The Box (2009)
Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. However pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world; someone they don't know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the cross-hairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.
Watch Trailer
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
The idea behind this movie isn't that bad, but Cameron Diaz overacts it completely. She isn't the right person to play a family mother who got moralic problems with making 1 million per sinful decision. It gets very bad at the end when the only thing you hear is her crying for minutes. As I said: Good idea, but a little more deepness and less overacting would have been nice.
The Box presents its protagonists, married couple Norma and Arthur Lewis (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden), with a moral dilemma: push the button on the mysterious box delivered to their doorstep and they will get a cool $1million, but someone they don't know will die. The pair struggle with their conscience, and then do exactly what I imagine many of us would do in a heartbeat: press that sucker and collect the cash. Yeah, baby — show me the money!Of course, things don't prove that easy for the couple: having made their decision and taken the dosh, it transpires that they were being tested by higher beings (aliens) who are using the box as a means to decide if the human race is altruistic enough to be allowed to continue. The Lewis's apparently bad decision condemns them to a hellish retribution that ultimately leads to a decision far more difficult than pushing a mere button.Anyone who has seen and been thoroughly confused by director Richard Kelly's cult classic Donnie Darko will no doubt be equally as perplexed by this pretentious, self-indulgent mess that had plenty of potential (it's based on a story by the excellent Richard Matheson), but which winds up being far less intriguing than its initial premise suggests. Matter transporting columns of water, a creepy bell-ringing Santa, and drone-like characters controlled by aliens ensue, none of which makes a lick of sense. If you're ever faced with the dilemma of watching The Box or not, I hope this review has made it easier for you to come to a decision.
Browsing through my Netflix choices I noted a five star rated movie starring Cameron Diaz. The movie was The Box. The film deals with themes of mutilation, losing faculty discount on your child's education, choosing to kill a stranger for a measly million dollars, bleeding noses, actors staring straight ahead. I stopped the Netflix film halfway through because it was not five stars. I had to finish it the next night to find out if the film answered any of the improbable questions it raised. No. It just got worse. More dilemmas were piled on Cameron and her husband. Why? No explanation. Just more drivel. I noted that the star rating on Netflix had dropped to 3 and a half stars. So what have I learnt. Netflix puts out a movie. Starts it on a top rating and lets it fall. Rubbish movie, rubbish film grading policy!
The Box is the only movie I have ever walked out of a movie theater during. I ended up watching and finishing it a few months later, and I regretted it. The ending did not at all match up to even the genre I was expecting for the ending. The trailer showed an entirely different movie than what I watched, and I was not pleased with the new plot lines and completely unexpected direction of the movie (not in a good way). I feel like the ending did not match the first half of the movie.