The Box (I)
by Richard Kelly, director of Donnie Darko
Cameron Diaz and Cyclops from X-Men are happily married with a kid in the 1970’s. Cyclops is a rocket scientist. They get The Box delivered to them by a fire-scarred Frank Langella. Should they push the button, winning themselves a million bucks and dooming a random citizen, “someone you don’t know,” to death? They do. Someone, somewhere, shoots his wife. The Box is then given to a new family, “someone you don’t know.” Movie should obviously end here, but now their son is kidnapped, made blind and deaf, and Cy can only save his son by shooting his wife. He does, as someone new pushes the button. Okay.
The Box (II)
by Richard Kelly, director of Southland Tales
Over at NASA, Cyclops takes time out from astronaut training to make his wife a false foot. He finds out Frank Langella was hit by lightning years before and replaced by a psychic alien from a society big on punishing the selfish and forcing people to make arbitrary, life-changing decisions, like the series of watery doors (cue The Abyss/Darko effects team) which lead to either hell or Cy’s own upstairs bedroom. NASA seems unconcerned with investigating any of this. Movie seems unnecessarily complicated and expensive, and parts make no damned sense.
Donnie’s dad!
I way did not notice that Arcade Fire did the music!
