Teachers don’t get enough credit.  Luckily, there are movies out there that shine the light on this noble profession…but Bad Teacher ain’t one of ‘em.  This movie goes for the comedic jugular, and gives you a teacher that’s more like a kid in juvie than an adult in the teacher’s lounge.  Thank god.

The story is simple, if you’ve seen the trailer you know the deal.  Elizabeth Halsey is a nightmare with teaching creds.  She did as little as humanly possible her first year of teaching, then decided to blow off her job because of her upcoming marriage to a stinkin’ rich dude.  But the guy changes his mind, and Elizabeth finds herself back behind a desk, where her “teaching” consists of playing movies to her students.  All’s well — for Elizabeth, at least — ‘til she finds out that the teacher whose students score highest on standardized tests gets a huge bonus.  A bonus that would help her pay for her dream; huge boobs.  Then Elizabeth gets the kids motivated the best way she knows how, by threats and intimidation.

Writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (The Office, Year One) do a fantastic job of keeping things hilarious without hitting the embarrassing cringe-worthy territory.  A nice change, with so many other films going for the gross out.  No wait, it doesn’t pull any punches, but it’s vulgar without being nasty.  Or is it nasty without being vulgar?  Whatever.  All you need to know is that it works.  Gives me hope that the upcoming Ghostbusters III — yeah, that’s happening — will be worthy of the original with these two on board to pen the script.  Director Jake Kasdan knows how to handle a school story, having proved that in the incredible Freaks and Geeks, but with this film he brings the comedy front and center, focusing on the adults while the kids take a back seat.  I wouldn’t say the students are props, but the title should clue moviegoers in on the main focus of this movie.  It’s not on the kids…and it’s not for ‘em either.  And oh boy are they gonna want to hit this.  Cameron Diaz’s carwash scene alone will have tween and teen boys lining up.  But the heavy-duty pot smoking, nudity (not Cameron’s, btw) and “sexual content” — translation: dry-humping, tons of innuendo and a drugged-out character in a position that goes way past compromising — should have parents who want to restrict the young one’s viewing putting the house on lockdown.  For the rest of us?  It’s an absolute hoot and not to be missed.  You like your humor off-color but don’t want to feel like you need to scrub your eyes clean afterward?  You’ve come to the right place.

The actors are as good as the writing, mostly because the casting is fantastic.  Character actors well known for their willingness to do just about anything for a laugh are paired with bigger named stars that are totally game for whatever comes.  Christopher Guest “troupe member” John Michael Higgins plays Principal Snur, and the scene where he talks about his love of dolphins is a scream. The Office’s Phyllis Smith plays teacher/Elizabeth’s BFF Lynn Davies, and though it’s not a far cry from Phyllis Vance, the Odd Couple vibe between the two characters is perfect.  But it’s Thomas Lennon as Carl Halabi that is the real side-story treat.  As the guy who is in charge of Chicago’s standardized tests, he comes up against Elizabeth’s determination to win at all costs.  Let’s just say he puts his years as Lieutenant Jim Dangle in Reno 911! to good use.

Cameron Diaz outdoes herself in this role, showing that the comic timing that has served her well in The Sweetest Thing and There’s Something About Mary is no fluke.  She’s the super cool chick that amazes everyone, but that nobody actually wants to be.  Her Elizabeth is rude, mean spirited, self-centered and shallow.  She thinks nothing of insulting people to their faces, and believes a big chest is all she needs to get herself “set for life”.  Perhaps in another actress’ hands this character could come off as totally unlikeable, sinking the film.  But instead Elizabeth is a character you watch in slack-jawed amazement, hoping she’ll wise up even when she’s at her most vile.  Because here, vile equals hilarious, which also holds hope for redemption.  Hey, this is a comedy, it’s not Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

Justin Timberlake is a hoot as Scott Delacorte, quite possibly the whitest dude in the city of Chicago and the object of Elizabeth’s determination.  Love between the two?  Not so much.  Though JT’s performance is something to adore.  Bonus points for his performance of Scott’s cringetastic song “Simpatico”, which had me hoping he’d team up with The Lonely Island on SNL again soon.  Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, How I Met Your Mother)  plays P.E. teacher Russell Gettis, and he has his likeable game face on, persistently following Elizabeth around hoping she’ll give in and date him instead of Scott.  Russell sees something in Elizabeth that she doesn’t see in herself, and as he starts up a friendship with her, you can see her let her guard down, making her a much more interesting (and dare I say likeable) character.  If Scott is Elizabeth’s Ashley, Russell is her Rhett.  And Lucy Punch’s too-sweet Amy Squirrel would be Melanie, the woman that could stand in Elizabeth’s way.

Love triangle?  Nope.  It’s not even a rivalry; consider it more of a competition to see who one-ups the other.  Elizabeth and Amy’s fight to come out on top twists and turns, moving the story along one hilarious battle  at a time.  It’s just the sort of all-out craziness that would get them both banned from a real teaching gig, but in Bad Teacher I just wished I had someone like Elizabeth when I was in school, if only for the sheer entertainment value it would have added to  the experience.

And while I’m at it, might as well give a shout-out to Mickey Avalon’s reboot of Billy Squire’s “Stroke Me”, the badass song you’re hearing over the trailer for Bad Teacher.  It’s just like this film; crazy, raunchy and too cool for school.

The storyline is one we have seen before but the way in which it was written came together in a very easy way. A newspaper head dies, his/her son takes over the empire, finds out some missing information, corrupt cops and the like. But we have no dull moments, nothing too in your face, just the right amount of action and comedy thrown in.

Christoph Waltz gives us another performance worthy of an award. No not really, but he plays a villain that makes me cringe with dumb chills. An aging villain who we see having a mid life crisis and having ti reinvent himself. Kato is a great sidekick and possibly rank’s up there with John from Chips! Britt himself is a mystery that we don’t dive into too much besides his part boy exterior breaking down into a bad ass journalist of sorts.

This movie is a must see in my opinion for the shear joy factor alone.

Blu-ray will be sitting on my shelf for sure and I can only hope that the re-watch value is one of great fun!

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

If there’s one thing that has significantly changed the landscape of escapist filmmaking, it’s the move away from star-driven vehicles to franchise driven ones.  Special effects, easily branded imagery and familiar rhythms are the elements that sell an audience on a franchise. Often there is a lack of energy and unpredictability that comes as a result of this trade-off. Filmmakers aren’t eager to break that contract with the viewer that promises what they are going to get is what they paid to see. Unfortunately, for the movie going audience, what we often get are pictures where the leads could be interchangeable.

Even in Avatar, which falls outside of my complaints above, Jake Sully could have been played by literally anybody. There was a time, even not so awfully long ago, when popcorn films were structured around actors and, more specifically, movie stars. Many years ago it was Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart standing in as their own special effects and providing emotional pyrotechnics. Now, in James Mangold’s effortlessly fun new summer fling, Knight and Day, a newly recharged Tom Cruise and a playful Cameron Diaz remind how much a good set of actors can really bring to the table.

The film they are in is completely ridiculous, although significantly less so than the battiness of The A-Team or the solemn absurdity of Robin Hood. With Cruise as Roy Miller, an agent who’s maybe gone round the bend, and Diaz as the hapless young woman who falls into his orbit. Knight opens in an airport, moves onto a doomed airplane, careens down a large stretch of highway, and barrels through Austria on a train. Towards the end, all of the main players, incljuding the villainous Fitzgerald (Peter Skarsgaard), are chasingeach other through Spain, in search of  a powerful device known mysteriously as the Zephyr. As is wont to happen in movies like this one, Roy and June are forced to flee on a motorcycle, with Diaz wrapped firmly around Cruise, as they careeen in between the running of the bulls, with the bovine brutes trampling up and over speeding cars. I would have rolled my eyes, but by this point we’ve already watched Roy fall off a motorcycle and onto the hood of a vehicle, spraying machine gun fire down the freeway as other cars fly through air past his head.

All of the action scenes have a kind of gee-whiz, tongue-in-cheek quality to them. We aren’t supposed to take them seriously or have them jar the back of our skull loose. They have been so skillfully constructed to reveal the seams, that we can only conclude–following the smirking lead of Cruise–that we are meant to be amused by them, and to laugh at the over-the-top nature of it all. Either way, it doesn’t matter much. Unlike the crunch and munch of Michael Bay’s insanely loud and depressingly stupid blockbusters, James Mangold’s movie pops, snaps and zings it’s way to the finish line, like a pinball machine with real human beings at the center.

As I said up front, this movie stands or falls based on what Cruise and Diaz can bring to the table. Here, they bring alot. They make Roy and June not deep people, but realistic enough that we can connect with them, and once that happens, everything including the big explosions has a little more bite and kick to it.

 Tom Cruise comes out of the gate smirking here, and every nod of the head, half-smile, or sideways glance has been calibrated to remind his fans of an image of the Cruiser we haven’t seen in awhile. This isn’t the odd, egomaniacal persona that alienated fans a few years ago, but is much closer to the more self confident, but not self-absorbed, Cruise that did Mission Impossible. Diaz has a really appealing and straightforward quality that shines in the character of June. Together, they are both made better and they sell the angle that these two characters would be drawn to one another, even as the rest of the world seems intent on killing them.

A modern action movie might not require us to believe in any kind of a bond between characters who are on the run and are required by the script to face off with the villain at the end, and achieve a happy resolution. In the end, though, I’m thankful that Knight and Day does. It’s the best big budget, live action film to heat the theaters so far this summer and I hope it finds the audience it deserves.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

“I want to go to there” to quote the great Liz Lemon that’s exactly how I feel after watching the trailer for Michel Gondry’s blockbuster. I don’t want to run this point through the ground but Michel Gondry (director of such art house classics as Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind) doesn’t make blockbusters and after watching this trailer you can’t help but feel like you’re seeing a bizarro Iron Man (directed by regular Jon Favreau). I hope that this film just proves how great a director Gondry really is, able to give us beautiful artsy films as well as this mainstream production, a much more difficult task than one might think. Then there’s our star Seth Rogen, who looks very comfortable in this role (which I found surprising) even delivering a very Seth Rogen line such as “I want you to take my hand. I want you to come with me on this adventure.” which could have come from any Seth Rogen film to date (Pineapple Exress, Knocked Up, Observe and Report). We don’t see enough of Christoph Waltz’ character and we probably see all we need to see of Cameron Diaz who looks like she’s impersonating Gwyneth Paltrow from the Iron Man series… oh well, you can’t have it all. Anyway, I cannot wait to see The Green Hornet when it’s released in theaters January 14, 2011! Enjoy the trailer-

After finding love (Shrek), meeting the parents (Shrek 2), and becoming a father (Shrek the Third), the beloved Shrek has arrived at the inevitable realization of getting his happily ever after — a life filled with love, laughter, friends, family — and repetition.  What he wouldn’t give to have one more day as a snarling and feared ogre who wreaks havoc on the townspeople.  In Shrek Forever After opening this weekend, his wishes are granted.   Shrek (Mike Myers: Austin Powers, Wayne’s World), Donkey (Eddie Murphy: Norbit, Trading Places), Fiona (Cameron Diaz: Vanilla Sky, The Mask), Puss (Antonio Banderas: Desperado, Interview with a Vampire), and the rest of the Far Far Away gang return to help our hero realize that what you wish for, may not always be what you want.

In this installment of the franchise, Shrek longs for the days of old and makes a deal with the vertically-challenged Rumpelstiltskin (voiced fittingly and hilariously by Walt Dohrn) to have one day to roam again as the ogre he remembers from his pre-marriage and family days.  No cares in the world, swamp bathing on his own schedule, and terrorizing villagers with his roar — a day of bliss.  Shrek blindly signs a contract with the double-dealing dwarf who’s smart enough to find loopholes in even the Ten Commandments.  Turns out the fine print in Shrek’s deal is he has to pay for the wish by giving up a day from his past.  Rumpel takes the day Shrek was born to erase the future where he saves and falls in love with Fiona.  With Shrek out of the way, one of Rumpel’s previous deals over Fiona’s fate pays off.  Rumpel becomes ruler of Far Far Away land and guarded by an army of witches, led by a trio of hipsters (TV’s Meredith Vieira, Kathy Griffin & Mary Kay Place), rules with an iron fist while hunting ogres day and night to ensure nothing can spoil his Napoleonic reign.   When Shrek arrives in this warped future, all he wants is to find his family and friends and get his old life back. The problem is, no one knows him.  Fiona is now leader of the ogre resistance and Donkey, his previous constant compadre, has been reduced to a pulling mule for wicked witches.  To add insult to injury, Shrek only gets to exist in this version of Far Far Away land for one day.  At the end of the day, his wish ends and Rumpel’s day is cashed in — Shrek will have never been.  With only one day to right what was wrong, a challenging and wild ride await our hero.  Regaining the trust and love from Fiona, Donkey and his friends proves ultimately and intimately — he didn’t know what he had until it was gone.  Forced to prove his love for Fiona again while getting re-accustomed to Donkey’s unique personality, teaches him a lesson we can all see in our lives whether we’re 15 or 40.  Family and friends is the true happily ever after.

This film was just a pure joy to watch.  The filmmaker (Director Mike Mitchell: Sky High) and writer’s (Josh Klausner & Darren Lemke: TV’s Lost and Date Night) spin gold with their ability to incorporate common folklore and childhood fairytales into the films storylines.  Who would have thought the Pied Piper of Hamlin could ever be used as a bounty hunter?  Seeing the Gingerbread Man as a Roman gladiator ensconced in a makeshift coliseum filled with charging animal crackers — the film is just laugh-out-loud inventive.  Rumpel steals the show with his charm and seething undertones while convincing hapless victims to sign contracts.  Not to be left out, Donkey gets a great stint as a car radio, forced to deal with constant swaps of the radio dial and switching his style of singing with each flick.  I’m certain Eddie Murphy relished every opportunity to stretch his vocal cords and belt out a few tunes (anybody remember his 1986 hit “Party All The Time?”)  In the end, Shrek Forever After is a fantastic family film with story and visual imagery to appeal to all ages in the family.   Like its predecessors, it even manages to rehash classic pop tunes from the years in whimsical and hip sounding ways.

You might be wondering why there’s been no mention of eye-popping 3D images.  Don’t worry, the 3D is top notch, and like Alice In Wonderland  (2010), it’s like watching a film through an old 1980’s ViewMaster; no blatant ‘in your face’ shots or clichéd sword scenes.  The truth is, the film doesn’t need it.  It’s characters, concept and storyline execution transcend the need to give it 3D visualization.  This sudden rush by studios to give you everything in 3D (ticket prices providing twice the revenue) is wasted on this film.  Some current film makers are even fighting the trend – Director M. Night Shyamalan refused Disney Studio bosses push to turn “The Last Airbender,” his upcoming July 4^th blockbuster, into a 3D print.  The almighty coin rules all in Tinseltown, and as principled as he might be, I wouldn’t be surprised to see ‘Airbender’ on 3D when it hits BluRay.  The Shrek filmmakers did give you some hidden 3D treats though, you’ll have to look in the foreground of Shrek’s entry into the soiled and dirty Far Far Away Land — there’s a nice jab at Disney Studios (even more blatant than Jeffrey Katzenberg, part owner of Dreamworks Pictures that owns the Shrek franchise, modeling the look of the Shrek character after his ex-boss former Disney CEO Michael Ovitz.)  I saw at least two others throughout the film, but you have to look quick!  I’m certain there are even more.   Email me if you spotted one or want the few I found.

Shrek Forever After (2010) is rated PG for mild action, some rude humor and brief language.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Good morning all. Welcome back to the Atomic DVD Shelf.

Last week we kicked off the column with a look at Halo:Legends, Black Dynamite and more. If you missed it, check it out. This week, there’s an even greater number of new films, and overall the quality is better.

There are some definite disappointments here and a few that never stood the chance of being good, but amidst that, there’s more than a few gems hiding out in this week’s lot. Let’s begin shall we?

The Box

Nate’s rating:

Rating: ★★½☆☆ 

When I reviewed this one for AP back in the fall, I was accused of giving away the film’s secret; whether or not Cameron Diaz and James Marsden pushed the button. Well, it’s no secret to tell you that this concept, which drove the short story it was based off, isn’t the big revelation The Box has in store. We know from the beginning what will happen and in the first 30 minutes that question is answered. Unfortunately, all of the  best bits are in that first hour and tied to the very basic premise. Once the button is pushed (gasp!) Kelly’s story spirals out into insanity. This one feels like a real missed opportunity, and it’s going to infuriate some and intrigue a few who will pursue it begrudgingly. I gave it a passing grade back then because I liked more  than I disliked. However, now that its hit dvd, I’ve got no real desire to revisit it.  For those that refuse to give up on Richard Kelly and think Donnie Darko was more than a fluke, there a few good special features provided for your diligence.

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

Nate’s rating:

Rating: ★½☆☆☆ 

I’m a pretty forgiving guy when it comes to fantasy adventure films. Especially ones aimed for the family audience; for my taste, there simply aren’t enough good ones. So it  takes a lot for me to admit when one falls flat. However, that’s exactly what happens with Cirque Du Freak. The story is tragically thin and relatively lame and John C. Reilly, usually so good, is horribly miscast. There are a ton of cameos in the film, which is apparently based off a reasonably popular children’s book series. All of them are wasted and fail to generate any interest. There’s not a single character to root for, and not one supernatural ability that makes sense or causes us to consider what we ourselves would do if we had it. The plot details are also suspect; there’s an ancient clan of bloodsucking beings called Vampinese? Really, Vampinese? Yes, really. The best I can muster for this is that it isn’t as bad as Twilight.

Check out Marco’s AP review of the movie over here.

Crude

Nate’s rating:

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Joe Berlinger’s Crude is a captivating, frustrating and sometimes legitimately sad documentary. I bow to Berlinger’s ability to be both even handed and indicting while evoking imagery that is haunting and sickening. The sequences that show the Amazon forests of Ecuador reduced to sludgy waste by corporate drilling will stick with you even you don’t happen to be an environmentalist. The rest of the picture follows a court battle between the Ecuadorians who have filed a lawsuit against Chevron for the hazardous by-product of their oil drilling. It isn’t the destruction of nature alone they are arguing against; it’s the fact that the water they drank and bathed in was contaminated by oil spillage. This legal stand-off is still going on today and Berlinger’s camera is privy to both sides. Get ready for a pensive but provocative look at a people trying to make their voice heard in the shadow of a giant.

Sorority Row

Nate’s rating:

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

Sorority Row is exactly 10 years too late to be worth regarding. Back in 1999, it still would have come off as late to the party, following up Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and even Urban Legends. This movie, whose best feature is a haggard Carrie Fisher as an axe toting sorority mother, is a hodgepodge concoction of all those other flicks. It throws in a few 80′s sensibilities, but mostly any signs of intelligence or individuality have been drained from it. It could have been much worse than it is, though. The proof of that is in last week’s Cabin Fever 2 which featured flesh eating viruses at the Prom and was far more indigestible than this. Here, the directors are at least sensible enough to keep it to a college campus with the tried and true slasher. There’s something to be said for tradition sometimes. Watchable, especially if you are a horror fan with a free Red Box rental.

The Informant!

Nate’s review:

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

AP rating:

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

I love this movie and it’s mostly thanks to a really versatile and nuanced performance by Matt Damon. It isn’t just that Damon disappears completely into the role of Mark Whitacre, a hapless biochemist who wants to help the FBI blow the lid on the shady company he works for.  No, it’s as much what Damon does with Whitacre once he’s nailed all the character quirks and banal personality traits. He subtly and perfectly calibrates the change this man goes through over the course of the film. And if you think this is a stuffy affair concerned only with attacking big business, you’d be wrong. It’s really funny, with a nice dose of honest-to-goodness sarcasm floating right there on top. The supporting cast is also off-kilter but really effective. I enjoyed Scott Bakula’s agent the best of the second tier players. This is Soderbergh in a lighter tone, but not so light that we’re talking Ocean’s Eleven. If you ask me, it’s his best work since Traffic. Well worth seeing.

Read Marco’s take right here and John’s here.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

Nate’s rating:

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

I’ve given myself over to the fact we will probably never see a live action Justice League film in my lifetime. I had hope when George Miller was linked to the project, but these days it’s probably better off that the idea is languishing in development hell somewhere. Until then, the comic-collecting 8 yr old inside will have to make due with DC’s direct-to-dvd animated features. That, as it turns out, isn’t such a bad thing. The last Justice League movie was actually a lot of fun, with clear, crisp animation that brought back fond memories of Fleischer’s Superman shorts and the 1990′s Batman animated series. Crisis on Two Earths is just about as good as the first one, this time focusing on the crime fighters tussle with warriors from an alternate dimension.The villains there are Batman and Superman, and their greatest weapon against their counterparts is the fact they will do what the originals cannot; kill. Perfectly fun, with a less violent story than the previous outing. If you’re a DC fan, a comic fan, or even a passing fan of any of the heroes featured, give this one a whirl. Among the really good special features is an absolute gem; a short animated film about The Spectre! Easily the best bit on the disc.

Nate’s Pick of the Week: The Damned United

Nate’s rating:

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

This isn’t strictly speaking, just a sports/soccer/football movie. Granted, the football scenes are realized in a wonderfully kinetic and gritty style, but they are not the lifeblood of this picture or it’s focus. That’s for the best, because without the centerpiece being the sport or the team or the formula, Damned United is freed up to just be a damned good movie. Michael Sheen goes ahead and gives another really strong performance as Brian Clough and Timothy Spall as his assistant and Colm Meany as his rival ground and support him. There’s a ton of ego flying around on the field and when Clough and Taylor start to turn on one another, United is nothing less than riveting.

Thanks again for joining us as we pick through the cinema jungle of home entertainment. Next week, we get to go Where the Wild Things Are, and visit Ponyo, Cold Souls, and Alice.

If you push the button on the titular box in Richard Kelly’s new sci-fi opus, two things will undoubtedly happen. The first is that somewhere in the world, a person you do not know will die. The second is that after pushing the button, you will receive a briefcase filled with 1 million U.S. dollars delivered to your home by one Arlington Steward, who looks a bit like Scrooge meets the Phantom of the Opera. If you watch the film The Box, two things will very likely happen. You will be drawn in by a moody, compelling and well-acted 45-minute set-up. And then you will be completely flummoxed by a preposterous, barely cohesive and frustrating second half. The question ahead is clear. Are the initial pleasures substantial enough to warrant enduring the resulting flaws? Let’s look at the facts.

Kelly’s The Box opens in 1976 with the button device being delivered mysteriously to the doorstep of Norma(Cameron Diaz) and Arthur Lewis (James Marsden). Later that day, the box’s creator, Arlington Steward, shows up and pitches to Norma the aforementioned proposal regarding the rules of the button. Steward warns Norma of two other stipulations of the deal; he cannot reveal the identity of his employers and neither she nor her husband may tell anyone else about the arrangement, the box or Steward’s visit. He leaves the box in their care and says that he will return in 24 hours to pick it back up. They have until then to push — or not push — the button.

The Lewises are a caring and tight-knit family unit; no strangers to selflessness and sacrifice for those they love. Arthur works at NASA and his career goal is to eventually become an astronaut on the Mars Mission, while Norma is a high school English teacher. On the same day that Steward visits them, Norma is denied tuition reimbursement and Arthur learns of his rejection from the space program. Financially strapped, and faced with compromises to their future plans, one of them predictably pushes the button. They get the money, the box is taken away, and they are left with the consequences of their actions.

Up until that point, Kelly’s movie is firing on all cylinders. The costume and set designs that resurrect the kitschy nightmare of 1970s fashions and the fresh mystique of the NASA space program are without blame and create a curious texture that works for this film in the same way that the 80′s setting worked for Kelly’s Donnie Darko. Henry Mancini-esque score is a strange and archaic piece that evokes with precision The Twilight Zone qualities and pedigree of The Box, which is based on a Matheson short story that also appeared as an episode in that classic series.

The acting is surprisingly strong, especially from Diaz who really embodies Norma as a caring and compassionate woman who has made an uncharacteristically monstrous decision in a moment of weakness. She internalizes the central moral dilemma of the box in a way that the rest of the film fails to do. Marsden, so often the nice guy in the background, gets the opportunity to play that role front and center here and his mannered approach keeps everything from flying completely off the rails, at least until the film’s off-the-wall third act. As Arlington Steward, Langella is the most effective and imposing member of the cast. His presence, including his fearsome, fire-ravaged visage, is appropriately sinister and unnerving.

However, once the film moves beyond the confines of that original concept — even as a 30-minute Zone episode it was stretched to its narrative limits — I began to lose interest and investment in the characters and their ordeal. Much like Kelly’s previous features, the splendid Darko and the bafflingly awful Southland Tales, The Box introduces more ideas, characters and plot points than can be easily resolved or even satisfyingly explored within its running time.

After they push the button, the Lewises encounter strange, dead-eyed people wandering around their house and inexplicable nosebleeds in trusted friends and acquaintances.The NSA has set up shop at Arthur’s work and the movie begins creating a startlingly convoluted connection between Steward’s behavior, the philosophies of Jean Paul Sartre and the possibilities of life on the Martian surface. To add extra confusion, those strange sentient water structures from Darko show-up here, visualizing Sartre’s views on human nature and reflective consciousness. Kelly draws us back to the original set-up in a downbeat but powerful final sequence, but he never justifies or explains all the oddball science fiction that clogs up the film’s center sections.

So, is The Box successful as an entertainment? It certainly is bold and it strives for originality and thoughtfulness. As a suspense picture, it works well enough in the early going. However, it would be dishonest of me to suggest that it pulls all of its pieces together in a way that drives home its moral suppositions. They just aren’t supported by the plot or its delivery. Strangely, this will matter more to some than others. I fully expect to hear a negative reaction from the majority of filmgoers, but there may be those who embrace The Box because it is ambitious and they will latch on to all that the film gets right.

When I was asked last night after the screening, I responded that the film didn’t quite work for me. After spending some time chewing it over, and discussing the central question at its heart with others, I realize that in some small ways the film does its job and maybe it just got under my skin. It is possible then that, flaws and all, it may also get under yours.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

After months of teasing movie-goers with the working title of Wichita, Twentieth Century Fox has announced Knight and Day as the real title of the action-comedy starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

According to the official press release for the film, production is underway on the new film, which is currently being shot in Massachusetts, but will also have scenes filmed in Spain, Austria, the tropics, and other international locations.

Cruise and Diaz will be working alongside director James Mangold, who co-wrote the movie, as well as actors Peter Sarsgaard, Viola Davis, Paul Dano, and Olivier Martinez.

Knight and Day follows a fugitive couple, played by Cruise and Diaz, as they are pursued across the globe in the midst of ever-changing alliances and unexpected betrayals. At times glamorous, at times life-threatening, the couple’s adventure leads them to encounter situations that aren’t what they seem, and people who aren’t who they claim.

Knight and Day is slated for a release date of July 2nd, 2010 as a result of Twentieth Century Fox/New Regency co-production efforts.