47
Metascore
24 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMiami HeraldRene RodriguezThe Box is a mess, but it's a curiously haunting, intriguing, brain-tickling mess, and it delivers that "Donnie Darko" feeling in truckloads. Or should that be rocketloads?
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThis movie kept me involved and intrigued, and for that I'm grateful. I'm beginning to wonder whether, in some situations, absurdity might not be a strength.
- 60Film ThreatFilm ThreatThe revelation of the film's mystery just barely makes sense. Yet, we dismiss it as an extended MacGuffin, and thus can delight in the film's devious turns.
- 50VarietyVarietyKelly's trademark mix of sci-fi, surrealism and suburbia occasionally entertains.
- 50Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversWhat a shame that Kelly's pacing doesn't run as fast as his imagination. Instead of sweeping you along, The Box just sits there like something unclaimed at lost and found. Damaged goods.
- 50The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisSincere and sinister and inevitably ambitious, a serious work that insists on its own seriousness even when it edges toward the preposterous.
- 50SalonStephanie ZacharekSalonStephanie ZacharekKelly is devoted to telling his stories visually -- except when he's not. And the second half of The Box, unfortunately, underscores everything Kelly, as a filmmaker, wants to be and just can't.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttAn artistic fiasco that cuts across genre lines and all logic to become, perhaps, an instant midnight movie.
- 38USA TodayClaudia PuigUSA TodayClaudia PuigThe characters in The Box are like cardboard cutouts: Some have "foolish victim" labeled on them, and others fall into the category of absurdly creepy villain.
- 30Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyLos Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyWhat the plot doesn't decimate, the film's slower-than-a-clogged-drain pacing does. Sadly, this is one box that's just not worth picking up off the porch, much less opening, not even for a million dollars.