Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) – Wes Anderson brings his patented vague unpleasantness to the realm of children’s film, but beyond that, only a Clooney overdose keeps it from being a completely enjoyable film; I particularly liked the quirky animation. 7

Panic in the Streets

Panic in the Streets (1950) – It’s an adequate noir/medical thriller with a well-developed protagonist, but it spends too much time on its generic gangsters (although Jack Palance, in his film debut, does a nice job); Zero Mostel’s combover is painful to look at. 6

The Day the Sky Exploded

The Day the Sky Exploded (1958) – It’s slow, preachy and not very interesting due to the inability of any character to do anything productive for most of the film; it gets points for international cooperation, but loses more for spawning innumerable bad improbably-blow-up-the-meteor doomsday films. 5

The Frighteners

The Frighteners (1996) – It’s got a fine cast (Jeffrey Combs steals every scene he’s in), and it’s not a bad idea, but a better script (and a little bit better taste – not Jackson’s strong suit) would have been great; the effects are pretty good for the day – this is the film that led to Jackson doing Lord of the Rings because he “had these computers all sitting there” afterward. 6

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker (2008) – It’s involving, well-directed and well-acted, but it’s also very predictable and it suffers terribly from its blatant disregard for military realism; on the whole, it’s decent because of its personal focus, but for this to win Best Picture is ludicrous (not that the Oscars count for much anymore). 6

TV: Lost – A Very Quick Look

Lost (2004-2010), 121 episodes

Since Alias finished its run in 2006, Lost has been the only current TV series I’ve watched. With last night’s mega-event finale behind us, the most demanding and frustrating show on television is now a thing of the past. I’m not going to go into speculative interpretation of what may or may not have happened or get into the show’s religious and philosophical themes; you can find plenty of that all over the internet, and if I wrote about everything, I’d be writing for the rest of my life. Instead, let’s look at the series from a storytelling standpoint (and, in doing so, avoid any specific spoilers).

Lost is, above and beyond, the most demanding show in the history of television. No series has ever asked as much of its audience as Lost. It requires years of faith, blind acceptance of the incomprehensible, and often, research and review just so you can keep up with what’s been going on. In return, the show promises an ever-increasing payoff.

Even if you’ve never watched Lost, you probably know the premise: a plane crashes on a mysterious island that contains innumerable mysterious characters, a smoke monster, polar bears, time travel, and an overpowering destiny-versus-free will theme. Mystery and confusion ensue.

Lost often suffers from lengthy, damaging pacing issues. It’s often slower than it needs to be – many episodes advance the story not one iota, and ultimately, it doesn't leave itself enough time to do everything it needs to do (it doesn't help that the Jacob/Man in Black storyline isn't ever that interesting). But if you buy into the show, it gives you enough to keep you hooked, and it’s never too bad for too long. And sometimes it throws you an absolute gem, like “The Constant” or “Ab Aeterno.”

And you get less story per episode anyway because of the flash-backs/-forwards/-sideways. After the first season, many episodes get bogged down in redundant flashbacks, and so the show eventually goes to flash-forwards, which is a good move. The last season features a flash-sideways alternate reality, which, while it didn’t turn out to be the disaster I was expecting, still felt like kind of a waste of time.

No matter what they might say, the writers very obviously make it up as they go along. Every season, this season is not what the previous season was about. And the series as a whole turns out to not really be about what the show has said all along that it’s about. Or at least, that’s what it tries to tell you.

Lost has a ridiculously huge cast of characters to keep track of, and it generally does a good job, although people go missing for episodes (and even seasons) at a time. Unfortunately, two somewhat unlikeable characters, Jack (Jack is always wrong about everything) and Kate, get more screen time than anyone. But there are enough characters and enough good characters that it’s never a serious problem. And the acting is good across the board (well, except for Nikki and Paulo), and the writers generally handle most everyone in an emotionally-satisfying way. This is possibly Lost’s strongest point - certainly it’s when Lost is at its best.

The writers are never afraid to abruptly discard character arcs, whether good or bad. Jin began the series as an interesting, disagreeable, savage character – they made him nice so that he’d be more appealing. Sun starts out soft and wussy, then becomes hard and determined, then becomes a big pushover again. The Sayid/Shannon relationship was epically stupid – they got rid of Shannon and he never gave her a second thought (until the finale). Heck, they completely threw out Locke's entire storyline. I could go on. The final season’s flash-sideways world sweeps up many of these trashed story elements and ties them up, although it feels ephemeral and, for lack of a better term, half-assed.

And then there’s the polarizing finale, “The End.” The entire series builds toward this episode; the entire series builds toward the last fifteen minutes of this episode; the entire series builds toward the last scene of this episode. How does it do? How is the long-awaited payoff? (We will put aside the fact that “The End” largely consists of heartstring-tugging clips from previous episodes and every character in the history of the show conveniently popping up whenever necessary (on the island and in the flash-sideways) to wrap everything up in the time allotted.)

“The End” is strong on emotional content, and it provides nearly perfect closure in this regard. But it drops the ball with answers. You have a pretty good idea it can’t competently handle both – the rest of this season did so much putzing around that there isn’t enough time left. Lost has mystery out the yin-yang – some of these mysteries need to be answered, some don’t – but almost nothing gets answered here. The writers try to dodge around this poor showing by skewing the show in a completely different direction at the last minute and saying, “That’s not what Lost is really about,” but it’s disappointing. On the whole, though, I found the finale satisfactory. It wasn’t amazing by any stretch, but I was half-expecting a disaster, and was pleased not to get one.  

Really, though, at some stage during its run, Lost gets to the point where you know it can’t pay off – it’s too big, too making-it-up-as-we-go. So, even if you don’t stop watching, you stop hanging on every mystery. You lower your expectations. But you keep watching, because the show always gives you just enough to keep you going, and because whether it’s clicking or not, Lost is always involving. 

If nothing else, Lost gets points for originality and ambition, although it also gets the gold metal for taking “not making sense” above and beyond for no good reason. It never quite collapses under the weight of its own complexity, but it frequently comes close.

Halfway through its run, I would have given Lost an 8. But it’s always hard to finish, hard to deliver, and Lost wrote a massive check it couldn’t possibly cover. In the end, Lost is problematic, sure, but it’s also entertaining and sufficiently satisfying. I give the whole series a 7.

Best episode: “The Constant”

The Anderson Tapes

The Anderson Tapes (1971) – It’s a pretty decent caper with a great cast (Martin Balsam is fantastic) and an awful score from Quincy Jones that features a lot of grating electronic noise; it’s kind of funny the mystical way the film treats this now long-obsolete technology. 6

Rain of Fire

Rain of Fire (1977) – This is a silly, cheesy, clumsy spaghetti eco-Antichrist movie (although it might have worked as an un-supernatural Kirk Douglas-goes-crazy film); Kirk would make any old mess in the seventies if he could get with a woman half his age. 4

Meteor

Meteor (1979) – It isn’t as dumb as Armageddon, but it is overwrought and factually painful; a disaster movie has absolutely got to have better effects than this. 5

Kronos

Kronos (1957) – It’s kind of cheesy, kind of boring, quite low-budget and fairly stupid; two cubes is the best monster we could come up with? 4

Entrapment

Entrapment (1999) – It’s watchable and occasionally charming, but it’s also predictable, unmemorable and slightly dumb. 5

Darby O’Gill and the Little People

Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959) – What it lacks in story it nearly makes up in charm. 6

The Wind and the Lion

The Wind and the Lion (1975) – Its biggest problem is that most of these characters aren’t very interesting, and much for that reason, juxtaposing Teddy Roosevelt (Brian Keith is perfect) and the Raisuli doesn’t really work; this is the most blatant non-accent of Connery’s career up to Hunt for Red October. 5

Hardware

Hardware (1990) – Given the impressive degree of world-building this film does, it’s a shame it doesn’t have anything more interesting to do than crib from Terminator; Stanley’s uneven direction is strong on ambience but weak on suspense and action, and the unnecessarily explicit violence does nothing for the film. 5

Ong Bak 2

Ong Bak 2 (2008) – It’s a poorly edited, jumbled mess; in his previous films, Tony Jaa was about the most entertaining martial artist around, but this one just doesn’t have enough good fights. 5

Groom Lake

Groom Lake (2002) – It’s poorly written, poorly directed and painfully low budget (what the heck was this shot on?); Shatner should not be allowed behind a camera again. 3