The Box

Rated one of the worst films of 2009, I can kinda see why. Wait, wait, wait.... Now I'm gonna get into why it's worth watching. This is one of the rare cases where, once again the critics and viewers are on opposite sides. Not the usual opposite sides. RT critics rate it a full 18% higher than users. I know why....let me tell you, so you don't have to think about it. Adapted for the screen from a short story (I'm guessing extremely short...Yes Hatcher, it could've began and ended in 9 minutes, since I know you were wondering) by Richard Kelly. He gets loads of slack due to Donnie Darko, but honestly that is his only film with real awesome substance. He did do Southland Tales, which I want to understand so badly, but it seems nearly impossible...even for me. Anywho, back to The Box. Press the button : get a million bucks. The catch : someone you have never met will die the instant the button is pressed. Interesting concept. It's based on human greed + guilt. It is obviously a film that was written backwards. The ending was written and is quite brilliant, but filling in the preceding (D) 90 minutes proved difficult for the cohesiveness (D) of it all. The flow is a bit of a conundrum (D) to me. It absolutely got me hooked with the first 30 minutes. Hmmmm, $1million vs. a strangers life. That's a toughie. What they don't think about are the consequences. Oh yeah, and it's 1976, so $1million dollars is actually a lot of money. The middle half hour is confusing and I'm not sure if I would've made it through if my Mother hadn't told me that she enjoyed the twist. Twist - I swear, that word is the bane of my existence sometimes. I am glad I finished it though. I enjoyed "the choice". I also enjoyed how women are portrayed as greedy little "you know whats". It's a think piece.

(D) Vocabulary specifically selected for Dean-O and his Verbose-ness.

**On a side note, I wanna send out congratulations to Hatcher for his first NBM mention. You are now officially "somebody". Way to go big guy.

NBM rates The Beginning and End - Awesome

  and the Middle Neutral and Confusing

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