Riffing on a Twilight Zone-themed morality tale, writer/director Richard Kelly ("Donnie Darko") sets the table for a three-course meal of supernatural events but serves up an anemic narrative entree instead.
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11/11/09
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The Box (2009)
46
%
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Reviews Counted:78
Fresh:36
Rotten:42
Average Rating:5.2/10
Consensus: Imaginative but often preposterous, The Box features some thrills but largely feels too piecemeal.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating]
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:Nov 6, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $7,571,417
Synopsis: What if someone gave you a box containing a button that, if pushed, would bring you a million dollars…but simultaneously take the life of someone you don’t know? Would you do it? And what would... [More]
Starring: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella, James Rebhorn
Director: Richard Kelly
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Reviews for The Box
Kelly has talent, but for his next movie, he might try coming down to earth and forgetting about the people who control the lightning.
11/11/09
Top CriticImpales itself on the smug awareness of how stuffed full of extraordinarily twisty ideas it is, without bothering to make sure that those ideas add up to anything halfway worthwhile.
11/10/09
As fresh and imaginative as a well made "Twilight Zone" episode.
11/10/09
[T]he ambition of the movie makes it sort of intriguing, too, even if it fails -- spectacularly -- in the end...
11/09/09
Not without interest, The Box opens to a collection of scenes that work and scenes that don't.
11/09/09
I think Kelly is a very inventive writer and I think he is his own worst enemy behind the camera.
11/09/09
Top CriticI think that Richard Kelly, from one film to the next, has gone in some very interesting and sometimes puzzling directions.
11/09/09
Top CriticKelly, as he did in Donnie Darko, avoids obvious scare techniques. Instead, he makes the bizarre, the surreal, and the frightening emerge from normal reality.
11/09/09
Top CriticAn interesting subtext occurs with this particular "box." More than just rude slang for a woman's genitalia, the title points to the fact that in this story, it's only the ladies who misbehave. Issues, Mr. Kelly?
11/09/09
What The Box resembles most, in fact, is a distended episode of "The Simpsons"' annual Halloween special.
11/08/09
...phantasmagorical, dark, drear, and troubling, it kept me involved and thinking about it long after...that's a good definition of an entertaining movie.
11/08/09
Creepy thriller too confusing for kids, awful for adults.
11/08/09
The best thing about the movie is that, if Kelly was really aiming to please the average popcorn-munchers, he fails. He can't help it.
11/08/09
Anyone going into "The Box" expecting a simple everyday thriller surely will be surprised with what they get--a dismal, morally complicated piece of sci-fi surrealism.
11/08/09
The dude behind Donnie Darko and kid from Richmond's South Side has crafted the kind of movie that will have some diggin' its trippy cosmic karma, and others trashing its gimmick gone wild.
11/08/09
I KNEW I had seen this somewhere before.
11/07/09
Even with its occasional lapses into random weirdness, it remains watchable and engaging, often suspenseful, even creepy.
11/07/09
Has stylish production values and a somewhat creepy performance by the talented Frank Langella, but it's often too lazily constructed, unimaginative and lacking much-needed suspense.
11/07/09
Never has Richard Matheson's visionary work been so badly served! This is foolish, maudlin, confusing, pretentious poppycock.
11/07/09
Latest News for The Box
November 05, 2009:
Critics Consensus: A Christmas Carol Dazzles But Disappoints
This week at the movies, we've got some modern-day Dickens (Disney's A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman); a button-pushing thriller (The Box, starring... More...
November 03, 2009:
Richard Kelly Talks The Box 
It's been a long and somewhat bumpy ride getting "The Box" to theaters, but director Richard Kelly is finally on the verge of releasing his latest film. He talks about the... More...
October 29, 2009:
Richard Kelly chats about The Box
Richard Kelly's no stranger to the mysterious whims of fate. His first feature, Donnie Darko, flopped upon initial release, only to live on as one of the decade's most beloved... More...
September 28, 2009:
New: Brand New Movie Trailer/Poster
More...
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