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The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

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The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

Old 11-14-09, 10:18 AM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

It's to bad this movie is a complete rip off of a short film made two years ago.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QrKnhOJ-R80&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QrKnhOJ-R80&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

The people who made this film say The Box did not rip them off, but it's clear that it is a rip off.
Old 11-14-09, 01:50 PM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

Originally Posted by Blu Man
It's to bad this movie is a complete rip off of a short film made two years ago.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QrKnhOJ-R80&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QrKnhOJ-R80&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

The people who made this film say The Box did not rip them off, but it's clear that it is a rip off.
Well, seeing as the movie is based on a famous Richard Matheson short story written in 1970 and subsequently made into a 1986 "Twilight Zone" episode, and having watched both The Box and the short, there's absolutely no reason to believe that. There aren't any similarities between the film and the short that wouldn't come from the Richard Matheson story or would come solely from the short film. Really, it's the short that ripped off Matheson's "Button, Button" (the short's script isn't credited to Matheson), and not The Box ripping off this short film.

Last edited by tylergfoster; 11-14-09 at 02:00 PM.
Old 11-15-09, 03:45 AM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

Overall, I liked it!

Spoiler:

To get the bad stuff out of the way, the movie dragged just a bit at parts, I never got the feeling like they really needed the money, the ending music kind of killed the sad, resigned ending, and I really hate when a car comes out of nowhere to crash into the side of the main characters car.

That said, I still liked it. The movie itself didn't feel like it was the current, typical output from Hollywood. It really has a unique style to it.

I liked that it was set in 1976, the NASA scenes were kinda fascinating, the science fiction and atmosphere were great, liked the writer/SF name/concept dropping, and like others, I will definitley be supporting more movies by the director.

I too think they chose wrong, mostly because that one guy who did the exact same thing said, "it's too late for me."

I think that the new couple pushing the button and it coinciding with Arthur killing his wife, was kind of signaling that the human race has no hope. Like a human nature chain reaction. If Arthur's wife hadn't pushed the button, she wouldn't have been getting killed, and therefore, the next couple who were probably very much like them, wouldn't have pressed it either.



Again, very interesting movie. Didn't completely make sense and I still have a lot of unanswered questions.

Spoiler:
The 3 doors choice seemed pretty superfluous and pointless past the whole "glimpse of heaven" thing. Especially since everyone gave Arthur clues beforehand.

Then it seemed like Langella's character was not only an alien, but an EVIL alien, that could be killed, and HAD to be killed. Kind of went nowhere and seemed forgotten by the end.


Definitley buying this on DVD to rewatch again. Marsden and Langella were very good in it.

Oh yeah, good review droidguy1119.
Old 11-18-09, 03:31 PM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

Originally Posted by droidguy1119
Spoiler:
At first I wondered if this was a tad condescending or played too much into stereotypes, but then it occurred to me: the women in the film are generally back home before the men, so Langella probably ends up visiting the women alone 90% of the time, giving them more time to think it over and ultimately more inclination to push the button. Clever.
Spoiler:
I didn't like the apparent misogyny here, but my girlfriend pointed out that when the 911 call is reported to the police, Norma's father, or someone else in the office comments that there's been "another homicide. This time it's the wife."


All in all, a pretty neat movie that I would like to see again.

Haven't seen Southland Tales yet, but
Spoiler:
Kelly has a thing for instruction manual diagrams, arrows extending from human torsos, and crappy water special effects, huh?
Old 11-18-09, 03:58 PM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

Originally Posted by Blu Man
It's to bad this movie is a complete rip off of a short film made two years ago.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QrKnhOJ-R80&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QrKnhOJ-R80&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

The people who made this film say The Box did not rip them off, but it's clear that it is a rip off.
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Old 11-18-09, 06:25 PM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

I liked the film very much. Love Darko and Southland. Here's my theory

Spoilers

Spoiler:
The woman pressing the button at the end did not cause Cameron Diaz's death, the film cut back and forth to show that the tragic consequences of the box will continue.

It works like this: Man comes w/ box to families with one father one mother one child, says you get $1 million but someone you don't know will die (this is the first test, the correct answer is to not press the button), Diaz presses botton, gets the million, father is confronted with three water chambers, the woman explains "2 chambers lead to eternal damnation 1 chamber leads to heaven", husband chooses. Then the couple are faced with the second test: Your child is blind and deaf, he can live this way forever or you can kill your wife and save him, (the correct answer is to choose life with handicaped child), they chose wrong.

The failure of test one, leads to test two. Test two is where the "person you don't know" dies (ie. your spouse). One possibility is that the choice of water chambers decides what test two will be, the husband choose chamber 2 and it lead to the blind and deaf test (an eternal damnation test), maybe if he'd chosen another chamber he would have had a different test.

Last edited by Mabuse; 11-20-09 at 03:41 PM.
Old 11-18-09, 06:31 PM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

Use spoiler tags.
Old 11-19-09, 11:17 AM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

I saw it this weekend and my thought was
Spoiler:
that it was not an alien being (which I believe the NASA angle was there to nudge the audience towards), but rather a messenger from God. Someone already said it, but I think the button represented the apple that Eve eats. The lightning from above supports this.


A pretty good movie overall. I was surprised.
Old 12-06-09, 11:20 PM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

Saw this tonight at a cheapie theater and did not care for it. It had a lot of potential, but the only truly interesting parts were the beginning and the end (which was, frankly, silly. And no I don't mean
Spoiler:
Diaz dying in sync w/ the button being pushed.
) There was a lot of needless "Weird for the sake of being weird", the music felt ill suited to many scenes, and the overall story, though not without merit, was lackluster. I simply didn't care what was happening scene-to-scene... boring really. I actually liked some of the
Spoiler:
alien
aspects, but many, many other aspects simply did not work for me.

The few highlights in the movie made it all worse for me as they showed true potential.

Oh, and Kelly needs to stop with the CG portals in his movies.

Originally Posted by Blu Man
It's to bad this movie is a complete rip off of a short film made two years ago.

The people who made this film say The Box did not rip them off, but it's clear that it is a rip off.
So far from true it's funny.

Last edited by RichC2; 12-06-09 at 11:23 PM.
Old 02-27-10, 09:50 AM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

Watched this last night and thought it was interesting, but ultimately not all that great. In fact, I thought the best parts were the external shots of a snowy Richmond (including my alma mater!). Doesn't happen that often.

I was disappointed in Kelly, though. Being a hometown boy, he should have known better than to give in to Hollywood's tired "everyone below the Mason-Dixon Line has a ridiculous Southern accent" stereotype. Especially in suburban Richmond, where it took place.
Old 02-27-10, 10:46 AM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

Originally Posted by DJLinus
Watched this last night and thought it was interesting, but ultimately not all that great. In fact, I thought the best parts were the external shots of a snowy Richmond (including my alma mater!). Doesn't happen that often.

I was disappointed in Kelly, though. Being a hometown boy, he should have known better than to give in to Hollywood's tired "everyone below the Mason-Dixon Line has a ridiculous Southern accent" stereotype. Especially in suburban Richmond, where it took place.
i think the 2 leads were based on kelly's actual parents, who have accents. and i agree, it was nice to see a movie that looked so virginian.
Old 03-22-10, 08:04 AM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

In the DVD Kelly explains that the Diaz and Marsden characters were based on his real parents and his mom had a defect on her foot.

Off subject but is Richard Matheson a Buddhist now or a follow of Eastern Religion?

On the DVD he was wearing a white robe and there were candles in the background and some statues.
Old 03-22-10, 10:29 AM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

I actually quite enjoyed the movie. It wasn't perfect -- the subplot with Marsden at the library with the "choosing of the portals" was absolutely pointless -- but I thought Kelly did a good job with the story and I was pretty much into it for the most part.
Old 09-12-16, 10:13 AM
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Re: The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009)

Triple Richard Kelly bump


After watching both Donnie Darko and Southland Tales this weekend (with Richard Kelly in attendance to answer questions), I decided to go all-in and re-watch The Box on VUDU one more time.

Much like Southland Tales, this film was better after giving it time to breathe for a few years. I didn't like it when it first came out, and I mostly blamed that on Cameron Diaz as well as being hesitant about Kelly's films after ST.

This time around, I still felt that some of the accents were atrocious, but the story itself was excellent. There's more to think about, and a lot of my thoughts were expressed better by other people in this thread.

I have one crazy thought, though...
(Donnie Darko & The Box & Southland Tales spoilers)
Spoiler:
What if Gretchen's mom and step-dad got a Box, her mom pressed the button, and they fled from the step-dad because he needed to kill her?

What if, in 2005, the "Employers" from The Box had enough tests completed, and decided that they were ready to set in motion a plan to let mankind destroy itself, beginning with the destruction of El Paso and Abilene?

"This is the way the World ends.
This is the way the World ends.
This is the way the World ends.
Not with a whimper, but with a bang."




(but probably not...)

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