The Box (2009)

The summary of The Box on IMDB is "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." This is also a rather succinct summary of the short story that The Box is based on: Richard Matheson's "Button, Button". Doesn't seem like much material for a full length movie. Instead of becoming a glorified extended episode of The Twilight Zone, Richard Kelly (director and writer of Donnie Darko) slowly warps and manipulates "Button, Button" into something entirely dissimilar. And much more interesting.

The Box is incredibly suspenseful. I watched it in bed one night with my boyfriend laying next to me. I kept having to pause the movie and I'd turn to him, "This is really scary. I'm really freaked out right now. This is really scary, etc." over and over. Now, I should say that I don't regularly enjoy horror movies and that I may have over reacted. However, even though I felt terrified for about 40 minutes of the film, I still really liked it. It was a kind of suspense that I don't normally experience with film, especially modern horror. It's also very weird. If you've seen Donnie Darko, The Box is very much in the same vein, both visually and dramatically. My only complaint would be the casting of Cameron Diaz, although her natural naivete is surprisingly fitting for a 1970's housewife. Frank Lagella is super creepy as Arlington Steward, the bearer of the box, so the acting isn't all bad.

Overall, I was really surprised with The Box and would recommend it to those looking for a suspenseful thrill ride that isn't typical of modern horror films.

Writing: 8/10
Acting: 6/10
Plot: 9/10
Visuals: 9/10

Pandorum (2009)

A lot of dudes recommended this movie to me, and I emphasize dudes because this is a very dude-ish film. The movie takes place after the Earth has been wrecked and ravaged of its resources and left uninhabitable. Two flight crew members wake up from suspended animation with no recollection of who they are, what their mission is, or how long they've been asleep. They are on Elysium, a 60,000 passenger sleeper ship on it's way to the Earth-like planet, Tanis. Bower (Ben Foster) and Payton (Dennis Quaid) plan to save the ship from certain doom while slowly discovering who they are, encountering flesh-eating humanoid creatures, and battling the onset of the psychological disorder, Pandorum.

The story is rather complex and engrossing for a fairly standard action/sci-fi movie. They mystery of exactly what is going on builds throughout the whole movie and Bower meets some interesting characters, including a hot, ass-kicking female scientist. It's entertaining. Visually, I find it a bit mundane and boring. Most of the movie takes place in darkness and much of the internal scenery of Elysium looks the same. The humanoid creatures aren't exactly creative looking, but they serve their purpose as the constant threat. What really makes the movie worth watching at all is, like so many sci-fi movies based on mystery, the ending. There is a powerful catharsis upon the final realization and that's what is going to make people recommend this movie to others. In reality, it's pretty unremarkable for its genre, but probably will appeal to a lot of dudes.

Writing: 5/10
Acting: 5/10
Plot: 7/10
Visuals: 4/10