James Marsden, Cameron Diaz, Frank Langella, James Rebhorn, Michele Durrett ...( see more  see more... ) , Gillian Jacobs

A small wooden box arrives on the doorstep of a married couple, who know that opening it will grant them a million dollars and kill someone they don't know.

Flixster Users

35% liked it

304,764 ratings

Critics

44% liked it

124 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 56 min.

Directed by: Richard Kelly

Release Date: November 6, 2009

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DVD Release Date: February 16, 2010

Stats: 5,839 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (5,839)


  • December 12, 2009
    As a fan of The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, this film grabbed me from the very simple set up. It starts as a moral dilemma, one that everyone will be asking themselves after having watched the film. It's easy to see where many become turned off by this film. It takes a strict...( read more)ly Sci-Fi route in it's second half. For me, Kelly, managed the right amount of weird and mystery, whilst supplying us answers all the way through. He doesn't rely on confusion to keep our interest. The mysteries can be worked out and leave room for interpretation. The performances are very strong and the atmosphere is one of consistent tone, even when dealing with the more fantastical elements. I was truly riveted, and it's almost enough to forgive Kelly for Southland Tales.
  • November 30, 2009
    A couple receives a mysterious box with a button and instructions that, if they push it, two things will happen: they will receive a million dollars, and someone they don't know will die. Very poorly written, with plot holes, a drawn out middle section full of scenes that are cr...( read more)eepy but have nothing at all to do with the main story, and no real dramatic interest in the main characters' plight. Very diasppointing.
  • November 18, 2009
    imagine if the adam and eve story and the twilight zone had a baby and you've got "the box", a taut weird study in the moral and personal ramifications of selfishness. langella rules the day (hello!) as a mysterious force of nature - so greasy you can feel the grease on your fin...( read more)gers whenever he's onscreen, diaz drops the easy strumpet next door routine and grows up finally (and is good at it), while marsden is the dumb wondering stolid adam trying to put their humptydumpty life together again. definitely worth your time.
  • November 8, 2009
    The Box is a challenging and odd movie. It doesn't hold your hand and guide you through the plot, instead you have to pay attention and figure out what's going on in pieces and fragments. That can be frustrating, but the end result is a movie that will leave you either hating it ...( read more)and thinking it's too convoluted for it's own good, or intrigued and wanting to see it again to make better sense of it all. I think I fall into the latter category.

    The trailer really does nothing to prepare you for the movie you're about to see. It's not exactly a horror movie, but there's a continual thread of menace and fear that underlies the entire film. It's not sci-fi either, though there are some sci-fi elements. I guess if I had to compare it to another movie, I'd choose Donnie Darko. Not because they're particularly similar, but because you have to have a certain open-mindedness and appreciation for something deeper than the average movie experience in order to enjoy them both.
  • November 8, 2009
    The Box is based on a short story by Richard Matheson, and it most definitely feels like it was supposed to be a short story. There's enough story here to maybe fill an episode of Twilight Zone or Tales From the Crypt (though not a very good one), but stretched thin to fi...( read more)ll two hours, it is excrutiating. By the time we got to the last half hour or so, I didn't even care how it ended, just as long as it ended.

    What story there is starts out slightly intriguing, but it takes some serious wrong turns and the unfolding explanation is head-shakingly awful. One last crime the film commits: being set in the 70's for absolutely no valid reason whatsoever. Adventureland did the same thing earlier this year. Setting the film in that era added NOTHING to this story aside from godawful fashion, hair, and home decor.

    One of the worst films of the year, with the only redeeming quality being another strong performance by James Marsden.
  • December 28, 2009
    terrible waste of time stupid story and acting. would not recommend
  • December 27, 2009
    I just can figure out what happend
  • December 27, 2009
    Photobucket

    Norma and Arthur receive a box at their front door early in t...( read more)he morning. Inside the box is another box and a letter telling them that a Mr. Stewart will be stopping by at 5 o' clock to explain. Before this we're informed that Mr. Stewart had been making these boxes and sending them to many people. This stuff is classified information and somewhere along the line Mr. Stewart is part of a conspiracy from the people in NASA where Arthur also works.

    There's lots of talk about Mars, gateways into other places, bright lights which may or may not mean something about the after life. Lots of stuff is quietly unanswered because much of it kind of makes sense if you look at the film in a science fiction way.

    When Mr. Stewart arrives at the house, he meets Norma. They go into the kitchen where he explains the box. "If you push this button two things will happen: One of them will be that somewhere, someone you never met will die. The second you will receive a payment of one million dollars." Sounds great, but wait what was the first part? Oh, yeah, If I hit the button I'll kill someone. Heh. Must think this over to make the right decision........

    Norma tells her husband about this and he doesn't buy it in fact he kind of eggs her on until she reaches the point where she hits the button. They receive the money and all doesn't seem well. In fact it all boils down to NASA and Mr. Stewart. Let me just tell you it doesn't end well.

    Aside from this film being one total mindfuck, it's extremely well made and I have to admit I was slightly giddy by how nostalgic the filmmaking was because it has such a 1970's feel to it. I mean it literally screams the 70s but in a supernatural way like Spielberg's Close Encounters.

    My favorite scene would have to be the gateway scene where Arthur is in a library and he meets Mr. Stewarts wife who informs him to choose the one gateway for salvation. After he steps through there's this trippy sequence of blinding white light. That was cool. He's then hovering over his wife while she be in bed except he's in a pool of water which then shatters causing him and the water to fall to the bed. It floods much of the upstairs.
  • December 27, 2009
    a complete waste of 1 hr and 56 mins of my time
  • December 26, 2009
    Well this movie was kind of confusing but the movie was passable:P The man who came to bring the box to the family was creep-y... The story line was interesting but I really didn't want Marsden's character to be arrested at the end.

Critic Reviews


December 4, 2009
Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times

A lot of stuff about Nasa, Mars exploration and amateur theatre - Sartre's Huis Clos and its glowing chestnut adages ("Hell is other people") - add to the film's richness or, depending on opinion, its... full review

November 18, 2009
Armond White, The New York Press

Kelly, king of dumbed-down nihilism, takes a short Twilight Zone TV episode, "Button, Button," and extends it unendurably... full review

November 9, 2009
A.O. Scott, At the Movies

I think that Richard Kelly, from one film to the next, has gone in some very interesting and sometimes puzzling directions. full review

November 6, 2009
Kurt Loder, MTV

An overlong mess of a movie that's nevertheless eerie and unsettling. You walk away from it feeling befuddled, but definitely weirded-out. full review

November 6, 2009
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

If you make a preposterous movie that isn't boring, I count that as some kind of a triumph. full review

November 5, 2009
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Instead of sweeping you along, The Box just sits there like something unclaimed at lost and found. Damaged goods. full review

November 5, 2009
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

Kelly tries to gather so many ideas under this movie's umbrella: He has strong ideas about the necessity of compassion in everyday life. He wonders what awaits us after death. But he can't flesh out a... full review

November 5, 2009
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

Though his narrative's morality-play suspense and Bernard Herrmann-esque score recall Hitchcock, Kelly seems to have selected the '70s so that he can fully channel early-years Steven Spielberg. full review

View more The Box reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • CyberMew
    July 25, 2009
    check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrKnhOJ-R80, its of a similar concept .. Added: January 25, 2007, 11:49 AM
  • crustyjugglers
    April 3, 2008
    Bloody Hell! I want it soooooooooooo muuuuuuch! Richard Kelley is aaaaaawesome!

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The Box Trivia


  • This movie holds the record for the most weekends in the #1 spot at the box office.  Answer »
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