I was fully warned this movie was crap when I rented it, so I wasn't too badly disappointed when it turned out to be crap.
I just couldn't stop being curious about where they went with the story and how bad it really was.
The story's downfall was that it got overly literal. Once they reveal that yes, someone really did die, then you have to keep going with explanations, and that leads to nonsense about aliens and angels, or perhaps alien angels?
It would be hard to stretch this concept to a full length movie, but if you insisted on trying, the way to do it would be to leave the audience and the main characters in suspense for the whole thing whether they've killed anyone at all, or whether they've "only" traded their peace of mind for a million dollars, and nobody actually died.
The complications could be that each spouse thinks the other is in on the conspiracy, and then they suspect their employers, neighbors, and it never stops - they just can't accept that anyone would give them a million dollars for
no reason at all. Of course in the end, the reason is, to see how easy it is to drive someone nuts through guilt and paranoia.
To change nothing about these people's environment except within their minds - allowing them to punish themselves for their greed - is far more interesting than committing a boringly literal murder. All you're doing is giving some people a million dollars. What they think about it is their own fault. But to pull that off without boring the audience would require a Hitchcockian director.
A far far better movie that is reminiscent of that scenario in some ways is
A Simple Plan. Rent that instead!
I was just going to start a thread on this. My wife and I watched it not too long ago and I can't for the life of me understand what happened following the pressing of the button.
After the pressing of the button, the aliens basically had the last person to push the button killed--then they figuratively added one more mark against humanity to the blackboard (two marks if the person would rather live than save their own child from a horrible fate).
Yeah I figured that out, but it wasn't very interesting. Who the fuck are these aliens to be judging humans at all? That's a tired sci fi trope. Of course people act altruistically towards their children or other family members or friends, and the altruism lessens as you go outwards from their circle of relatedness, so that they are likely to act without any altruism towards strangers. You don't need an experiment to tell that about human nature! Pick up a history book. These aliens are dolts.
, and thinking the movie was shite
