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Reviews
Lost: The End: Part 1 (2010)
Another one of those "could have been"s...
As my title states, I think this could have been an incredible show. Every time I try to recommend "Lost" to a friend, I tell them that it's worth watching the first two seasons of it and then stop, because it's all downhill from there. I guess the way they actually maintained the series' downfall in a straight long line all the way to the floor of the bamboo jungle does earn some respect.
I refuse to believe that something made with such delicate and subtle grace could have turned into such a sack of platitude. And the funny thing is, Michael Bay had nothing to do with it! The two first seasons were some of the most precious minutes the world of television has ever seen. And yet the rest of the show was like a four year long textbook on both how to annihilate something wonderful and how to make piles of money off of a faithful fan base. I mean, these people proved to the scientific world that pure gold can be turned into inert organic matter! I also refuse to believe that the original creators of the show were OK with it. I guess this is the perfect example of how wealth destroys everything artistic.
I've read some of the reviews here and what struck me the most is that some people have actually just now discovered that the show was about the characters. I can see how they got confused though, with the last four seasons of the show having absolutely nothing to do with the characters themselves and mostly focusing on the unveiling of the Island's mysteries which had also nothing to do with the story itself, rather than a way for the creators to stall the storyline and make a little bit more money off it.
But I could forgive them all of the time I spent on watching all this(given that I put myself in front of that screen every week) but I can never forgive them for making an ending that doesn't make sense. Even the ending in The Sopranos, where everything just blacks out made more sense than this. Maybe I'm just stupid and I simply don't understand something. So if you have any ideas about what actually happened and what the creators of the show were trying to say with that ending, please tell me.
Lost: What Kate Does (2010)
Let's move forward maybe?
It's really disappointing to see a TV series that dazzled audiences all over the world with it's seemingly effortless take on an intensely complicated character drama incorporating exceptional plot twisting and visual techniques being sent so relentlessly down the drain by it's own creators.
Seeing these characters come alive on the screen with such zest thought-out the first two seasons of the show made it look like no other sci-fi TV series will ever hold a candle to "Lost". Sadly, the situation has changed. Watching Lost now, it is really hard to remain ignorant of the fact that the characters aren't really that mesmerizing anymore. Or the fact that it's painfully obvious how the Island's mystery has become something of a corner for the creators of the show and that it's really hard for JJ Abrams' team to come up with an ending for the series that would both make sense and not be swarming with platitude. Every new character, every new plot line, every new mystery the creators of the show throw our way is something that we've seen, felt and come to terms with before. We've been dancing to the same song for almost six years now, it's time to either change the tune, or to wrap this whole thing up and leave while you still have something to lose. It seems like the creators of the show have chosen the latter.
Jennifer's Body (2009)
What's all the fuss about?
I don't really want to be one of those people who hears "Diablo Cody" and waits for something Juno-ish to come my way. If something or someone new suddenly emerges out of the giant porn studio that is Hollywood these days, I really hope that after the first breakthrough it will deliver something entirely new next time.
Having seen Juno, I was hoping that Diablo Cody was going to bring something fresh to modern American cinema. But having seen Jennifer's Body, it helped me realize exactly how dependant the outcome of any film is on the director. If it wasn't Jason Reitman directing Juno, casting those great actors, picking out that music and all in all, doing an amazing job at working together with all of his departments in order to make that film as authentic as possible, it might have flopped. And if it wasn't Karyn Kusama directing Jennifer's Body, it might have been a success.
Watching the film, I couldn't help but notice how forced every single scene was. The dialogue felt chunky, the action scenes - clichés, the music didn't seem to work with what was going on inside the shot and pretty much everything else in this picture made me think that Karyn Kusama was out of her element when she was making this film.
But, for me, Diablo Cody isn't entirely without fault. After writing such a compelling script for a teen-age disillusionment trip, why turn to demons and high school prom slasher movies? Here I was thinking that after a successful break through, one would want to move forward.
Romance & Cigarettes (2005)
A step towards humanity.
It's the tenth time I see this film. And no matter what I was during these home screenings, drunk, sober, happy or sad, I still have the same stupid smile on my face when the credits start rolling. It's not that the ending makes me laugh, there's nothing funny about it. But neither does it make me sprout tears all over the place. I can't really describe this subtle feeling, the same feeling I have after watching Burton's "Big Fish".
Yes, I can endlessly praise the music choices and the fine cast/acting etc. But that's all "body parts". This is, I won't be afraid to use the word, a complete and finished work of art. Yeah, the story's cheesy but it's one of the only films of our time that gives this every-day-life type of thing the authenticity that Turturro provides. It's one of the only films of our time that lives up to Piccaso's words "Art is the tool that brushes away the dust from our day-to-day life".
I'm not in possession of words to express my gratitude so I'm not going to try to color it. Mr. Turturro, you're the man. Thank you so much.
Lost: The Incident: Part 1 (2009)
Lost has lost it.
My love for these series has been building up since episode 1 of season 1. At a certain point my love became so unconditional that I was prepared to swallow any sort of Michael-Bay-people-will-eat-anything-type of nonsense the creators of the show were going to come up with. But with the show becoming more and more promising, I just didn't expect them to treat their audiences like that.
Why turn every character into useless pawns when for 4 seasons they were complicated, motivated, deep people? Why trivialize most of the mysteries the island contains when for 4 seasons you had John Locke convincing people that everything on the island happens for a reason(which he did in my case)? Why stuff the show full with platitude when for 4 seasons you had nothing but pleasant surprise for us? I saw an interview with J.J. Abrams about the mystery box thing. Why contradict your own principal when it was working so well for the show? In the end, after episode 17, it suddenly came to me that I had no questions left that need answers.
What's the black monster? Don't really care anymore. What's the statue? Jacob lives there, but otherwise, don't really care anymore. Who's Jacob? He's the island God, but otherwise, I don't care anymore. Who's the other dude? Jacob's ex-friend-gone-nemesis dude, but don't care anymore.
I just hope the bomb-exploding-"Lost"-phasing-from-pure-white ending means that they wiped the slate clean and are going to try and make up for our and(most importantly) THEIR time spent making these useless 17 episodes. Although it didn't leave me wondering about what happened the way the other season finales did.
Lost: Dead Is Dead (2009)
A little something something.
From minute one of episode one of the first season Lost has made us ask questions. Will these people survive? How are they going to cope with the crash? What tha heck is that howling thing in the jungle? Oh my god it ate the pilot! Oh damn, they fixed the radio, they might get hopes of rescue. Crazyfrenchladysaiswhat?! Oh how well did Charlie put it? "Where are we?".
But the show made it clear for me that it's not really the mysteries that make me go to other countries and spend ridiculous amounts of money on full season box sets. It's not the anticipation of finally finding out what that black thing is that makes me shed a tear or two out of compassion for one of those fictional characters.
The mysteries are only something to go along with the real stuff of Lost and that would be the amazing way that the creators weave their way into making those greatest-television-writing-in-years type of characters. The little something something of lost is in the little things. Like J. Locke playing Risk in his spare time at work. Or J. Shepherd's first dialogue with Sarah when she was lying on the table about to be operated on "But you're invited, OK?". And it goes further! Not only are the main characters extremely appealing, but so are some of the minor characters. I kept re-watching the scene where Sayid is sitting down chained to the floor when his previous torture victim told him about some cat she found(damn fine acting by that woman, damn fine, kudos). Or, in the same episode, the fact that John doesn't take a "no" for an answer and keeps trying to beat the chess game even though he was told it was "impossible".
Throughout five season (except for a minor setback in season three), the writers of Lost failed to disappoint. The gave something to cry about and something to laugh at and also something to hold my DVDs and think of them as something precious. But now, it seems as though someone decided to give out answers to everyone who ever asked.
In the end of season one Danielle takes them to the black rock and mentions a place where one of her crew lost his arm. So now we know how that happened.
We now know what exactly was it that made the french lady go insane. But that's the thing, I don't think any of us really wanted to know any of this stuff. And the creators of Lost are so eager to paint a very clear picture of the island that they forgot all about the good stuff. It's as if I'm reading a cold, just-the-facts kind of history book. But I liked it when we didn't know so much because that's the way life is and it gave us time to concentrate on someone's black horse or another person's resurrected father or some dude's food that seems to be stalking him and talking to him through a Korean dude dressed as a chicken.
What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that the show has lost it's subtlety. Giev it back plxktnxb.
Have a cluckity cluck cluck day.
Sicko (2007)
good work
After watching this movie, I didn't think of the American health care system at all. Because there was nothing left to think of, all of the facts were in that documentary. Instead, I started thinking of Michael Moore as a person. Actually, I was rethinking my opinion of him, that I have made after watching his previous films.
After "Bowling for Columbine" and "Farenheit 9/11" I came to a conclusion, that Michael Moore was a bit of child in how he approached those matters. Maybe, I got a wrong message from Farenheit, but I just felt that I've seen a political propaganda, rather than an attack on G.W. Bush. So I thought: "OK, Mr. Moore just got a little carried away". Any how, he made a very good documentary that was quite interesting.
After watching "Bowling for Columbine", I thought: "Yes, Mr. Moore has done a very good documentary about guns and stuff, but I don't see anything that I would consider something that I was not aware of about the US. He simply pointed out some flaws in the system and made fools out of some "big guys" in front of the camera". His approach made me think that he was a little too aggressive and too, don't know how to put this right, fixed on small things. Small things that matter, but still, he had to, in my opinion, try and have a wider look at the problems he's trying to describe.
So because of all this, I felt that Mr. Moore was in some ways infantile.
But after watching "Sicko" I realized that I was either wrong all along and I have to watch "Bowling" and "9/11" again or he actually "grew up". Because everything that that film had in it was true. There is a joke in Russia:
"In a school in the Soviet Union: Teacher: Where are the best schools in the world? Kids: In the Soviet Union! Teacher: Where are the best toys in the world? Kids: In the Soviet Union! Teacher: Where are the best teachers in the world? Kids: In the Soviet Union!
A kid in the class starts crying.
Teacher: Why are you crying, Peter? Peter: I wanna go to the Soviet Union!"
And yes, the American Health Care System is flawed and yes, you get better treatment in most other countries that the US government poses as enemies and so on and so forth. But Michael Moore has shown more than that. He told the Americans that they are being deceived by the government into believing that they are the best country in the world just like the kids in the Soviet Union school. And how that lie is one of the best money makers the government has.
And then I remembered what Felini said about peoples approach to life. I'm not going to quote him, I'm just going to give you a summary of things. He said that the best way of life is to be as naive and pure in your approach to life as a child is. Be less logical and more open hearted and things will come your way. That is what Michael Moore is doing, at least that's how I see it. Going to the NRA guy in "Bowling" was a naive and stupid thing to do. Because there would be no consequences. The people who already thought him to be an idiot, wouldn't find anything new. The people who respected him are stupid enough not to see that he is an idiot and they would call Mr. Moore the idiot. But it would get everybody to think about bigger things, grow more skeptical about the people how run the country. And all of his movies work this way.
So I say thank you, Mr. Moore. Your films are bigger than documentaries. Your films are, in a way, advertisements of a better human being. A human being who thinks and analyzes. Who cares not only for the well being of his wallet, but for the well being of himself. Your films are a propaganda of a way of life that would make the human being WANT to become the Homo Sapiens he calls him self. So bravo, Mr. Michael Moore. Rock on.