"BIRD BOX"..........BLINDED BY THE .....FRIGHT?

Bird Box (2018)     Yes, we were already aware how much of an international thing this movie became while we buried ourselves in the comforting pudding of Hallmark Christmas movies........

             Surrendering to the pop culture zeitgeist, we duly watched it last night.

             First thought:  no, contrary to everyone else's spot analysis, it's most definitely not a variation of John Krasinski's don't-make-a-sound, alien apocalypse "A Quiet Place".......

              In its premise of inexplicable entities driving people to mass suicide, it's far closer to M.Night Shyamalan's 2008, much ridiculed "The Happening"........(further propelling Shyamalan's downward slide from Hot Young Thrillmaster to Laughingstock......)

                Shyamalan risked and brutally earned derision by coming up with an explanation for his invisible Armageddon........it was nature and the trees, enraged by their mistreatment, who sprinkled the air with suicide dust.  Take that, you human envirioment destroyers......their bark really was worse then their bite.....

                To make matters even worse, Shyamalan ill-served his actors, making them look unintentionally funny and awkward.........(every actor's worst nightmare)

                 "Bird Box" immediately corrects those problems by explaining absolutely nothing about the invisible 'creatures' who drive people to violently take their own lives after seeing the.......well, whatever the hell they are.
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                   Hence the use of blindfolds as vital survival gear.

                  To further confuse you, the film's mythology also throws in some humans turned into Creature Minions........their gazing upon the monstrous whats-its has turned them into mindless creature-cultists whose single mission to force more victims to look at the terrible things......and die.

                  So who or what are these unseen invaders?  And how come they kill some people and turn others into dopes similar to Trumpanzees wearing MAGA red hats?

                   Who knows. Don't ask us........and don't ask it of the filmmakers either, cause they've no interest in cluing you in......

                  The other huge improvement over Shyamalan's disaster.........the acting in "Bird Box" is nothing less than stellar.. Sandra Bullock brings it with everything she's got, along with the supporting cast (John Malkovich, Jacki Weaver, Danielle Macdonald and Trevante Rhodes)

                    In fact, Bullock works at a far higher level here than the movie itself........she turns the final third of the film into such a fiercer depiction of motherhood that you start to believe you're watching a serious, dramatic story.........and not just another booga-booga horror movie.

                   Though the film finally lurches to its end with none of its mysteries answered, Sandra Bullock's the main attraction.......and for her, 3 stars (***).  Forget the social media buzz.......it's mostly mindless hype from people with too much laptop time on their hands.......enjoy it for the actors performing at the top of their game.