Over the last few years, I’ve become something of a Lost scholar. After each episode airs, I read commentary from Doc Jensen of Entertainment Weekly, The Tail Section, and sometimes Doc Ardzt. I’ve spent hours poring over the Lostpedia, and I listen to The Official Lost Podcast, in which producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse discuss the show in a smart, entertaining way.
I think, perhaps, I’m the kind of person that Lost is geared towards. The show is character driven, with mystery, action, and great acting that would appeal to anyone. But it’s the dense sci-fi plot that keeps me awake at night.
After the fourth season’s finale, I decided to unload my brain, writing down everything I knew and suspected about the Lost universe.
Last night’s premiere inspired me to take another look at what I had written. It was gratifying to see some serious time travel, and so far my theories haven’t been contradicted — except for a couple things. I had supposed that Ms. Hawking (the gray-haired time lady) might be working with the sinister Widmore or on her own. Now it appears she’s aligned with Ben. Also, I had theorized that Widmore himself once used the frozen donkey wheel, but why then did Dharma excavators find it inaccessible behind a wall of solid rock?
So, before the rest of my ideas are vetoed by events in season five, I figure I’ll put this out there for the blogosphere to consider.
Maybe at the end of the season I’ll post an update.
Warning: this might be incomprehensible to casual viewers of the show.
I’m looking ahead at the Sci-Fi channel’s Halloween movie schedule. They’ve got a few good movies and a few so-bad-they’re-good ones.
DAGON tues Oct 23 3:30 pm
Stuart Gordon’s fish-fest might be edited too much for broadcast, but it’s worth checking out. An over-the-top adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth, filmed in Spain through Fantastic Factory.
DEAD & BREAKFAST thurs Oct 25 3:00 am
Haven’t seen this one yet, but heard good things about this comedy/slasher a couple years ago.
FRANKENFISH thurs Oct 25 11:00 am
Slow at first, but fun once the fish start munching. Here’s Scott Foy’s review: http://schlocktoberfest.com/dc_review_archives/foy_DCfrankenfish.html
DARKNESS friday Oct 26 9:00 am
Another Fantastic Factory production, this one starring Anna Pacquin. Not the most logical story, but well shot and edited.
KING OF THE LOST WORLD sat Oct 27 1:00 PM
Haven’t seen it yet, but might be fall under the so-bad-it’s-good category. Foy’s review: http://schlocktoberfest.com/dc_review_archives/foy_DCkinglost.html
SASQUATCH MOUNTAIN sat Oct 27 3:00 pm
Not to be confused with SASQUATCH, which also starred Lance Henriksen. This is the low budget equivalent of From Dusk Till Dawn, only here the vampires are swapped out with Bigfoot. It’s okay, but not great.
ABOMINABLE sat Oct 27 7:00 pm
The best Lance Henriksen Bigfoot movie yet (actually, he only has a small role). This has a REAR WINDOW plot about a man in a wheelchair trying to warn his neighbors about a killer Skunk Ape. Great monster effects.
SKELETON MAN sun Oct 28 3:00 am
Unspeakably bad. Skeletor rides around a forest killing military types. You have to see it to believe it. Foy’s review: http://schlocktoberfest.com/dc_review_archives/foy_DCskeletonman.html
One more programming note: Friday, Oct 26th, is zombie day on Turner Classic Movies! Beginning at 12:15 pm:
Voodoo Island (1957)
Zombies On Broadway (1945)
King Of The Zombies (1941)
Revenge Of The Zombies (1943)
Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)
White Zombie (1932)
I’m all Comic-Conned out, and I didn’t even go. After listening to podcasts from Reel Horror, Geekdrome, and Diggnation, I barely had enough energy to track down these vids…
Simpsons: The Movie
Shortly after Comic-Con unveiled animatics from the Simpsons movie, the clips appeared online. Funny as they were, they disappeared from YouTube mighty quickly. Fox is keeping this footage under wraps.
Lost
In addition to answering and avoiding the usual fan questions, the producers of Lost were accosted by an actress from the Lost Experience. It’s a part of a real-world game that’s too much work for me to play. It’s all contained in the Lost podcast, or check YouTube.
Scott McCloud’s Comic-Con presentation
The author of Understanding Comics has a new book coming out. Check out his multi-media presentation here.
Hellboy Animated Panel
The preview of Hellboy’s cartoon features is online here and here.
Grindhouse
The coolest movie project ever? Tarantino seems to think so. Check out the panel at Ifilm.
Spider-Man 3
Who knew Bryce Dallas Howard could play a blonde? See the amazingly calm actors talk about the most anticipated action movie of next year here.
I haven’t done a report about the absurd throw-away joke cases from E.R. in a while. I’m not sure if that’s because there haven’t been any, or I just haven’t been paying attention.
Anyway, tonight they had a man who apparently identified a bit too much with 80s icon Mr. T. He was wearing a whole lotta bling, and refused to take it off for anyone. He just wanted some medicine for the pain in his neck.
Yes, the gold necklaces were literally cutting into his flesh, and it was infected. Nice.
So, they made a couple jokes and we never saw that character again. A classic non sequitur gross-out moment.
EDITED TO ADD: This character made another appearance a week later. Still just as a running gag, not as a full fledged story.
I keep coming back to the SciFi Channel on Saturday nights, despite the uneven quality of their movies in the last couple years. Once in a while there’s a gem.
So I’m happy to say that this week’s Minotaur was surprisingly good. With a title inspired by Greek myth, I first thought it would be something like Cerberus or Basilisk, which are each about bringing said monsters into the present day. Not so! Minotaur is actually a period piece about Theseus (although he’s called “Theo”), the island of Minos, and the legendary labyrinth.
I knew I was in for something special during the opening title sequence. The myth of the Minotaur is told in voice over (Linda Hunt? Or was it Ingrid Pitt?) while works of art tell the story visually.
The hero, Theo, is introduced as a goat herder. His village and the people in it are believable, and the performance of Rutger Hauer as Theo’s father is solid. Soon, Hammer horror scream queen Ingrid Pitt makes an appearance, although her leperous make-up made her unrecognizable. She tells Theo his lost love is still alive, although she had been taken for sacrifice to the Minotaur the year before.
So the plot kicks in. Theo manages to get abducted himself, and he and several other victims are brought before the king.
What really drew me in was the presence of Tony Todd. In true Shakespeare mode, he played the evil but tortured king role to the hilt. Melodramatic, but that’s what the part required. His make-up and costuming actually made him look like the bull his people worship, with a ring through his nose and horns tattooed across his shaved scalp.
By the time we got through the first act, I had decided I liked the movie. It’s too bad the second act turned into repetitious cat and mouse antics, as each of the victim characters are chased around the underground labyrinth and gored one by one. Theo himself was perhaps overly sensitive, but I really couldn’t bring myself to care about his friends. I would have liked to see Theo be more proactive, approaching the labyrinth as a problem to be solved. (I believe in the original myth, he used a ball of string to find his way out.) Also, I was crossing my fingers for appearances by Daedalus and Icarus, but that didn’t fit in with this movie’s story.
These negatives in mind, I can still recommend the movie because the Minotaur itself was done so well. Ninety percent of the effects work was practical, which you hardly ever see anymore. The beast was a huge, decayed hulk of a puppet — really impessive. Curiously, it ran around on all fours, but it worked. For the handful of shots where CG took over, the animation was convincing and well integrated.
Overall, a juicy low budget offering. Definitely worth a rental.
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