Genres

Visitors Review

Tony Heck 2013-05-01 05:25:41

Lois Lane as you've never seen her before. An interesting take on the over protective mother theme. I say B-

A over protective mother (Kidder) think that the girl her son (Segan)is seeing is ruining the lives of everyone in the town. This movieshows Margot Kidder as you've never seen her before. After a new youngwoman moves next door and Harry (Segan) begins a relationship with her,Beth (Kidder) becomes convinced that everything bad that is happeningin the town is her fault. This was originally a TV movie, and it shows.The story is good, but the acting outside of Kidder and Lyne Renee, whoplays the neighbor, is terrible. It is a very interesting movie though,and the fact that Lois Lane plays a borderline psycho makes it moreinteresting to watch. This movie has a twist ending that comes out ofnowhere and really changes the entire movie. It's not a bad movie, butnothing "Super" either (get it?). I give it a B-.Would I watch again? - No

Coventry 2013-04-30 11:44:04

People with Strange Hobbies ...

You automatically grow suspicious and lower your expectations whenthey're giving away movies for free. "The Box Collector" only just cameout early 2008, never played in cinemas or even hit rental stores (orat least not to my knowledge) and yet already a TV-magazine here in mycountry gave away free exemplars last week! That can't be a verypromising sign, now can it? Still, I can't deny several tiny aspectsabout this production intrigued me right from the start. "The BoxCollector" is Belgian/Canadian collaboration (those are extremely rare)with an prominent English born producer in the director's chair – JohnDaly who sadly passed away in the meantime already - and the underratedBelgian director Guy Lee Thys at the scripting table. As a fellowBelgian and probably one of the very few people who struggled throughThys' demented horror thriller "The Pencil Murders", I kind of feltobliged to see "The Box Collector" as well. Moreover, the film stars asthe aging Margot Kidder ("Black Christmas", "Sisters", "The AmityvilleHorror") as a psychotic mother and what self-respecting horror fanaticdoesn't want to see that? Overall, I can't really be too harsh on "TheBox Collector" but it's undeniably a lackluster and derivative effort,with an extremely incoherent script and multiple utterly senseless plottwists. The events take place in a remote and nameless little factorytown. Actually, I'm pretty sure the town must be called "Utopia". Why?Because there are gorgeous, voluptuous and easy-going girls everywhere(at the pharmacist, at the bar and even moving in next door) and theyall have the hots for the same local yokel. This lucky bastard,however, lives under the reign of his dominant mother and doesn't evenhave a clue what horrible things she (Margot Kidder) and her crazyTarot card friend Luz discuss at the coffee table. Her small worldbrightens up entirely when the sweet beautiful single mother Mariemoves in next door with her daughter. Harry falls madly in love, butobviously mommy doesn't approve. "The Box Collector" is a strangemovie. I don't think this was an intentional choice, but merely amatter of incompetence. The main storyline isn't exactly what you wouldcall original. The spooky dominant mother is one of the most commonlyknown thriller concepts, dating all the way back to Hitchcock's"Psycho" and possibly even far beyond, and "The Box Collector" hardlyadds anything new to this. The sub plots are wildly uneven, abruptlyhandled and totally irrelevant, like the marriage issues of asnake-hunting playboy and Marie's jealous ex-husband showing up again.The final twist is just plain bizarre and you better don't put too muchthought into that, or else you might end up hating the film. MargotKidder overacts with a passion, but the show is undoubtedly stolen bythe beauty of the Belgian actresses Lyne Renee and Marie Vinck. Yes,this country is the ideally fertile breeding ground for gorgeous, sexywomen! One last thing, the odd title refers to the fact that ourprotagonist like to paint boxes. There are some strange people witheven stranger hobbies out there…

2013-04-23 18:15:54

MUMMIE DEAREST

Filmed in 2007 and originally titled THE BOX COLLECTOR, this noirish thriller has echoes of PSYCHO and other loony mother movies, though inferior in quality.margot Kidder employs the overwrought style of Davis or Crawford--without panache. She's more like Rod Steiger, gleefully chomping up the scenery.The story is incoherent with superfluous subplots and a twist ending that does little to explain all you've witnessed beforehand, It managed to hold my interest in spite of this incoherency, so it's not a total failure. More a rental than a keeper.

johannes2000-1 2013-04-23 12:55:35

Absolutely great (but for the last 3 minutes!)

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, that is to say: until the last 3minutes! A lot has been said on this site about movies with a surpriseshift at the end, the shift that's supposed to knock you down flat andtotally change your view on the entire story. Some movies have one thatmakes definitely sense (like "The sixth sense" for example), in a waythat when you watch the movie for the second time everything suddenlyfits together in a more logical way then it did before you knew "theshift". In short: a shift may initially shock, but should ultimatelymake us leave the movie-theater with a feeling of satisfaction, thanksto our enhanced insight. It should make a movie better, not worse. Alasthere are many movies (or directors or script-writers) who throw in TheFinal Plot Shift apparently just for their own satisfaction, or to givethe whole project some sort of extra weight and depth, out of somepretentious arrogance. They care less for logic or for the feelings ofthe viewers than for the childish fun of throwing a brick in a pond andenjoying the turmoil it causes. An example for the latter is "Hightension" by Alexandre Aja, who came up with such a preposterous andintelligence-defying twist in the end that the whole (very strong!)movie totally fell flat like a pinched balloon.Now I don't know the reasons of director John Daly, or better, ofwriter Guy Lee Thys, for their version of the Ultimate Plot Shift, butthey sure as hell didn't make a better movie with it or evoked a flashof insight in the viewer (at least: in me). It wasn't reallypreposterous, thank god, but more or less totally unnecessary and weirdand utterly incomprehensible. Maybe I'm too dumb to grasp it, or toolazy to spend days puzzling about it. But to me it spoiled an otherwisevery strong and solid movie and that seems like a pity.The Box Collector is about a young, uncertain and unassertive guy wholives with his widowed mother in a big house and spends his dayspainting images of cardboard boxes (hence the movie's title). Themother is very dominating, to the point of castrating, crying hell overthe male sex in general, apparently having had very bad experienceswith her sons father. When a sexy young lady moves in next door andstarts to flirt with the son, mother goes rampant. We then see the son,who gets a relationship with the pretty neighbor, slowly changing intoan adult with a mind of his own, while the mother grows more and moreinsane with spite and jealousy.The strong story itself provides an exciting movie, the direction isgreat and thanks to skillful editing there's a steady pace with anintelligent alternation of lightweight and more heavy scenes and ofdrama and humor. I liked the grotesque scenes with Luz, a fellowman-hating woman who with the mother concocts wild plans to punish menand eliminate the female predators in the little town. These funnyscenes were totally in line with the story and in that way veryfunctional but at the same time counterbalanced the risk of too muchdrama.I was very impressed with the overall acting. It must have been atricky choice to cast Margot Kidder as the deranged obsessive mother,knowing her own recent history of a nervous breakdown. But it was greatthat she went along and she does a real fine job, she is totallyconvincing in the portrayal of her character, at many times you justwant to slap her in the face for all her chicaneries and for bullyingher son. But at the same time Kidder succeeds in letting the frailty ofold age and the terror of ultimately being left alone shine through.Lyne Renee is an absolute find, she's not just a classic beauty butalso extremely sexy with a very strong charisma, even I (being gay!)found her very exciting and it's understandable that all the men lustafter her while all the women see her as a threat. Just look at thelittle scene where she walks, almost even dances through the hall inthe factory where she works, with all the working men looking her overand she's just smiling and thanking them with an extra swing of herhips and a proud sway of her head, it's priceless!! And to boot allthat: this beautiful creature is actually a very good actress! But to me, the star of the movie was young Noah Segan. He is totallyfit for the part, he has this boyish look, he's maybe not a stunner butvery appealing with his sad eyes and serious and careful attitude. Heplays the character of the son to perfection, he handles his motherwith a convincing mix of patience and weariness, and makes itbelievable that Harry actually still loves her and feels some sort of(guilty) responsibility towards her. His transition, thanks to Marie,into a more self-willed grown-up is done very realistic, very graduallywe see him grow and make it understandable that this sexy and veryexperienced Marie at last sees him as a real support for herself andher child. I really hope to see a lot more of Noah Segan in the future,hopefully in equally strong and challenging parts!Well, as I said earlier, the last 3 minutes of the movie should betterbe forgotten. The scene right before The Shift was very climactic andin my opinion could have been the starting-point of a more suitableconclusion of the movie. But who am I....Since I simply rule out the last minutes, I can without any hesitationrank this movie 9 out of 10.