Genres

Visitors Review

2012-05-24 22:35:28

started out okay and then fell apart

This would have been better had it remained in the realm of planet Earth and conspiring humans instead of having to do with Mars or physics or Donnie Darko flashbacks on the part of the director. It darn near put me to sleep after a while, which should not have happened with a movie that began as a paranoid conspiracy suspense flick.

DSP919 2012-05-24 12:02:10

Straddles the line between an "A" and a "B" movie

This movie straddles the line between an "A" and a "B" horror/sci fimovie. It is not quite as good in my opinion as Martin Scorcese's"Shutter Island", which is definitely an A. But it is such a purethrill ride, particularly the ending, that it could be considered a B,as well. The problem with it that it contains so many loose ends anddetails than it ends up being a bit incoherent. It is a bit like therecent, notable, French horror film "Mirrors" particularly in the useof water as a horror element. Arguably, it has high production values,which may mean that it takes place largely among upper middle classpeople. It has star power with Cameron Diaz. Frank Langella's ironicperformance alone, in his absurd bowler hat, elevates it from a 6 to a7. It also has a great MacGuffin, Alfred Hitchcock's term for a keyplot element that drives the plot: a man of unknown origin offers amillion dollars tax free to randomly selected people, with the caveatthat someone in the world will die if they accept the offer. The choiceis somewhat profound, as the couple's greed entails consequences, whatis referred to as the altruism principle. The couple in the movie,although upper middle class, is in financial difficulties so theirchoice to push the button is not really greed, more taking advantage ofa presumed gift. There was an identical plot element, minus the longblack limousine, in a 1950's TV show called "The Millionaire." Themovie, which takes place in 1976, straddles the line throughout betweenscience fiction and horror and contains elements of both. It haspursuing zombies bleeding at the mouth, and also references to the MarsVoyager lander. It has scenes from Langley Air Force Base. It containsa subplot having to do with human deformities: a bolt of lightningstruck Arlington Steward's face, disfiguring it, an event so unlikelyas to be pure science fiction. It is suggested that Steward is beingcontrolled by some alien force. It contains references to two 20thCentury intellectual giants, Jean-Paul Sartre and the science fictiongiant Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote "2001." What is not mentioned in theinitial money offer at first is the eventual impossible "lady or thetiger" choice the couples who accept the offer at first must face. Asthe husband points the gun at the back of Steward's head, he intones"It won't do you any good, I am just a vessel, and if you kill me theywill just send another."

larry-d-christensen 2012-05-15 11:22:31

Good Holdout Until the Next 2001

It was a fairly cool movie, kind of a postmodern half Stanley Kubrick2001, half David Lynch type of thing, but there was some inexcusablecheese I just couldn't get past. Besides several 'weird movie' clichés,there was the ridiculous premise of some alien race trying to assessour fitness for survival. Obviously if we are too depraved to survive,then why expend the time and resources to determine as much andultimately to facilitate our destruction? Why not just let us killourselves? I'm typically opposed to such anti-humanism (and irrationality for thatmatter), but this was a good enough to hold me over until the nextgreat director (+storyteller) comes along.

TxMike 2012-05-14 23:32:11

Here's the box, push the button, someone you don't know dies, you keep $$1Million dollars.

This is one of the more intriguing movies we have seen lately, both mywife and I enjoyed it. Even though it is near 2 hours, it held ourattention all the way.The concept is certainly unusual. It is 1976, the Mars rover istransmitting back photos. Some one leaves a plain brown box on thedoorstep. The doorbell rings at 5:45AM. The wife gets to the door intime to see a large black car driving away, and finds the box on herdoorstep. Both my wife and I wondered if we would have even brought itin. But she does, and inside finds a well-fashioned black box with atransparent dome top, and a large red button inside the dome. They geta phone call, from a Mr Steward, who says he will be there at 5PM toexplain about the box.When Mr Steward shows up, his appearance is unusual in that a goodportion of the left side of his face is disfigured, apparently from asevere burn. We later find out is was lightning. But he carries abriefcase, inside is cash, crisp bills totaling one million dollars. Heexplains that they can keep the money if they press the button, if theydon't the box will be removed and the choice given to someone else. Butpressing the button will cause someone they don't know to die.This comes at a time, naturally, where money has just become a bigissue for the family, she teaches at a private school, her son attendsthere, but the discount for tuition is ending. Her husband is a NASAemployee trying to get into the astronaut training program, and overallfinances are tight. One million dollars will erase all that.Cameron Diaz is the wife Norma Lewis. James Marsden is her scientisthusband, Arthur Lewis. And Frank Langella is the mysterious ArlingtonSteward.Good entertaining and thought-provoking movie that enters the sciencefiction genre. There is a connection to the exploration of Mars.SPOILERS FOLLOW: The premise is a giant moral dilemma, because peoplewe don't know die all the time, somewhere, all over the world. So willpressing the button "cause" someone to be killed? The husband removesthe base of the "box", there is no circuitry, no transmitter, as ascientist he figures that this must all be a gimmick. Norma quicklypresses the button. They need the money. Then they worry over what theymight have done. Just 5 minutes later Mr Steward shows up, he takesaway the box and leaves them the money. How does he even know that theypressed the button? Later we find out that a man shot and killed hiswife at the moment Norma pressed the button. Further explanation islong and complicated, but leave it at there was much more going on thanwas obvious. In a complex development their son was left blind anddeaf, and he could be restored whole only if Arthur were to shoot andkill Norma, it wouldn't work if Norma killed herself. And this happensas someone else, someone they didn't know, pressed the red button onone of the boxes.

hung_fao_tweeze 2012-05-12 13:36:34

There is a moral if you are able to find it.

This movie had the potential to insert into the viewer some facsimileof moral introspection. Unfortunately it failed to raise this moral upabove the pointless add-ons and side-orders of baffling unnecessaryoddness. For example, half of Frank's character's face is missingbecause of a lightning accident. It's a harrowing effect and yet it hasnearly nothing to do with anything. It reminds me of the old MST3000episode of 'Manos, Hands Of Fate' where Torgo MUST be a monster becausehe has big knees. Meanwhile, nose bleeds occur for no reason at all.There's an adolescent Damien-wannabee afoot acting semi-possessed yeteventually flaccid on real contribution to the plot. That nearlyexciting fast-walk chase through the library almost woke me up. Afteryou manage to get to the confused ending then you'll reflect, "Huh?What was the point?" Well, the buried moral is that people should bewilling to think more in terms of what is better for the whole insteadof the self. Relatively simple, actually. But not demonstrated verywell here at all.

2012-05-12 02:52:26

Just awful.

I am not going to bother discussing plot details. This movie was justthe worst. Cameron Diaz and James Marsden are wooden and uninteresting.I wasn't emotionally involved with any aspect of their plight. Even theyoung man playing the son is stiff and unlovable. Can someone tell mewhat's up with the goofy accent? Do people in Virginia sound like theyare from Georgia? I can't think of anything this boring sinceArtificial Intelligence came out. I turned The Box off halfway throughand I am not going to finish it.They took what could have been a good suspense film and turned it intoa mind numbingly slow paced piece of garbage.Skip this one and save yourself the agony. I wish I had.

2012-05-10 13:50:22

Interesting At the Very Least...

I'm going to keep this review short and sweet, as I feel other 4-star reviews have made any point I could make already.This movie was nothing if not interesting and mind-boggling. It kept me guessing and in the end...I couldn't stop thinking about what I'd just witnessed and how much I want to see it again so I can study it further. No, it was not the best sci-fi film ever...not even the best by the director, Richard Kelly. But, what it was is an engrossing, interesting, and (although it was based on a short story and Twilight Zone episode) original film, produced in an era where run-of-the-mill actions and romantic comedies rule the screen. And the acting wasn't too shabby either. Cameron Diaz's fake Southern accent could be a little much at times, but I think that was the intention. And Frank Langella was phenomenal.Plain and simply, rent this before you buy it. It is a movie you'll likely either 'get' or loathe ravenously. But you should at least give it a chance. Yes, the plot is a bit incoherent at times, but it's not supposed to be an easy movie...it's cerebral and visual. It makes you think.I'll be adding it to my blu-ray collection for sure, as I already have Kelly's other 2 films, Donnie Darko and Southland Tales.

Joseph Tibor 2012-05-10 05:47:55

Horrible!

Now, this movie is the worst i have ever seen!! It is simply adisaster. I think it's really a sick movie, i just wasted my timewatching this cheap crap. I can't believe anyone would produce such adisaster. Such a waste of money and time. Nothing to learn from thismovie, it's just a hollow sick evil flick. I don't think they could'vemake it worse, this movie just earned it's title as the king of lowestcrap. The acting is a disaster, the meaning...oh well there is nomeaning just a sick pain and sorrow introduced by the suffering childin the end of the movie, and the killing of the wife which again wasanother dumb blow to this movie. Do yourself a favor, if you actuallyhave some self respect, keep away from this awfulness!!!

dbborroughs 2012-05-05 19:47:01

Too many threads and too many unanswered questions make this an interesting misfire

Couple having financial trouble gets a box delivered to their door. Ifthey push the button they get a million dollars but someone they don'tknow will die. Do they push the button? This is an odd film based on a Richard Matheson short story has a fewchills but mostly is a messy affair. The trouble is that there is somuch going on it feels as though writer director Richard Kelly didn'tknow what sort of movie he was making. Is this a straight out horrorfilm with supernatural overtones? At times it seems like it with talkof moral choices, damnation and the afterlife. Is it a science fictionfilm? Possibly, there are lots of questions about that Mars project.And what are the strange looks that people seem to have as if in somegrand conspiracy? Is this Invasion of the Body Snatchers or a demonictake over film? Don't know, maybe. And that's the problem there arelots of questions, most of them intriguing, but there are too many.Little seems to have been explained and when we get to the end of thefilm things seem more to stop then to conclude (even in an open endedway). I'm all for making a film rich with themes and points but writerKelly fills his script with simply too many that director Kelly can'thandle, or does so in such away that each theme or plot thread gets itsten minutes of screen time and for those minutes it hold court beforeits cast off the next bit. It made me crazy. (I won't get into the twoleads, Cameron Diaz and James Marsden, who aren't very good or morelikely don't know what to make of the material which is so evershifting ) It's a heady mix that doesn't work (there are ultimately too manyholes). I got to the end and suddenly realized I had no idea what Ijust saw. I really didn't like it, but its more in a this isn't goodbecause it just misses sort of a way rather. I'd take a pass or waitfor cable where its not going to cost you anything

Steve W 2012-05-05 15:22:11

Put a Fork In My Eye.

IMDb says I have to write a minimum of ten lines to get my commentsposted. This movie barely warrants that much effort but I want to warnothers as I wish I were warned before I saw this stinkeroo. I waspumped about the premise...sounds interesting right? An offer of amillion dollars if you push a button and somebody you don't know dies.Oh how I wish the movie was even remotely as interesting as the idea.It's not! I have an open mind and am a fan of all genres. I have seenthousands of movies. I tried so desperately to like this moviebut...wow! What a Titanic failure. (Line 10 coming up.) If you've nevertaken advice from a comment on IMDb, start now! Save your time and/orat least your money and wait to see this on cable...it won't be long.Seriously, I'm just trying to help. Seriously.

2012-05-05 11:35:54

Don't open this box.

A supernatural being is testing the human race in order to see if they can be saved. Throughout the movie many people tried to warn the main characters and help them succeed, but nothing matters. The movie is unrelated scenes with no explanation or conclusion. Why say the aliens can be killed and then do nothing about it. Why research in the library when nothing comes of it. Why does the babysitter have a map of victims on her wall? Why show it if it means nothing!!!!! Why show most of the scenes at all? It's all just to waste time and make you as the viewer do all the work. The aliens want to "save" the human race, yet they are the ones forcing people to kill each other. They also harm children and possess people and give them nose bleeds. The main characters fail in the end and the movie's end suggests that there will be more and more victims of this supernatural being.No where in the movie does it let you know what the motives are for the experiment. No origin is given to the being. The writer sure took a holiday on this one and basically has written no real story at all.

Samantha Kay 2012-05-04 21:13:03

I am stunned...

This movie just went on and on and on....it made no sense! It didn't really have any kind of plot or actual storyline. It jumped all over the place and didn't have an ending. And EVERY SINGLE person who came out of the theater was confused. Just odd and a waste of money.

Deathawk 2012-05-02 16:18:58

I find it hard to tell you, because I find it hard to take, when people run in circles it's a very mad world.

A man comes to a couples house with a simple proposition-push a buttonon a small wooden box and get one million dollars, however doing soalso kills a stranger somewhere in the world.The above accurately describes the plot in Richard Kelly's latestmovie, but it hardly describes the movie itself. Simply put this is oneof the most bizarre movies ever put onto celluloid. The basic premiseof the movie comes from a short 1970s short story titled "ButtonButton" which was later adopted into an episode of the Twilight Zone.Both the story and episode were rather straight forward, consistingmostly of the aforementioned plot. Leave it to the director of DonnieDarko however to splice up the plot with bizarre supernatural imageryand a deep backstory that eventually makes the premise of the shortstory into merely a macguffin to tell Kelly's own brand of supernaturalsci-fi.One thing I appreciate about The Box is that while it deliberatelyconfuses the viewer throughout it never leaves them hanging without alife preserver. The movie almost always provides the viewer with enoughinformation to be able to allow them to suspect what's going on, evenif only briefly. It's a movie where you'll constantly be tellingyourself "Ahh now I know what's going on" even if that idea changeswithin minutes. And unlike Donie Darko the movie dose at points lay outexactly what's going on.I'd like to tell you more about the movie, but truth be told that wouldjust ruin it for you. It's a movie you'll just have to see foryourself. Trust me you won't be disappointed.

Trevor 2012-05-01 21:52:34

Why Wouldn't You Push the Button?

Forget about Donnie Darko. I open with this because it seems that agood portion of the reviews I have read on The Box amount to the simplebut weak argument that it doesn't hold a candle to Darko. It isn't thatI disagree with that necessarily, I just feel that this movie is adifferent animal altogether and deserves its own analysis. There arepoints of comparison to be sure, but they are peripheral concerns whenyou consider that the key to the heart of each movie is different. InDarko, the driving force of the narrative is existential. In The Box,the driving force of the narrative stems from a moral dilemma. Believeme when I say that I understand the inclination to compare aninnovative filmmakers'movies by looking for trends and patterns, butfor me it is more important to approach each new film as a selfcontained entity first, and then broaden my gaze afterwards. The Box is one of those films you get mixed feelings about because itseems to be in some sort of identity crisis. It isn't always sure whatit wants to be. The twists are numerous, but easy to follow if not topredict. James Marsden and Cameron Diaz play a relatively believablepair of newlyweds who are in financial straits. A Box containing a"button unit" arrives on their doorstep and they are informed by ahorribly burned man that if pushed the button will cause the death ofone person whom they don't know, and they will receive one milliondollars. One of the things The Box achieves is to conjure up thisinvisible fear that somewhere out there our actions have moralconsequences. Before the button is pushed it has an eerie and seductivequality, alluring yet sinister. Once it has been pushed, events are setin motion that make the two leads question their own morality anddeeply regret their fateful decision. The notion that the Box is an experiment is interesting because for meit provides the movie with a paradox. If there are external beingsdeveloping an "altruism coefficient" based on data gathered by couplespushing and not pushing the button, then as the conspiracy unravels, wenotice that ultimately it is a forced altruism: Be selfless or thespecies will be wiped out. I suppose the couples don't know theconsequences of their actions when they are faced with making thedecision, but they have no reason to suspect that The Box can doanything, so why would they choose altruistically? Is altruism devaluedby the fact that we only care about it when presented with a problem inour own lives? The psychological hurdles in this movie are everywhere. Push the buttonor don't, it's likely someone is messing with you. Take the money ordon't, no one gives anything away for free. Search for the truth, theanswers you find slowly reveal your demise. I propose that The Box is an ironic work because it offers the falsechoice of free will while revealing that we are trapped in manymetaphorical boxes. You can only choose to be free at the expense ofanother's life, is that freedom? No, it is only another box becausethen you become trapped in the consequences of your own morality. Thereis no escape for us because we live on earth and that is another Box.This is precisely why the external beings in the film are ultimatelyantagonists. They demand we conform to moral standards which rob us ofour freedom. We made it to Mars, and we were burned for it and turnedinto slaves in a sick game. The references to Jean Paul Sartre illustrate this point rather well."You can only enter the final chamber free, or not free." Sure, but nomatter the form in which we enter the chamber, it is a chambernonetheless. Trevor Nemeth

Mr_Hollywood_North 2012-04-27 11:28:43

This film went on for too long and told us too much.

I must make a direct comparison to the Twilight Zone Episode, Button /Button on which this movie is based. The main key plots points were: 1.The Lewis family receives the box on their doorstep with the buttonunit inside. 2. Arlington Steward gives them them the ultimatum. (Pushit and kill someone and receive $1 000 000.) (It was only $200 000 inthe Twilight Zone.) 3. They ponder upon what to do. Then they finallypush it. 4. Mr. Steward comes back to retrieve it and says, "It will bepassed on to somebody else. Someone you don't even know!" It endsthere.I know that it was only a 30 minute TV Show and that this is a 2 hourmovie. But firstly, Frank L. did not say EVEN in The Box. Saying EVENmakes the sense stronger. Secondly, we get a glimpse of the next familyto whom the box is passed on to, as well as the previous one. It islike they are showing us the cycle again and again. Thirdly, The Lewis'did not have children in the original; here they have a son.Furthurmore, once we know that Mr. Steward body was inhabited byaliens, the film looses credibility. Finally, it should have been setin the late 80s, not the mid 70s, to better reflect the time of theTwilight Zone. (A much better era for fashion and music, BTW.)I would recommend it though, if you are a fan of the 1980s TwilightZone.

MisterMxyzptlk 2012-04-26 19:52:56

Idiot box.

Based on a short story, "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson and aTwillight Zone segment, the film stays true to the original format andthen quickly derails off the path and the viewers are suddenlywondering where in God's green earth they are. We are invited intosubplots involving NASA camera inventions, nosebleeds, odddisfigurements and dimensional gateways, and at the end of the run weare twisted and turned around, inside out. I'm not sure what this filmwas about, but I'm quite confident how it got there. The film felt likea white wash of pressing matters and better talent. That Kelly simplybores us and fails to move in any sort of direction to warrant the 2hours. The Box looks and feels like a legitimate thriller, but thewooden acting, and the feeling that opportunities were missed while itwas being created leaves me cold.

Gordon-11 2012-04-24 21:35:35

Press the button. Someone dies and you get a million dollars.

This film is about a mysterious box arriving at an American family'sdoorstep. Inside there is a button, if you press it, someone dies butyou get a million dollars.I haven't seen something so suspenseful and thrilling for a long time!"The Box" employs basic psychology of greed, and effectively creates anunnervingly eerie atmosphere. It maintains an unsettling atmospherethroughout, and surprisingly without the need for shocks or blood.Though there are some unsolved mysteries in the plot, it still keeps meengaged, thrilled and scared. It even makes me ponder on all thepossibilities of pushing or not pushing the button."The Box" is an exceptionally suspenseful psychological thriller. Iwould recommend it to others without hesitation.

2012-04-24 09:55:55

such a weak story

I don't want to spoil the story so I won't go into details but I will say the movie is intriguing at the onset but as the movie progresses it gets less and less interesting and more and more out of touch with reality. It's a pathetic attempt at being clever and falls way short of what I expected. I wish I could get the the two hours of my life back..

2012-04-20 15:24:15

Which Is Creepier: Questions or Answers?

Richard Kelly's latest film, THE BOX, is a remake of an old Twilight Zone episode penned by Richard Matheson called "Button, Button." The story is about a young, penurious couple that are visited by a stranger with a box. The box is fitted with a button, and if the couple pushes the button, they will be awarded more money than they've ever seen. The catch: somewhere someone they don't know will die. The TV show's punch came at the end, after the couple decides to push the button. The stranger shows up immediately and gives the couple their money. He takes the box and prepares to leave when the wife asks what he will do with the box. "The box will go to another couple," the man says. "Who?" they ask. He smiles. "Don't worry," he says. "No one you know."Zing!This is where the TV show ends, wisely, letting the dawning realization provide the story with its emotional force. This, however, is just where the movie gets started. When I heard the concept for the film, I wondered how Kelly could take a twenty minute television segment and turn it into 100 minutes worth of movie. The answer? He gets weird. For Kelly, this is no big surprise.Saying much more would spoil the movie's bizarre second and third acts. Needless to say, our young couple (played well by Marsden and not-so-well by Diaz), grapple with the after-effects of their decision to press that button, an action with repercussions that stretch out to their young son, Diaz's lecherous students, and Marsden's coworkers at NASA. Also, lightning?I don't know. The film makes a modicum of sense when it wants to (although without much grace, since the movie's answers are so complex, they necessitate some very deliberate spelling out), but mostly it's just an excuse for Kelly to demonstrate the cinematography and imagery his work is so famous for. There are some truly creepy moments in the movie -- ever have an entire library of people turn and stare at you at the exact same time? -- as well as some eye-ball popping sets and scenes, but it's all just elaborate window dressing on a concept that worked better when it actually had no window. In other words, the TV show worked because it didn't need to be explained and -- furthermore -- because it contained portents instead of actual doom, leaving viewers to imagine the doom themselves.THE BOX, as striking as its imagery may be, is a weak film if for no other reason than because of its glut of answers, because of its In Your Face Doom. It's a guarantee that audiences of the TV show, if they wondered about the box's origins and functions, would NEVER have imagined the solutions posed by Kelly, and in that sense the movie is fresh and new. But in the same sense, it means that all the niggling ominousness of the original tale is replaced by chaotic sci-fi tomfoolery. Viewers with a philosophical bent might find something here worth mulling over, and fans of sci-fi eye candy need look no further, but it's a fair bet that everyone else will leave the film feeling disappointed.

sam-1995 2012-04-19 20:51:31

Your disappointed with whats inside, so throw away The Box...

Where can i begin to describe how much a waste of time this was. Theonly reason i went to see this movie is because it said on the trailerthat it was from the director of Donnie Darko, that film was quite asurprise. However the surprise inside this box was crap.The acting in this film was appalling and there were so many thingsthat made it clear it was not the 19.. whenever it was set, honestly icant remember and i do not want to.The acting was off and the story line was extremely confusing and istill don't understand what the hell went on in that wasted hour andhalf of my life.Please give me it back, Please...