When I heard they were making a movie out of the awesome Twilight Zone episode Button, Button, I was delighted and confused. The episode is great, a meditation on greed and selfishness, with a haunting twist ending. But, I asked myself, how do you stretch that into a movie? Well, it turns out that the movie The Box extends the story to answer the question the original never did: where the box came from. Personally, that seemed to me a mystery not to be solved, but I could see where you could get some traction with it. Anyway, turns out the whole thing was a failed exercise. Movie’s getting bad reviews, but it sounds like the problem is not with the premise, but with the director. Richard Kelly, the writer and director of The Box, is being widely panned. Seems like his career will end up peaking at Donnie Darko, which was a great film.
On a side note, it turns out that the Twilight Zone episode was based on a short story by Richard Matheson that had a completely different plot and ending. Not bad. Both, I think, have their merits, but I prefer the TV version. The original short story is a little too close to The Monkey’s Paw.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="43036 ">1 Comment
That episode had the BEST ENDING EVER…"Someone you don't know."
Great stuff.
I had mixed feelings about this when I saw the trailer since I couldn't imagine how you could extend it into an action movie. Plus, when I figured they changed the twist I was incensed. Oddly enough I feel better knowing the film is being panned. Guess that's Schadenfreude for you.