The Box
(2009/Warner Blu-ray w/DVD + DVD)
Picture:
C+/C Sound: B-/C+ Extras: D Film: D
Richard
Kelly seemed to be on his way as an important director with Donnie Darko (several versions reviewed
elsewhere on this side), but by second-guessing himself and maybe taking bad
advice, his work since (including as producer) has all been downhill. This includes a horrid quick-buck Darko sequel called S. Darko (we covered that
one too) and the over-simplistic, dated on arrival Southland Tales which was not that good when finished or dated to
begin with. Now comes The Box, an amazingly, sadly inept
adaptation of the great Richard Matheson’s story Button, Button. This version will have you pushing the off
button on your system within minutes.
Cameron
Diaz (the once promising star with a southern accent so bad, she’d flunk a
Beverly Hillbillies/Elly May audition) plays a mother and teacher who one day
is visited by a man (Frank Langella, repeating his Ninth Gate performance, more or less) brings her a box (she
received a note this man was coming with the box earlier) and is told she’ll
get a $1 Million if she presses the button inside. He has the key. The catch is someone she does not know will
die. Here NASA scientist/husband (James
Marsden) is also intrigued when finally finding out, but all is not as easy as
it seems and the more they consider doing it, the worst things get.
There are
several major errors in the making of this film that doomed it from the start,
the least of which is Cameron’s bad performance made sitcom by Celia Weston
(the Linda Lavin Alice TV show)
appearing as a friend with a more authentic southern accent. Kelly adaptation and directing tries to put
his stamp on a Matheson work and this backfires because he is not the giant thinker
in the genre history, storytelling or filmmaking Matheson is, so that was
foolish. Then it tries to add surreal
elements that seem like something bad out of a recycled 1980s Sci-Fi/Horror
film with no point, including mysterious things happening that we are supposed
to understand but only Kelly understands, therefore rendering them dumb.
The
ending is desperate, the result is miles away from the original source and in
the end, Kelly is lost in a self-imposed twilight zone of bad filmmaking. Matheson has been disappointed by many of his
stories adapted into film and TV projects.
This is one of the weakest to date.
For the record, it was originally filmed as one of the few notable
episodes of the 1980s Twilight Zone
revival series and was most impressive as a 1974 installment of the classic
radio drama series The CBS Radio Mystery Theater hosted by E. G. Marshall under
the name The Chinaman Button. Try those versions instead.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is much softer than expected with bad,
phony color, bad depth and detail issues that can make it a very trying
viewing, made worse in the anamorphically enhanced DVD versions (one is
included with the Blu-ray) with all those troubles, more softness and poor
Video Black. Director of Photography Steven
Poster, A.S.C., is able to do compositions well as he did on Donnie Darko, but is a great cameraman
and this is not his best work either, hampered by shooting the whole thing in
the quickly dating Panavision Genesis 4K HD camera.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the Blu-ray is also on the weak
side, with dialogue that is not always recorded well, surrounds only engaged
for music and some sound effects and an inconsistent soundfield. The Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD versions is
weaker and dialogue in all cases can be too monophonic for its own good.
Extras
include Richard Matheson – In His Own
Words interview piece in all editions, while the Blu-ray adds feature-length
audio commentary tracks by Kelly, Music Video prequels (?), Visual Effects Revealed, The Box: Grounded In Reality making-of
featurette and Digital Copy for PC and PC portable devices.
- Nicholas Sheffo
