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Science Fiction - The Box Blu-ray and DVD Special Edition

BLU-RAY ONLY VERSION AT AMAZON
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The Box Blu-ray – DVD Special Edition
Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella
Directed by Richard Kelly
Based on a short story by Richard Matheson
Warner Home Entertainment 2010
115 minutes

The best thing about The Box is the garish wallpaper probably chosen by Trading Spaces’ Hildi (the one who did the straw room). This 6-page short story stretched to a painfully boring 2 hours that do not resolve anything or answer the two big questions it posits: What the f@ck? and Why am I watching this? Only the director will ever know what the hell is going on in this wannabe speculative fiction thriller. The Box Special Edition features both the Blu-ray and DVD versions with the DVD including a digital copy but not the special features.

Cameron Diaz and James Marsden are the Lewises, a yuppie couple. A mysterious man  with a deeply scarred face (Langella) leaves a box at their doorstep and then reveals the box’ purpose: push the button and you get a million dollars but someone you do not know dies. The Box spends a good half hour re-re-explaining this.

The Lewises then learn the box and its offer will next be presented to someone they do not know and soon forget that part of the deal. Meanwhile, director Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) inserts a weird looking character every fifteen or so minutes for no apparent reason and weird and creepy stuff happens for the same reason.

If the plot needs to move along, Kelly just forces a scene that will do that such as when the lady tells Norma to go to the library.

You do get a couple of answers late into the movie but by then who cares. The Box is just a variation on a sci-fi idea already overused by the time the original Star Trek rolled around and reused in the pilot for TNG.

Special features on the Blu-ray include a director’s commentary track that only proves Richard Kelly can’t keep a straight thought in his head, never mind on screen. There’s also the usual special effects featurettes and music clips.