doveed

This movie started out as a short film. Then someone suggested to me that this could become an anthology feature film, where the box appears in each story. I liked that idea, so I decided to go for it.

The first story I wrote and shot was DINNER & DRINKS. From that concept, the rest of the movie evolved. I would write a story, shoot it, edit it, look at what we had, and then decide what the next move was.

As I wrote the script, the story started revealing ideas about the cosmic significance of the number eleven. I'm not a numerologist and that idea isn't what brought me down that path, but there must be something to it because the movie took eleven years to make!

The end result is a well-paced, well-shot, and overall reasonably well-acted low-budget sci-fi movie. The process of writing different stories and tying them altogether was a real exercise and that's where most of my criticism is. It's not bad writing, but I was so focused on driving the story in a specific direction that I didn't allow the characters to come full bloom. Therefore I think the writing, at times, is lacking in personality.

If I were to shoot this again, it might be a little more risky and visually dynamic. Visually, this was inspired by filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick - classic, somewhat slow, but purposeful. To see that style applied to a B-level sci-fi movie is interesting, but I don't think I would do that again.

All in all, I'm proud of making it to the finish line. It's always a great accomplishment when a person can complete a feature film under strained circumstances. And it's also a sense of pride to get distribution through a well-known company like Gravitas Ventures.

This is my second feature film and it's better than my first. My first movie is a very raw effort - a western called DEFIANCE that was distributed through Lionsgate. I learned a lot from making THE BOX, I'm moving in the right direction, and now it's time to move on to the next one!

Some things about this movie I loved a lot. Other things I didn't really know how to process. There was about 45 minutes that could have been cut out. All of QT's movies are self-indulging, but this was a little different. It was unique, but not very clever. Some things happened a little too easily. Surprise ending? I saw it coming. Even when I don't completely connect with a QT movie, I usually respect that he hits the mark he was going for. But this one might have been a little left of the bull's eye. As I mentioned, there's a lot to appreciate and it was a fun ride. With another viewing, I might kick it up to 8 stars, or possibly down to 6. I'm not completely sure how I feel about this one.

The question is this: Who was dumb enough to give these amateurs the money to make this horrible movie? To call this a cliche boxing movie would be an insult to all of the cliche boxing movies out there. It's hard to identify all of the individual areas where this movie suffers, because everything about it was bad. If you are an aspiring filmmaker, you'll draw inspiration from this. Because if these filmmakers are capable of making a movie that is prominently featured on Netflix, so can you. To give you an idea of how bad this movie is - one of the actors portrays Sylvester Stallone. This particular actor was a very overweight man with pock marked skin and a heavy east coast accent. I don't mean to be insulting, but he looked nothing like Stallone and it was preposterous to watch. I'm genuinely embarrassed for everyone attached to this project. This movie is about Chuck Wepner, "the underdog who went the distance with Muhammad Ali." The only problem with this point is that Ali TKO'd Wepner in the final round of their 1975 fight. Do your homework, fellas.