'S THAT GUY" and so on and so forth.
Also, some of the stuff that's in the movie is just SO BIZZARE and so STRANGE. When you enter the movie, you really don't know what to expect, and I was not expecting a - not spoiling anything - mystery sci-fi flick. I was thrown off so much in confusion I didn't know how to feel at times. I mean one of the scenes literally looked like it popped out of a zombie movie, with people just following James Marsden everywhere and sometimes it just turned into a cult initiation, so at times the film just got a *little* confusing.
A little warning to my audience; this movie is the type where everything ties together at the end, so I can't give that much away. But this is a VERY DARK ENDING movie, and it left me feeling heartbroken and shaken, questioning the good left in humanity.
My rating:
This was an OK movie.
If you guys really want to get into a weird mystery moral questioning movie, then this movie is for you. But the strangeness and completely random scenes and depressing tones make you feel unattached from the flick, even though the main cast does an excellent job.
To me, it's not good, bad, or even horrible. It's just strange, and it's definitely "interesting."
..... I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO DESCIRBE MY FEELINGS TOWARDS THIS MOVIE.
IT'S JUST.... STRANGE. I didn't HATE IT, I didn't LOVE IT, it was just.... woah.
I can't really even describe the plot of this movie. Well, I try to at least. This movie was based on an episode of the Twilight Zone from the 1980's, and also a short story called "Button, Button." It starts off with a box being delivered on the front porch. FORESHADOWWIING. The movie then shows the life of a mundane family living in Richmond, Virginia, and the husband (James Marsden HAI THERE CYCLOPS/PRINCE EDWARD) works for NASA base with the wife being a school teacher. After this -drawn out- show casing of their lives (and had a really bad bomb shell day of both economic hardship and mentally depressing), this guy comes along WHO HAS HALF OF HIS FLIPPING FACE FRIED off and offers them a deal regarding the box. IF you push the button on top of the box, two things will happen; someone in the world you don't know will die, and, in payment, you will recieve a cash payment of one MILLION dollars.
So at the end of the allotted time to decide whether or not they will push it, the wife eventually cracks and pushes it (with the consent of the husband). With this, the plot is set in motion and a whole slew of *CRAZY* events begin to unfold about the mystery of the box. They discover how a lot of the program is related back to Arthur's job, and we seriously take a trip in the Twilight Zone.
THE GOOD:
The tone/atmosphere of this movie was completely different than any other I've seen. It ranged from mysterious and horrifying to creepy and depressing. It was like Silent Hill meets The Prestige (if anyone knows what both of those things are, congratulations, you win a cookie). The whole mystery of the box and the consequences for pushing said box all relate back to a common moral of the movie: "NOTHING that good comes without huge side effects." If it's too good to be true, then it's probably a horrible test meant to examine the sinful and greedy psyche of humanity. With the way everything played out, it showed how one person's sin can trickle down and affect so many others and cause so much grief (even when you don't think it affects anyone important. What comes around, goes around, and the greedy nature of humanity is being our downfall. The question being: Have we gone so far in the realm of not caring if other people die that this would even be a complicated decision?
The metaphor of the box and its shape is DEFINITELY one worth quotable when someone asks Mr. Scarface's bad-arse older brother "Why box shaped?" I don't want to give it away, it's just that good.
James Marsden as usual gives a better than good performance. You can tell he is disgruntled and conflicted, and incredibly full of emotion and character in the ending. Cameron Diaz is well... Cameron Diaz. And while she's not that exhilarating, I think this is one of her best movies she's done to date. Frank Langella gives a chilling and mysterious performance as that random provider/tempter, being one of the best actors in the movie on par with Marsden. All in all, a pretty good slew of cast.
THE BAD:
Some of the scenes in this movie were just too drawn out, some being completely unnecessary. Especially in the beginning this was the most evident; those scenes just dragged on and on. I was like "OKAY COOL I GET IT HE WORKS AT NASA YEAH AWESOME. WASN'T THERE A - OH, I DON'T KNOW - AN IMPENDING AND MYSTERIOUS BOX IN THE HOUSE!?" so it kind of makes a person feel unattached early on. But once the film picks up steam, it really gets going - and I mean GETS GOING. For example; if you miss one scene and don't think it's that important and forget it, it could come back as an important plot point. So you'll be sitting there all "WAIT WHY IS HE DOING THAT WHERE DID THAT COME FROM WHO'S THAT GUY" and so on and so forth.
Also, some of the stuff that's in the movie is just SO BIZZARE and so STRANGE. When you enter the movie, you really don't know what to expect, and I was not expecting a - not spoiling anything - mystery sci-fi flick. I was thrown off so much in confusion I didn't know how to feel at times. I mean one of the scenes literally looked like it popped out of a zombie movie, with people just following James Marsden everywhere and sometimes it just turned into a cult initiation, so at times the film just got a *little* confusing.
A little warning to my audience; this movie is the type where everything ties together at the end, so I can't give that much away. But this is a VERY DARK ENDING movie, and it left me feeling heartbroken and shaken, questioning the good left in humanity.
My rating:
This was an OK movie.
If you guys really want to get into a weird mystery moral questioning movie, then this movie is for you. But the strangeness and completely random scenes and depressing tones make you feel unattached from the flick, even though the main cast does an excellent job.
To me, it's not good, bad, or even horrible. It's just strange, and it's definitely "interesting."