Customer Reviews

The Kovak Box

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Timothy Hutton plays a Science Fiction author who, although he has written many novels, is best known for his first book about a song that haunted him. The song returns with a vengeance in the film and it is up to him to find a way to stop it from killing others. This was a nice tight thriller with fine acting by Hutton and David Kelly who may be familiar from Charlie and the Chocolate factory or Waking Ned Devine. It kept me guessing until the end (which is fairly hard to do). The background of beautiful Mediterranian locations make this a great movie to help escape from the summer heat.

Timothy Hutton plays David Norton, a successful sci-fi writer who is invited to speak at a conference in Majorca. While enjoying the amenities he takes the opportunity to propose to his girlfriend, but their celebratory evening is cut short after Norton finds a DVD on the bed, which is found to contain some disturbing material. While he ponders the strange gift, she receives a mysterious call on her cell phone and decides that she

"Might as well jump. jump !
Might as well jump.
Go ahead, jump. jump !
Go ahead, jump." *

Simultaneously, Silvia (Lucia Jimenez) awakens after an evening of carousing with a friendly disc jockey, and while she is in the shower she is interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone, the caller ID reading "Gloomy Sunday". The next thing she knows, she's thinking

"Might as well jump. jump !
Might as well jump.
Go ahead, jump. jump !
Go ahead, jump." *

She awakens in hospital, and learns that she has jumped off the balcony in an apparent suicide attempt, foiled by the fortunate placement of a canvas awning, more suited to catching the rays of the sun than falling nudes.

At the hospital she sees the grief-stricken David, and realizes that something is terribly wrong on the island. Sure enough, a rash of unexplained suicides erupts, and after she is attacked by a hypodermic wielding man, the two join forces to solve the mystery. The trail leads them to Frank Kovak, a scientist given to creative experimentation, and subsequently to Norton becoming a leading character straight out one of his books.

After a slow start, this film picks up nicely, and although Timothy Hutton is an unlikely choice for a leading man in an action film, his co-star Jimenez more than makes up for his shortcomings. David Kelly does not quite master the "evil villain" role, but manages to personify an extremely sinister and creepy old coot with an almost visible aura of rottenness hanging in the air around him.

The movie draws largely from an urban legend about a depressing Hungarian song re-titled "Gloomy Sunday" (sung in the movie by Heather Nova, but also covered by Billie Holiday, Paul Robeson, Mel Tormé, Sinead O'Connor, Sarah McLachlan and others), said song being more than enough to make you think that you

"Might as well jump. jump !
Might as well jump.
Go ahead, jump. jump !
Go ahead, jump." *

The premise has been handled better in other movies, but once you get past the first part, you should enjoy this one.



Amanda Richards, May 27, 2007


*Note: The lyrics in this review are from "Jump" by Van Halen. This song is not featured in the movie, and has no link to the movie, but I exercised some artistic license, as the words to "Gloomy Sunday" are just too darned depressing.

I was somewhat surprised with this one.David Norton is a writer who's story Gloomy Sunday is comming to life.His girlfriend tosses herself out of a window after answering her cell.David watches a DVD where a monkey bashes himself inside a glass container.To tell you everything in here would be a crime.Its a puzzler watching this one.The acting is very good and directing is also very good.I throughly enjoyed this one!

Oscar winner Timothy Hutton stars in this spanish made film.
He plays Science Fiction Author David Norton. He is invited to an island conference. He takes his girl friend, asks her to marry him

A DVD appears in his room and she commits suicide..and then more people start dying. He is usually in control, suddenly life takes a nasty spin.

Hutton takes the lead with this weak script. The plot wears thin after the first 30 minutes and then it starts to drag. There is no sub plots. The suspense of this film feels disjointed and starts to bore. There are no thrills to capture an audience. Towards the end, Hutton looks bored as lead and the film falls apart

Try to miss this one in your video store, until all the other good films are rented

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

THE KOVAK BOX is a successful little suspense/psychological thriller from the Spanish writers Daniel Monzón (who also directs) and Jorge Guerricaechevarría. The story may be a bit far fetched, but then what horror story isn't? The premise for the tale holds up well and is aided by some very fine performances by a mixture of Spanish, English, and American actors. The mood of the film is beautifully set during opening credits by a complex maze in which a white rat sniffs and ambulates from confusing corner to confusing wall - just the manner in which director Monzón plans to tell his story.

David Norton (Timothy Hutton) is a celebrated science fiction novelist visiting Majorca for a special conference accompanied by his soon to be fiancée Jane (Georgia Mackenzie). David has been having premonitions on his flight to the conference and those brooding thoughts continue as he registers for the conference and finds little disturbing clues that culminate in Jane's suicide leap from their hotel balcony. Almost simultaneously an attractive Spanish girl Silvia (Lucía Jiménez) in the same hotel 'jumps' from her balcony but is saved from death by falling onto an awning. Jane dies in the hospital: Silvia is in the bed next to Jane, witnesses David's grief, and the beginning of a bond is created.

David meets a strange old man Frank Kovak (David Kelly) who seeks an autograph of David's first novel 'Gloomy Sunday' and from there the mystery begins. David becomes the unknowing main character in a sci-fi story that mimics ideas from his own first book, a story about the implantation of devices in humans that would enable a central force to assist the victims in their own destructive ends. The plot is tightly woven from this point on and to reveal any portion of it would diminish the chair-gripping finale.

Timothy Hutton seems an odd choice for the main character of the film until his combination of cool intellect and understated passion clicks in. The film is graced by the presence of the talented Lucía Jiménez who seems to have the potential of becoming another Penelope Cruz! The cinematography by Carles Gusi and musical score by Roque Baños make the setting visually and aurally spectacular. For those who enjoy mind bender thrillers, THE KOVAK BOX will certainly please. Grady Harp, June 07

This is an excellent film, with more twists and turns in the plot than a snake in a pretzel factory. Highly recommended!

Powerful performance by Timothy Hutton. Original plot and great acting make it a must see syspense movie. A very unusual plot that really keeps your attantion. Best of all it is a (A) movie so it doesn't need a lot of usless nudity to fill in the gaps in the plot. I was very pleased with my purchase.

Prolific sci-fi writer, David Norton (Timothy Hutton) is at a conference in Majorca. All seems perfect, as David is the guest of honor, and even uses the occasion to ask his girlfriend to marry him. David is approached by an elderly man (David Kelly) who is a huge fan, and has some rather cryptic things to say. David thinks nothing of it and moves on. When he and his bride-to-be arrive at their posh hotel room, things begin to unravel. David finds a bizarre DVD on the bed containing what appears to be animal torture. The phone rings, The fiancee commits "suicide", and David's life is thrust into a nightmare world of governmental control, conspiracy, and mass murder. He is joined by Silvia (Lucîa Jiménez) who is the only person David can trust. THE KOVAK BOX is a mental labyrinth, an invisible trap where David is confined and compelled by stimuli to do the bidding of the insane Frank Kovak. Kovak is able to manipulate David in broad daylight, without fear of discovery or interruption. How is this possible? Ah, that's half the fun! David soon realizes that Kovak is not only deranged, but has built the box so well that there may be no way of escape. I found this movie to be exhilerating from start to finish, plot holes and all! Well worth owning...

The 2 stars goes to Timothy Hutton for his great performance, truly an outstanding actor! But... the movie... well not so great. I was left somewhat disappointed. It starts well and gives you the impression of a good movie but then it evolves into a bizarre scenario that completely fails to keep up the suspenseful tone of the start, and is in fact rather wearisome and inconclusive at times. It's as if they are trying really hard to achieve a goal with a poor script... I expected more that's all...

I am not as excited about this movie as other reviewers seem to be. It was worth watching, but contained a serious flaw that detracted from the viewing experience:

It suffered from the "Mission Impossible Syndrome" in which a character wants to accomplish a reasonably simple goal, but then resorts to wildly implausible, ridiculously complex methods to achieve the goal. In this case, as I interpret the plot, the rich old geezer (well played by David Kelly) wants the famous author (played by Timothy Hutton) to write a story about the geezer's fabulous scientific accomplishments and then kill him, both to make him famous and to spare him from a lingering, painful death due to brain cancer.

I guess just hiring an author to write the story and then seeking euthanasia (widely available, especially in Europe) were apparently way too simple for our villain. Instead, he sets up headquarters on the beautiful island of Majorca (coincidentally the writer/director's homeland), arranges for implants to be placed in 100 airline passenger's necks (which would be beyond impossible with today's supertight airline security), then uses the implants to compel the victims to commit ghastly suicides when they hear the song "Gloomy Sunday", all in hopes that this will inspire Hutton's character, the author, to write a story about it....making the demented old lunatic the "star" of the lurid tale. Never mind that the hugely negative (dare I say Hitleresque) fame resulting from a crime of this magnitude would certainly not be desireable, and definitely not worth the incredible expense and effort needed to pull it off. Indeed, he could have probably just skipped the implants and induced quite a few suicides simply by playing the song....it's a real "downer".

Common sense would dictate that if he were rich enough to finance this preposterous scheme, then he probably could have hired a Pulitzer-prize-winning author to immortalize his achievements and then fly to Sweden for a catered orgy/assisted-suicide bash with live entertainment by Destiny's Child. Instead, he resorts to this wildly implausible plan. But let's face it, if a writer/director is absolutely determined to make a movie on his home island of Majorca, why would he let an implausible story line interfere with his plans?

On the plus sides, the scenery is magnificent and the female lead, Lucia Jimenez is a pleasure to watch....sort of a "poor man's" Paz Vega. Production values are first rate and the acting is good overall.

Speaking of which, be sure to watch Timothy Hutton in the "special features" at the end of the DVD. He is apparently a very honest man, for despite his actor's training and experience, he has great difficulty expressing any real enthusiasm for the plot or his character. He knows the absurdity of the story line, and to his credit, he lets it show. Pay heed to Tim's lack of enthusiasm and watch this overdone potboiler with your common sense firmly on "pause".