Author Archives: Doc

Locke (2013)

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I was watching Collider Movie Talk at some point this week and someone mentioned a movie with Tom Hardy called Locke.  They were making the point that Tom Hardy was a great actor and that the trailer for the upcoming Venom trailer may not be the worst film ever because Hardy is a strong performer and, to prove it, in Locke, he was able to carry the film on his own inside a car.  It was an interesting discussion and so I went on my business.

Then tonight I was looking at Netflix and I came across the movie Locke.  It was one of those that I would not have paid much attention to unless I had heard that discussion on Movie Talk, so I pulled it up and watched it.

Locke was a fabulous film.

Tom Hardy played Ivan Locke, a happy family man and a construction manager preparing for the biggest project of his career.  However, one night, his life was thrown into chaos when he received a specific call.  A woman with whom he had a one-night-stand and had become pregnant had gone into premature labor and she was at the hospital an hour and a half away.

Locke, who had issues with an abusive/deadbeat dad growing up, was not going to make this child feel the same way he felt, so he got in his car and left his work site and started driving to the hospital.

Unfortunately, that meant that he was going to have to take care of the problems -at work, confessing his affair to his wife, with his work associate who was too much into the drink, and with the company he worked for, over the phone as he drove.

Tom Hardy spent the entire film on screen, driving his car and talking on the phone and it was riveting.  Each time the phone rang, some new horror was dropped in his lap.  His wife Katrina (Ruth Wilson) was shocked and betrayed by his confession and was not sure what to do.  His employee Donal (Andrew Scott) was thrust into more responsibility than he was used to in order to get the cement poured in the morning.  His sons, confused by the evening’s events and why their mom was crying, wanted to be watching the football game with their dad and tried to ignore what they could see happening around them.  The lonely and sad woman (Olivia Colman) who was giving birth kept calling with worries and concerns, especially after they discovered the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck.

Tom Hardy was tremendous throughout each phone call, trying desperately to stay in control and to manage every situation that appeared to him.  He could tell things were slipping away, but he stubbornly clung to the hope that he could fix things.  He also carried a monologue along inside the car with the memory of his dead father, whom he had serious anger directed towards.

Then, one of his sons had called him to tell him about the football game and as I was listening to this voice, I thought to myself, that sounds like Tom Holland.  Sure enough, in the credits, Tom Holland was listed as playing his son, Eddie.  You could see that Locke loved his children but he just could not explain to them how this happened despite their increasing knowledge that something was terribly wrong.

Add to that the fact that he had been fired by the company from Chicago, Locke had plenty of reasons to give up.  However, he was still as dedicated to seeing the job, that he had walked out on prior to a huge cement pour, get finished.

It is quite a risk putting just one actor on screen the entire time, but Tom Hardy gave probably the best performance I have seen him give as he literally and figuratively drives this movie along.  His dialogue and facial expressions were spot on and really carried the mood.  He showed the strength of this man who was slowly losing everything that had mattered to him.

I must say that the ending was a little up in the air, but I understand that you weren’t able to wrap everything up in a film like this in the 82 minute car ride.  Tom Hardy controlled each moment in the car and brought a wonderful character study together.  This was more than just a gimmick film.  It was truly well done.

vintage

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2018 EYG Hall of Fame Nominees

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The Hall of Fame ballot is up on the site right now.  It is open until Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19th).  Feel free to vote as many times as you would like (just don’t go crazy over it).  You may vote for as many as you would like on the ballot.

How this works:  The four original EYG members nominate some of the people/characters/movies/things etc for the ballot.  They are combined and the EYG nation vote for their favorites.  The top vote getter is automatic and then, from that top vote getter, I determine 75% of the votes for the rest who will be inducted.  For example, if the top vote nominees gets 100 votes, then every nominees receiving 75 votes or above will be inducted.

Here are the possible nominees for 2018:

Deadpool:  This is the Marvel comic book character, not the specific movie.  Deadpool was created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza and he appeared first in New Mutants#98.  The character has starred in two movies.

Marvel’s Black Panther:  This is the Marvel Studios movie that debuted in 2018 and made over a billion dollars worldwide.  The movie became one of three films to cross $700 million domestic.  This was a cultural moment in films.  Starred Chadwick Boseman.

vibranium:  The fictional metal from the Marvel Comics that has given the people of Wakanda its greatest inventions and weapons.

Luke Cage (Netflix series):  One of the series on Netflix that features a Marvel Comics character. Series has had two seasons so far and stars Mike Colter as Luke Cage.

Attack on Titan (Series):  Japanese manga series written and drawn by Hajime Isayama.  Attack on Titan is one of the best selling manga series of all time.

smartphones:  All kinds of amazing phone technology that is basically a handheld personal computer.

Elon Musk:  founder, CEO and lead designer of SpaceX, co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc and co-founder and CEO of Neuralink.

microwave ovens:  Need your food cooked quickly?  A piece of technology that redefined our lives is the microwave oven.

drones:  unmanned aerial vehicles.  Drones are an aircraft without a human pilot onboard.  They have been used for everything from play to war.

Robin, the Boy Wonder:  Dick Graysen, the most famous sidekick of all time.  Robin is the partner of Batman and would evolve eventually into Nightwing.

Pennywise, the Dancing Clown:  The killer clown created by Stephen King for his book It.  Pennywise has been adapted for film twice, once by Tim Curry and once by Bill Skarsgård.

Coca-Cola:  One f the big two soda pops in the world, Coca-Cola has been a staple in movie theaters and gamers’ basements since day one.

Game of Thrones (TV series).  an HBO series featuring the adaptation of a book series by George R.R. Martin.  It has currently run seven seasons with an eight and final season to come.

Spongebob Squarepants (TV series): This is a children’s television program from Nickelodeon that stars a yellow sponge named Spongebob and his array of friends.

lasers:  another technology piece, lasers, which stands for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, have been used in a number of different ways.

pizza:  one of the favorite foods of the geek community.  What is a gaming session without a pizza ordered?

Black Panther (character): The first black super hero character published by Marvel Comics in the 60s.  King T’Challa is the ruler of the fictional land of Wakanda.

the planet Mars:  This is the first planet ever nominated for induction into the EYG Hall of Fame.  It is the basis for countless science fiction stories and films.  Plus, it is the next major hurdle for the space program.

HDTV:  High Definition Television is a technological advance that has improved the quality of image resolution over the typical television.

digital cameras:  another technological advancement that has seen the change of how we take pictures.  No more film as the picture exists in digital format.

Dr. Seuss:  Child author Dr. Seuss, aka Theodore Geisel, has written some of the great classics including How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, and Horton Hears a Who!

Halloween (movie):  the original 1978 movie from John Carpenter featured the frightening villain Michael Myers who stalked Jamie Lee Curtis.  Several films followed in the series.

Thanos:  The Mad Titan.  A Marvel Comics villain created by Jim Starlin.  Thanos is the villain of the Infinity Gauntlet, a maxi-series from Marvel and the Marvel Studios film Avengers: Infinity War.

Die Hard (movie):  one of the greatest action films of all time as Bruce Willis played John McClane, a normal NYC cop caught up in a huge theft in a LA skyscraper.

Santa Claus:  Jolly Old St. Nicholas.  The Christmas staple who makes his way around the planet on Christmas Eve delivering toys to all the good girls and boys.  He knows when you are bad or good.

 

So there they are.  2018 nominees for the EYG Hall of Fame.  The ballot is open until Talk Like a Pirate Day.  Please vote!

The Big Lebowski (1998)

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I went to a 20th anniversary showing of The Big Lebowski by Fathom Events today which was the first time I have seen this movie.  I know it is one of those films that people hold up as a classic, but I never thought that it would be my piece of cake.  AM I WRONG?

Yep, I sure was.  I actually really enjoyed the movie.

I tend not to enjoy those “stoner” films or the films that encourage the use of drugs.  However, there was not that mush of that here, with it really being used more of a character thing than anything else.  Heck, the Dude spent more time drinking his White Russians than doing anything else.

And Jeff Bridges was as charming and entertaining as just about any lead character that I have ever seen. I thoroughly enjoyed his work as The Dude.

Though I was not as much of a fan of John Goodman’s character, I appreciated his commitment to the character and his performance.  He was really loud and I wondered why the Dude continued to come back to him.

The story itself is unbelievably convoluted and really is not the focus of the movie.  It is more about putting The Dude into these different situations and watching him deal with them, and that is just fine.

The dialogue is incredibly smart and witty throughout and I am sure that I missed plenty of funny lines delivered perfectly from Bridges.

The Coen Brothers followed up their Oscar nominated Fargo with this film, which did not receive as much initial success, but developed over time as a cult classic.

The biggest advantage The Big Lebowski has is that it is damn funny.  Most of the jokes land and deliver what you are wanting.  I laughed through the whole film and I had a really good time.

classic

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Strangers on a Train (1951)

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I love Alfred Hitchcock, but there are holes in my knowledge of Hitchcock movies so I decided to fill one of those holes today with Strangers on a Train.

Now, I knew of the storyline for years, since it came up on an episode of Castle with Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic.  Two strangers meet on a train and they decide to swap the murders of the troublesome people in their lives so there would be no motive for the murders.

Well, that was not quite the way it went in the classic movie.  In Hitchcock’s film, tennis pro Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is on a train and he is approached by Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker).  Bruno was clearly setting up Guy for his plan, being very manipulative and tricky.  The whole idea about swapping murders was made to come off as nothing more than a flippant conversation.  Guy never gave it a second thought, but clearly Bruno had done his research.

Bruno followed Guy’s wife (whom Guy wanted to divorce, but she refused to accept one) on a date to the carnival where he strangled her to death.  Soon, he approached Guy with the news of the murder and he hoped to plan what he wanted to do with his father, the intended victim Bruno wanted Guy to kill.

Guy was shocked and angry and threatened to go to the police, but Bruno said that the police would believe that they planned this together and that would make Guy an accessory.

I enjoyed this movie, but there were some glaring problems that I had with the narrative, starting with, if I were Guy, I would have gone to the police immediately and trusted that I could convince them that I was not the murderer.  The fact that Guy does not do that immediately tells us more about the weakness of his character than anything else.  He also does not “come clean” with his fiance Anne (Ruth Roman) until she figures him out.  She believed him fairly quickly after catching him in the lie which showed how much she loved him.

There were some weird scenes when Bruno tried to insinuate himself into Guy’s life, showing the skills of a stalker, more than anything else. The strangest of all of the situations was when Bruno lost control and almost accidentally strangled a socialite at a party because he was demonstrating how to murder someone and caught a glance at Anne’s sister Barbara (Patricia Hitchcock) who had a passing resemblance to the woman he murdered.  That was a strange addition to the story and really felt out of place.  Perhaps it was just to demonstrate how crazy Bruno was.

There was a lot of tension and suspense built through the film, as the scenes flashed back between Bruno on his way to the carnival and Guy playing tennis.  It may not sound like it should have worked, but it was very effective.  And the final fight on the out-of-control merry-go-round was actually very solid, even though the chances that it could actually happen would be inconceivable.

Strangers on a Train is full of anxiety and tension and, because of that, it is a lot of fun.  The performances are solid even if there are some narrative scenes that make you roll your eyes at the plausibility of them.

classic

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In Bruges (2008)

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In this darkly black comedy, Colin Farrell starred in a film where two hitmen, after a job goes bad, are sent to Bruges, Belgium to lay low until the people in charge decide what has to be done.  While in Bruges, Ken (Brendan Gleeson) is enjoying the medieval ambiance of the city while Ray (Colin Farrell) struggles with what has happened and the uncomfortable surrounding he has found himself stuck in.

This was a hoot.  I laughed throughout the movie and truly enjoyed it.  The fellow hitman relationship between Ken and Ray was excellent and both actors brought some of the best work I have seen them do.

There is more to the movie than just the laughs though.  There is an inventiveness that is on display with the typical genre fare that is quite unexpected.  There is a deep character arc, especially for Ray as he tried to live with the tragic circumstances that he found himself in.  The film examines honor and responsibility from a bit of a warped perspective.

There is a scene with a karate chop and a dwarf that absolutely made me laugh so hard I cried.  It was a fabulously funny moment among a mockingly humorous situation.

The city of Bruges was gorgeous as a backdrop as well, though Ray never had a good word to say about it.  It brought a certain fairy tales aspect to the story, which is a joke you’ll understand once you see In Bruges.

Ralph Fiennes arrives two thirds into the movie as the big boss and I was not as fond of that character near as much, but he was a consistent threat and really kicked the action for the third act into gear.

This was not your typical hitmen movie, but it surely had all the elements of a great one.  I really enjoyed this film more than I expected.  It is currently on Netflix.

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All the President’s Men (1976)

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Bob Woodard (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) worked for the Washington Post during a time of great unrest in the country.  The Vietnam War was underway and President Richard Nixon was having people engage in sabotage against the Democratic party.  Watergate was not a household word at the time, but it would grow to the stature of scandal that led the President of the United States to resign, the only time in our history (so far) where a President stepped down from office in midterm.

All the President’s Men is the film based the novel written by Woodward and Bernstein detailing those times of the early 1970s when this drama was unfolding.

This was a tremendous movie, featuring two of the best actors of the day in Redford and Hoffman telling one of the most important stories of corruption and power of our time.

It is the reason why it is necessary for the United States to have a free press and why that fact is protected within the US Constitution in the very first amendment.

I was riveted through the entire film as Woodward and Bernstein ran down every clue they could find, using whatever tricks or maneuvers they had in their arsenal to confirm stories and make sure that what they were printing was not fake news (if you’ll forgive the allusion).

There were other awesome performances in the film as well.  Jason Robards (who wins an Oscar for this role)  played Ben Bradlee, executive editor of the Washington Post.  Bradlee’s support of Woodward and Bernstein is one reason why the truth was able to surface.  Hal Holbrook played Deep Throat, the ultra secret shadowy informant who provided hints and details to Woodward (in 2005 Deep Throat was revealed to be former FBI associate director Mark Felt).  Jack Warden played Harry Rosenfeld, the editor of the Post at the time.  Jane Alexander played a bookkeeper who provided vital information for Woodward and Bernstein (and she received an Oscar nomination for her role).

Watching the process of following up leads and trying to protect sources by allowing them the ability to only confirm facts was fascinating.  It was also impressive to see how the entire group worked together, despite the external pressures loaded upon the staff of the Post.

I will tell you that this entire film felt very relevant to what is happening in the world today.  There is little doubt that the country itself faces these kind of challenges and, with any luck, will come out of today’s issues as well as they did in the 1970s.  These movies featuring hard working journalists (who are not the enemy of the people) are always fascinating films and All the President’s Men is no exception.

paragon

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Eighth Grade

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I’m actually amazed that this movie was written by a man.  Writer/director Bo Burnham seems to have a such a complete grasp of a middle school girl that it is difficult to believe that this is someone who has only one chromosome in common.

As a middle school teacher, I found myself laughing at this movie in many places because there were things that were so realistic and on the nose that I had seen the exact scenes in my own middle school.  It was a impressive feat.  Many times the school setting in these movies fall more to the stereotypical movie school than the realistic setting, but this one is authentic.

Eighth Grade features the story of Kayla (Elsie Fisher), an eighth grader in the last week of school, trying to make it through the remaining days of middle school before becoming a high schooler. She has to face the self-doubt, the potential ridicule, the hormones and everything else that middle school students face daily.

Kayla has one parent, her father Mark (Josh Hamilton), a wonderful dad, who struggles to communicate with his daughter and to compete with the all-powerful and consuming phone.  Kayla posts videos online giving pointers and tidbits of wisdom that she could do well with following herself.

There were some very funny scenes in this movie and there were some extremely tense and nerve-wracking scenes in this move (especially one that takes place in the back of a car).

Elsie Fisher is tremendous here, beautifully bringing Kayla’s worries, fears and anxieties to life on the screen.  She broadcasts her entire life over social media as so many kids do these days, and I had to laugh when the script called for the line, “Nobody uses Facebook anymore” because I have literally heard that comment from middle school girls.

While the film does not really have the typical narrative structure of a movie, the subject matter is akin to that sort of atypical platform.  It is very much like a middle school kid and it fits very well.  The film follows this final week and the events that happen bring great effect to Kayla.

I must say that there is a beautiful scene around a fire between Kayla and her father which is how all parents should deal with their daughters.

Eighth Grade is a wonderful movie that has an authentic tone and feel to it and it deals with real life topics without hyperbole.  It contains several spectacular performances and makes you squirm in your seat more than once.

4.4 stars

The Darkest Minds

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No… these characters are NOT the X-Men.  Nope.  Not at all.

A mysterious “illness” swept across the country doing one of two things to all the children.  It either killed them or it gave them some sort of super power through genetically altering them (see…not X-Men.  No mutants!). The government responded to this, of course, by rounding the remaining children up and putting them into camps.

Each child was tested and they were given a level of danger, ranked by color.  Red was the highest and followed by orange.  These two sets of children were automatically put to death.  The remaining levels of yellow, blue and green were kept in the camps and forced into manual labor.

Even the President’s son (Patrick Gibson) was one of the altered kids, but the president (the terribly underused Bradley Whitford) apparently cured him.

Meanwhile, young Ruby (Lidya Jewett) survived the disease but had not shown her ability until one night she accidentally wiped herself out of the memory of her parents.  Taken to the camp, she spent six years there as the time jumps forward ( I guess nothing of importance happened in that time frame).  Teen Riby was then played by Amanda Stenberg.

At this point, she escaped and joined up with a ragtag bunch of mutan…errrr … um… survivors to try and find the mysterious Slipkid, a rebel helping powered people learn their powers (so NOT Charles Xavier).

Okay, I am going to go really geeky on you for a minute because this really distracted me throughout the entire film.  These power levels were so messed up.  First of all, those characters with mind control powers were listed in the orange section as the second most dangerous.  Ruby was one of those, and, at first, she could only do her mind voodoo if she made skin-to-skin contact (no NOT at all like Rogue), but she later developed it into being able to use it at a distant.  If anyone thinks that mind control isn’t at the highest level of danger, they are just foolish.  Then, when we see Red level characters, they are simply fire breathing characters.  Scary visual but nothing to it.

Then, in the blue level, they included telekinetic powers.  No way.  These powers are way more dangerous than the fire breathers and should be in the orange section while the mind control should be red.  One of the ragtag bunch Ruby meets is Liam (Harris Dickinson) and he is a TK.  At one point in the film, he (SPOILER, if you care) kills a group of five reds by himself easily.  That should prove how dangerous he was.(END OF SPOILER).  He even speaks of how the League (which is a group that are militarizing the survivors to do battle with the government) was trying to teach him to break arms with his TK.  Um… how much longer before you are breaking necks, baby?

Sorry, but that whole color thing distracted me the entire film.

The characters are basic and not that exciting.  They are clearly tied closely to the X-Men and are lesser versions.  Amanda Stenberg is good, but she does so many dumb things that I couldn’t believe it.  I wanted to yell at her to wake up.

This film is based on a YA novel of the same name by Alexandra Bracken and that was something I did not know at first, but it makes sense.  The whole thing feels thrown together with too much included but not enough world building for the movie to be effective.  I assume there are more details in the novel that might help put this into context.  Like, for example, have people stopped having children now?  The film never covers that but it certainly implied that there were no children left. If this was a disease, shouldn’t it be okay for people to have more children?  Is that disease still in the air?

The other problem was that the ending of the movie is completely unsatisfying and exists to simply encourage a sequel (HINT, HINT… this one ain’t getting one of those).

This was a very poorly executed movie with characters that will be so much more entertaining and fleshed out when Marvel Studios finally puts out their X-Men movies.

1.5 stars

 

 

Christopher Robin

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I really feel like a Woozle right now.

I was very disappointed with the saccharine-sweet Christopher Robin, the new film featuring the characters of A.A. Milne which tells the story of what would happen if Christopher Robin grew up and forgot about the Hundred Acre Woods and his dear friend Winnie the Pooh.

I was really looking forward to this film because I was a fan of Winnie the Pooh as a youth.  Heck, as a child, I had a stuffed Pooh bear on my bed for years.  I anticipated an emotional swelling with tears and a sweeping wave of nostalgia to overtake me making me wish for the old days passed.

Instead, I have a tooth ache from all the sugary sap that was shoved at the story, a story that was sadly too simple to suffice.  And yes… that was a lot of alliteration.

Yes, there are some scenes that work here as well.  Christopher Robin is not a total loss, but they really try their best to remind you of your childhood.  The characters such as Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl all get their classic lines, and Pooh himself spouts off his backward wisdom throughout the movie.  Most of that is harmless and fun.

Much of the film concept is similar to Hook, the Robin Williams movie where Peter Pan grows up and loses himself.  This time though it is Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor).  I have to say, I never thought Robin was his last name, although it was in this film.  I always thought it was a middle name and that fact distracted me every time he was called Robin by one of the rotten businessmen such as Giles (Mark Gatiss).

The movie was desperately predictable, formulaic and took zero chances.  It was exactly what you would expect if you heard the premise.

I did like the design of the animated characters.  They were made to look very much like the stuffed toys that they are.  There were some sight gags that were used with this, but those grew tiresome quickly.  Brad Garrett voiced Eeyore, a role that he has been playing since Everybody Loves Raymond.  Hayley Atwell is here too as Christopher Robin’s wife Evelyn, but she is wasted having little to do.  And speaking of wasted, Toby Jones (who voices Owl) is one of the office workers at Christopher Robin’s job.  There is not one office worker that Christopher Robin is trying to keep employed that is anything more than a glorified extra.  I’m not sure why I should feel anything for these people losing their jobs.

Ewan McGregor does fine as the Gin Rummy-hating adult Christopher Robin, who is shown as a deadbeat dad to daughter Madeline (Bronte Carmichael).  There is not much to the character of Madeline.  She’s basically a little girl.

You wouldn’t think they could mess this up, but the Christopher Robin movie is simply not what it should have been.  You can take your kids to the movie and they should like it enough but there is nothing here that will make you fall in love with Pooh and his friends if you aren’t already invested in them.

The disappointment makes this movie feel worse than it is.

2.4 stars

 

EYG Top 10 Break-Up Movies

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Another Tuesday and another Top 10 Show.  This week’s list was a tough one to guess.  I thought maybe we would go negative with worst spy films, or maybe we would do something connected to Christopher Robin, but instead, in honor of The Spy Who Dumped Me, the topic became Top 10 Break-Up Movies.

This was still a challenging list to compile as this type of film generally falls into a category that is not my favorite.  I must say though that I really enjoy my current schedule with Tuesday off which allows me to watch some of the recommended films from John and Matt before I have to write my own list.  I watched 3 films today from this genre and two of them have made the list.  Unfortunately, I only have a few more weeks of this to enjoy as school will be restarting later in the month of August.

I ended up liking my list quite a bit as I had several on here that neither John or Matt included.

#10.  Legally Blonde.  The tenth spot continues to be that film that is a guilty pleasure and this week, the Reese Witherspoon vehicle, Legally Blonde lands here.  Reese’s character Elle Woods breaks up with her boyfriend because he was going to attend Harvard and she wanted to prove to him that she was more than a beautiful blonde.  The film was silly and quite a bit of fun with the fish-out-of-water trope.

 

#9.  La La Land.  This was the spot that I debated over.  It was between this movie and about two other choices.  I wound up choosing La La Land but truthfully, I could have swapped it out just as easily.  I was never a giant fan of the musical, but I did enjoy the dancing and the music, in particular.  The end of the movie was a gigantic risk and turned out wonderfully, playing off the characters’ development and struggles.  It was a well done movie that wound up a bit overrated.  Great performances from Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.

 

#8.  Her.  Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson are amazing in this film.  Johansson is, arguably, never better despite never actually appearing on screen.  The futuristic film was a strange one to watch, but, despite that, really covered the realm of human emotion and loneliness that we all have felt at some point in our lives.  Wouldn’t we all have loved to have had a Samantha to talk to and share our lives with.  Her was written, directed, and produced by Spike Jonze.

 

#7.  Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.  This is a huge cult hit despite the fact that it was not much of a box office smash.  Based on a graphic novel, Scott Pilgrim is played by Michael Cera who has to fight off the legion of ex-boyfriends of the woman of his dreams, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.  One of the ex-boyfriends is played by the always epic Captain America, Christ Evans.  The video game style movie ending was fun and creative too.

 

#6.  Silver Linings Playbook.  Bradley Cooper lost his wife after coming out of the psychiatric hospital where he was for his bipolar disorder and his life was crashing around him.  A young woman, played by Jennifer Lawrence, agreed to help him try and re-win his wife.  In exchange, she wanted him to join her in a dance contest.  This does not sound like a film that I would have enjoyed that much, but I really did like it.

 

#5.  Casablanca.  One of the greatest movies of all time was another film that did not make it on the Top 10 list today, which is surprising.  Maybe they did not consider it enough of a “break-up” movie because the break-up ends at the end of the movie.  Although Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund did have  a previous relationship that ended in a split up.  “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”

 

#4.  (500) Days of Summer.  This is one of the three films I watched today for this list and I found this one remarkably charming and original.  I really enjoyed the format of the film which was narratively different than any film that I had seen.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt was great in this film where he was in love with Zooey Deschanel, though she specifically tells him she does not want a boyfriend.  Again, it was not a film that I would not be quick to watch, but I was engaged the entire time.

 

#3.  Mrs. Doubtfire.  The Robin Williams smash hit featured the immediate break up of the parents Daniel and Miranda Hillard after Miranda (Sally Fields) just can’t take it any more.  Because of the break -up, Daniel went to some extremes in order to spend time with his kids.  Robin Williams is his typical frenetic self as he is dressed in old lady drag and using that quick wit to make each ridiculous situation extremely funny.

 

#2.  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotted Mind.  Here is the second film to make this list that I watched today that I had never seen before.  It was another one where the narrative was not just told int he same old manner and it was remarkably creative and original.  Jim Carrey gives a really strong performance throughout, mixing mostly serious with a few farcical scenes.  I love how some of these movies take the same basic idea and include some amazing creative ideas to provide us with a new viewing experience that is unlike anything we have seen.  Along with Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kristin Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Woods and Tom Wilkinson are all fantastic in this movie. I am so glad I got a chance to see this.

 

#1.  The War of the Roses.  As I was researching these movies, War of the Roses popped up and I immediately said, “That’s number one!”.  I loved this dark comedy with Michael Douglas and Kathryn Turner as a married couple who just cannot stand one another any more but who both want to keep the house that they built together.  Instead of compromising, the Roses, try to pull every trick int he book which devolves into maniacal efforts against each other.  Danny DeVito is awesome here as the lawyer who just wants to help this couple get away from one another.  The War of the Roses really takes the break-up of a marriage to a new level of discourse and is unbelievably dark and funny.

 

Honorary Mentions:  (The film I watched today, but did not make the top 10) Chasing Amy, Manchester by the Sea, Kramer vs. Kramer, The Room (Ha Ha).

 

+EYG23

Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind

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There have been a few times where a celebrity death has affected me strongly. I mean, I am always sad for the loss or for their family, but very few have been a reaction for me.  Robin Williams’ death was like a kick in the gut.

I remember where I was when I learned of the death of this iconic man.  I was at the movie theater in the Quad Cities (now it is called Cinemark, but it may have been something else at the time) waiting to watch a Fathom Events special premiere of The Giver and I had checked Twitter.  I could not believe it.  The film had a pre-show live event and they spoke about him on it as well.  They interviewed Jeff Bridges who was clearly in shock over the news.  It was a surreal night.

I loved Robin Williams and that loved dated back to his days as Mork, first on Happy Days and then on Mork and Mindy.  He was larger than life and I had never seen anything like him.

You get that feeling again in the HBO documentary, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind.  It is a marvel that someone like Robin Williams was able to be shared with us for such a short time that you never really believe how lucky we were.

The documentary tells Robin’s whole life, touching on his childhood, but focusing much more on his rise to fame and his effect on people around him.  We hear from his famous friends such as Billy Crystal, Bobcat Goldthwait, Pam Dawber and his family members too.  The documentary does not shy away from the drugs and alcohol which was a constant struggle for the comedian, though it only touches upon the depression over a diagnosis of Parkinson’s late in his life,

The main component of the doc though is to show just how remarkable the man was.  They shared stories about Robin, highlighted with clips from movies, stand up specials and other events that clearly established how incredibly quick witted and explosively funny Robin was.

There were a lot of videos that I had not expected to see, including Robin in an improv class among others.

And I laughed hard at several of the scenes.

2018 has been a great year for documentaries as this is the fifth exceptional one I have seen so far.  With RBG, Three Identical Strangers, the Andre the Giant one, and Mr. Rogers, the Robin Williams doc is in great company.  If you are a fan of Robin Williams, you need to see this movie.

4.3 stars

The Verdict (1982)

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There was a tweet late last week from John Rocha, one of the Top 10 Show hosts and film connoisseur, recommending the film starring Paul Newman as an alcoholic, down on his luck lawyer who was handed a huge case in The Verdict.  I had heard Rocha and his co-host talk about The Verdict on another show and I was interested in seeing it so I searched it out.

The Verdict is a wonderfully acted and taut story of a pregnant woman who had been given the incorrect anesthesia during a surgical procedure that led to her having brain damage and slipping forever into a coma.

Lawyer Frank Galvin (Paul Newman) turned down an initial offer of $210,000 from the Church and the hospital in Boston where the two highly respected doctors involved were on staff.  This was probably the one area where I had some problems with the film.  It is known that a lawyer is duty-bound to present any settlement offers to his/her clients before rejecting it.  In the movie, Frank rejects the offer without checking with the victim’s sister and the sister’s husband.  In fact, the couple were very mad at turning down the money, since they could have used it.  That was a major faux pas.

Frank started the case for the money, but along the way, after he went and saw the victim, he gained perspective on life and the unfairness of the situation.  Newman really played the character well, highlighting the desperation and guilt over the chance that he could lose the case.  You can see the progression of the character from an angry drunk to someone who is ready to fight.

The Verdict seems to also have something to say about the way the court process works, as the judge, defense attorney and even Frank himself are shown doing things that benefit themselves that even border on malpractice.  The Judge (Milo O’Shea) is a reprehensible figure who tanks a round of questioning by Frank because he wanted to break until the afternoon and lunch was waiting for him.  Justice was far from his mind. Then the defense attorney, a big time lawyer named Ed Concannon (James Mason), had his own dirty dealings in the case.

Charlotte Rampling, who played Laura, a woman Frank met and became intimate with but who had her own reasons, felt superfluous to the story and did not drive enough o the story to warrant her inclusion.  She did fine in what she did, but it just felt unnecessary.

The Verdict was a fascinating movie filled with flawed people and a jury system that has its bugs as well.  Newman is outstanding and the whole cast does great work.  The Verdict was a five-time Oscar nominated film, including for Best Picture, Best Actor (Newman) and Best Supporting Actor (Mason).

vintage

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LOST Episodes Ranked

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Here it is.  The official EYG LOST rankings of episodes #113 to #1.  This has been a fun month or so rewatching this EYG Hall of Fame series that redefined so much about television.  Placing this list in order is very difficult because there were very few poor episodes of LOST.  Most of them were really good to exceptional and fell together.  Because of that, some episodes that feel like they should be a higher number may be lower than expected.  Anyway…here we go.

#113.  S3 E9 Stranger in a Strange Land.  This is the easiest of the episodes to rank because it is clearly the worst LOST episode.  Jack and his tats.

#112.  S 2 E11 Fire + Water.  Charlie dealing with his drug addiction way too late and doing things way out of character.  This is the birth of Dark Charlie, but it thankfully only lasted a few episodes.

#111.  S1 E13 Hearts & Minds.  Boone is in love with Shannon and Locke gives him some weird-o commune drugs to make him see what the Island wants him to see… which is Shannon getting killed by the Smoke Monster.

#110.  S1 E22 Born to Run. Kate enlists Sun’s help to try and poison one of the guys on the raft so they cannot leave and Kate can continue to run.

#109.  S2 E5 …And Found.  Sun loses her wedding ring and we meet Jae for the first time.

#108.  S6 E10  The Package.  Desmond is brought to the Island in Charles Widmore’s sub.  Sun hits her head and forgets how to speak English.

#107.  S4 E6  The Other Woman.  Juliet has a relationship with the married Goodwin, and Ben doesn’t like that.  This is one of the few episodes where Ben shows some kind of crazy stalker desire for Juliet.

#106.  S2 E16. The Whole Truth.  A Sun and Jin flashback episode where Sun finds out that she is pregnant.  Jin wants the whole truth and Sun lies to him, though we do not know that she is lying.

#105.  S1 E3 Tabula Rasa.  The first flashback episode as we learn more about Kate and Mars.  Sawyer shoots Mars but misses the heart forcing Jack to put him out of his misery.

#104.  S3 E1 A Tale of Two Cities.  Jack, Kate and Sawyer are brought to Hydra Island and we are introduced to Juliet.

#103.  S1 E21 The Greater Good.  Boone’s funeral and Locke returns leading to trouble.  Shannon tries to shoot John because she thinks he killed Boone.

#102.  S1 E6 House of the Rising Sun.  Sun reveals to Michael that she can speak English as she tries to protect Jin from a misunderstanding.

#101.  S2 E22 Three Minutes.  Michael’s trip after Walt in detail.  He is captured by the Others and offered a deal that if he finds a way to release “Henry” that he and Walt would be reunited.

#100.  S6 E3 What Kate Does.  Kate escapes Mars again in her flash-sideways and hijacks a taxi with Claire inside.  However, Kate does not run and returns to help Claire.

#99.  S4 E10 Something Nice Back Home.  Jack’s appendix needs to be removed which falls to Juliet to do.

#98.  S1 E12 Whatever the Case May Be.  Kate discovers a pond and in the pond is some more wreckage of 815, including the case carried by Mars.  Inside there is something that Kate must have back.

#97.  S5 E5 This Place is Death.  The group continues to flash through time on the Island and John is ready to do what he can to stop it.

#96.  S1 E15 Homecoming.  Claire returns suffering from amnesia after being grabbed by Ethan.

#95.  S1 E5 White Rabbit.  Jack chases after the vision of his father who leads him to water and Adam and Eve.

#94.  S3 E2 The Glass Ballerina.  Sun flashback episode where her infidelity is revealed.  Jack and Ben make a deal over his back surgery.

#93.  S4 E8 Meet Kevin Johnson.  The Island is not through with Michael yet and so Michael is pulled back from the edge of suicide to find himself on the freighter as Ben’s spy.

#92.  S4 E2 Confirmed Dead.  We see how the characters from the freighter are recruited by Widmore.  Meanwhile, the people on the Island start to doubt the motives of the freighter crew.

#91.  S6 E5 Sundown.  Down goes the Temple.  The Smoke Monster attacks the Others at the Temple killing them all.

#90.  S1 E17 …In Translation.  The same story basically as House of the Rising Sun, but from Jin’s POV.  Someone set the raft on fire.

#89. S3 E3 Further Instructions.  John Locke living at a commune.  On Island, Locke tries to save Mr. Eko from the polar bears.

#88.  S4 E4 Eggtown.  Kate is on trial for her list of crimes after she returns as one of the Oceanic 6.

#87.  S2 E18  The Long Con.  Sawyer sets up a long con in order to get his hands on the guns and the medication.  Sawyer says there is a new sheriff in town.  This might be higher up the list if Sawyer had maintained the attitude for longer.

#86.  S2 E18 What Kate Did.  Kate blows up her “step”-father Wayne and tells her mother about it.  Mistake as she turns Kate in to police, starting her time on the run.

#85.  S3 E12 Par Avion.  Claire meets her real father Christian.  On Island, she tries to catch a migratory bird.

#84.  S3 E11  Enter 77.  Sayid, Locke, Kate and Danielle find a Dharma outpost with Mikhail manning it.

#83.  S2 E19  S.O.S.  Rose and Bernard flashback episode where we learn that Rose had cancer before coming to the Island, but that she was now cancer-free.

#82.  S3 E18.  D.O.C.  Juliet takes Sun to the medical Hatch to see when she conceived her baby.

#81.  S2 E15 Maternity Leave. What happened to Claire during the time that she was abducted by Ethan?  We find out here, including several tidbits about the mysterious Others.

#80.  S3 E15.  Left Behind.  Kate and Juliet wind up being handcuffed together in the jungle as the Others left them behind.

#79.  S1 E8  Confidence Man.  Sayid and Jack strap Sawyer to a tree to torture him in order to find Shannon’s asthma medication.

#78.  S5 E2 The Lie. The Oceanic 6 agree that they must tell the world a lie about where they have been in order to protect their friends they left on the Island.  Hurley is very uncomfortable.

#77.  S1 E10. Raised by Another.  Claire is told by a psychic that she must be the person to raise her child or else bad things will happen.  This would also be higher on the list if the credibility of the psychic isn’t called into question.

#76.  S1 E9 Solitary.  Sayid leaves camp, ashamed about his actions against Sawyer and he finds Danielle Rousseau, the French woman.

#75.  S4 E7 Ji Yeon.  The show plays both a flash forward (Sun giving birth) and a flashback (Jin rushing to hospital for business).

#74.  S5 E6  316.  The Oceanic 6 (sans Aaron) get on the Ajira flight 316 that is heading over the window of the Island, according to Ms. Hawkins at the Lamppost station.

#73.  S5 E9 Namaste.  Sawyer arranges for Jack, Kate and Hurley to be on the sub and join the Dharma Initiative.

#72.  S6 E8 Recon.  Sawyer heads over to Hydra Island to see what he can find out about the Ajira plane.  Instead, he finds Charles Widmore.

#71.  S1 E14 Special.    Michael and Locke need to bond together in order to save Walt from a polar bear.

#70.  S2 E4 Everybody Hates Hugo. Hurley is put in charge of the food in the Hatch and fears that everybody would turn on him, just like everybody did when he won the lottery.

#69.  S5 E13 Some Like It Hoth.  Hurley and Miles have a bonding moments talking about their fathers and their super powers.  Miles reveals that Dr. Chang is his father.

#68. S1 E11 All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues.  Jack turned his father in for being drunk while he operated.  On Island, Hurley takes a census and discovered that Ethan was not on the plane.

#67.  S2 E6 Abandoned.  Shannon sees a vision of Walt.  She runs into the Tailies coming across the Island and Anna-Marie shoots her by accident.

#66.  S2 E2 Adrift.  The story of what happened to Michael and Sawyer and how they survived on the raft is told.

#65.  S5 E11 Whatever Happened, Happened.  After Sayid shot little Ben, Kate and Sawyer go to extreme measures to save the life of the child.

#64.  S3 E6 I Do.  Kate’s marriage to Kevin is shown.  Meanwhile on the Island, Jack’s plan to get Sawyer and Kate to safety is underway.

#63.  S5 E10 He’s Our You. The Others take Sayid to their “torturer” in order to get him to tell the truth.  Sayid does, but they do not believe him.

#62.  S1 E19  Deux Ex Machina.  Locke meets his real father, Anthony Cooper, who cons Locke out of his kidney.

#61.  S2 E7 The Other 48 Days. This episode tells what happened during the first 48 days on the Island to the Tail section survivors.

#60.  S5 E4 The Little Prince.  The Island is flashing through time causing the on Island people to start to get nose bleeds.

#59.  S1 E20 Do No Harm.  Boone dies in an emotional moment.  Jack planned on amputating Boone’s leg in an effort to save him, but Boone was a “sacrifice that the Island demanded.”

#58.  S3 E4 Every Man for Himself.  In flashback, we see Sawyer con his way out of prison and we learn that Cassidy had Sawyer’s baby, Clementine.

#57.  S3 E16 One of Us.  Juliet arrives back at the survivors’ camp and is not very welcome.  Claire gets sick and Juliet is able to help her.

#56.  S2 E8 Collision.  After Ana-Lucia shot Shannon, she holds Sayid prisoner and demands supplies from Michael.

#55.  S4 E3 The Economist.  Sayid has become an assassin and he is killing people involved with Charles Widmore…all for Ben Linus!

#54.  S1 E7 The Moth. Jack gets trapped in a cave in and Charlie tries to get him out, despite suffering form withdrawals from his heroin habit.

#53.  S2 E11 The Hunting Party.  Jack, Locke, Sawyer go after Michael, who has taken off after Walt.  Kate gets captured and the Others, led by Tom, shows their strength.

#52.  S6 E13 The Last Recruit.  Sawyer leads a rebellious escape from the Locke/Smokie, but jack decides to stay on the Island and jumps off the boat.

#51.  S5 E14 The Variable.  Daniel Faraday thinks he has the answer to their time travel trouble.  He says detonate the Jughead bomb in the Swan station electromagnetic pocket.  He says that it would change the future.

#50.  S2 E21    ?.  Locke and Mr. Eko find the Pearl station and Locke loses his faith even more.

#49.  S3 E17 Catch-22.  Desmond has one of his visions of Charlie’s death, but this time, Desmond wants the vision to come true.

#48.  S6 E12 Everybody Loves Hugo.  In the flash-sideways, Hugo meets up with Libby and they break  out of the spell and remember.

#47.  S5 E15 Follow the Leader.  The 1977 Losties start to leave Dharma and violence erupts.  Locke starts to lead the Others to Jacob.

#46.  S6 E5 Lighthouse.  Jacob had Hurley take Jack to the Lighthouse and show him the wheel in order to get them out of the Temple.

#45.  S4 E1 The Beginning of the End.  Hurley, one of the Oceanic 6, winds up back at the mental institution when he starts seeing Charlie coming to see him.

#44.   S1 E18 Numbers.  Hurley wins the lottery by playing the mysterious numbers, 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, which brings Hugo nothing but bad lick.

#43.  S4 E12 There’s No Place Like Home, Part 1.  The first part of the season finale for season 4.  Some of the survivors are transported to the freighter. Locke and Ben head to the Orchid.

#42.  S1 E16 Outlaws.  Sawyer kills a man in Australia, mistakenly believing that it was the real Sawyer.  On the Island, Sawyer and Kate hunt a boar that seems as if it has a grudge with Sawyer.

#41.  S2 E20  Two for the Road.  Michael returned to the camp and winds up shooting Libby and killing Ana-Lucia in order to help “Henry” escape.

#40.  S2 E1 Man of Science, Man of Faith.  Locke and Jack argue over the Hatch.  Locke eventually heads on down and we meet Desmond for the first time.

#39.  S3 E5 The Cost of Living.  Mr. Eko confronts the Smoke Monster and gets killed by the smoke.

#38.  S2 E14  One of Them.  We meet “Henry” for the first time, trapped in one of Rousseau’s traps.  Hurley and Sawyer hunt a tree frog.

#37. S4 E11 Cabin Fever.  We see the early life of John Locke including the never aging Richard coming to see the prematurely born Locke.

#36.  S1 E23 Exodus, Part 1.  We arrive at the Black Rock for dynamite to blow open the Hatch.  The raft starts on its journey.

#35.  S2 E17 Lockdown.  A buzzer goes off causing the Swan station to go into lockdown.  John’s legs get pinned under the blast doors and Henry helps.

#34.  S3 E21 Greatest Hits.  Charlie remembers the best moments of his life as he prepares to head down to the Looking Glass on a suicide mission.

#33.  S3 E7 Not in Portland.  Juliet gets recruited by the Others to come to the Island.  In present time, Jack completes Ben surgery and Kate and Sawyer escape after Juliet shoots Danny.

#32.  S2 E10 The 23rd Psalm.  Mr. Eko confronts the Smoke Monster and we get the best look at the “security system” yet.  The Smoke Monster leaves Mr.Eko alone.

#31.  S2 E18  Dave.  Hurley starts to hallucinate on the Island, seeing the imaginary friend he had while in the mental institution.

#30.  S5 E1 Because You Left.  Jack and Ben try to reunite the Oceanic 6 and convince them to return to the Island.

#29.  S6 E4 The Substitute.  In the flash-sideways world, Locke tries to come to balance with his paralysis and exactly what he “can’t do.”

#28.  S1 E24/25 Exodus, Part 2.  Part two of  the first season finale, where Locke blows open the hatch and Danielle kidnaps Aaron.

#27.  S3 E19 The Brig.  John Locke comes and gets Sawyer so he can kill Anthony Cooper, who is now mysteriously on the Island.

#26.  S5 E12 Dead is Dead.  Ben summons the Smoke Monster and is judged for his allowing Alex to be killed.

#25.  S6 E16 What They Died For.  The penultimate episode of LOST where the ghost of Jacob comes to the remaining candidates and answers their questions.

#24.  S5 E3 Jughead.  In their flashing around time. John, Faraday, Miles, Sawyer end up in the 50s and come to the Others camp.  The Others have a bomb.

#23.  S3 E14 Expose. Paolo and Nikki’s flashback episode where we find out that they are diamond thieves and their own selfishness leads to them being buried alive.  Many fans dislike this episode, but to me, it is one of the best.

#22.  S2 E3 Orientation.  We get a chance to see the first orientation video, this one for the Swan, where you have to keep pushing the button to save the world.

#21.  S6 E15 Across the Sea.  The origin story of Jacob and the Man in Black.  Mother finds the pregnant woman, helps her give birth, takes the twins and kills her.  This is another regularly hated episode that I believe is really strong.

#20.  S5 E8 LaFleur.  We see how Sawyer, Juliet, Jin and Miles become part of the Dharma Initiative and we see Sawyer talk to the never aging Richard.

#19.  S6 E7 Dr. Linus.  Ben has the desire for power in the flash-sideways, but will he sacrifice Alex’s future to get it?  This is very much a parallel to what happened on the Island and Ben makes the right choice this time.

#18.  S6 E1/2 LA X.  It seems that Oceanic Flight 815 landed safely at the airport in LA, but there are some strange differences.  Then, how are they all still back on the Island, now in present day?

#17.  S1 E4 Walkabout.  Don’t tell John Locke what he can’t do!  The flashback shows John trying to go on his Australian walkabout but being denied because he is paralyzed.  Shocking surprise since we know Locke on the Island can walk fine.

#16.  S3 E10 Tricia Tanaka is Dead.  A funny Hurley flashback episode.  On the Island, Hurley finds an old Dharma Initiative van (the one with Ben Linus’s dead father in it) and decides that they need a win and they have to get it running. This features some of the best Sawyer-Jin dialogue of the series.

#15.  S5 E7 The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham.  We see how John Locke, after failing to get any of the Oceanic 6 to return to the Island, winds up in the coffin.  Ben killed him!  And that was after Ben talked John out of doing it.  A truly sad end for one of the best characters on LOST.

#14.  S3 E20 The Man Behind the Curtain.  We find out the back story of Ben Linus, including the fact that he was not born on the Island as he had always said.  We also learn that he, along with the Others, was responsible for the mass murder of the Dharma Initiative.

#13.  S4 E9 The Shape of Things to Come.  This tells us what happened to Ben after he turned the donkey wheel and wound up in Tunisia.  He ends the episode face to face with Widmore and told him he was going to kill his daughter.

#12 S2 E23/24 Live Together, Die Alone.  The Others capture Jack, Hurley, Kate and Sawyer.  Meanwhile, John has locked himself inside the Hatch and has decided that the button would no longer be pushed.  Desmond discovered that he accidentally crashed Oceanic 815.

#11.  S6 E14 The Candidate.  Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Jin, Sun, Hurley, Sayid, and Lapidus steal the submarine and try to escape only to realize too late that it was a trap from the Man in Black.  This is the episode that saw the deaths of Sayid, as well as Jin and Sun.

#10.  S6 E11 Happily Ever After.  Desmond Hume has everything he ever wanted in the flash-sideways, except for love.  Fortunately, there is Charlie Pace here to show him the flashes of another world.  One where love is what is important.  Too bad Charlie had to drive Desmond’s car into the water to make the Scot see.  Another wonderful Desmond and Penny scene here as well.

#9.  S3 E13 The Man form Tallahassee.  John Locke was paralyzed, but we did not know how.  This episode we found out.  When John is approached about Anthony Cooper, he goes to try and stop his father from conning someone else.  Cooper shoved John out of an eighth floor window.  Locke’s very own father tried to kill his son.  It is no wonder Locke was suffering from such a depression when we first see him in the chair.

#8.  S4 E13/14 There’s No Place Like Home, Part 2.  We finally see how the Oceanic 6 wound up back in the real world. Jin blew up on the freighter (not really), Ben Linus turned the donkey wheel which resulted in moving the Island and Lapidus’s helicopter went down. Desmond and Penny are reunited in a lovely moment.

#7.  S5 E16/17 The Incident. We finally meet Jacob!  We see Jack really kick Faraday’s plan into gear to find Jughead and detonate the A-bomb in the location where the Swan station was going to be built.  If there is no Swan station, there is no button to push and 815 never crashes.  Or… is this what always happened and Jack detonating the bomb was always the incident?

#6.  S1 E1/2 Pilot.  Arguably, the best dramatic pilot of all time.  The first 20 minutes is as epic as you are ever going to see with our new hero Jack running across the beach desperately trying to save as many people as he can from this devastating plane cash.  Plus, there is some kind of monster in the jungle.  And polar bears.  Guys, where are we, INDEED!

 

#5.  S6 E9 Ab Aeterno.  An episode that is as good as many feature films that focuses on the back story of the never aging Richard and his tragic background.  This episode confirmed that Richard arrived on the Island by way of the Black Rock.  The writers threw in a beautiful love story between Richard and Isabella, that, through Hurley’s ability to talk to the dead, is revisited on the Island, saving Richard.  One of the best single flashback episodes ever.

 

#4.  S3 E8 Flashes Before Your Eyes.  The first Desmond “time travel” episode as Desmond tells what happened after he turned the key in the Swan Hatch.  His consciousness shot back to his days with Penny when they were happy and in love.  Desmond planned on proposing, but Ms. Hawkins told him he could not because he didn’t do it before and he could not change the past.  Whatever happened, happened.  What would have happened if Desmond had gone ahead and proposed?  Who knows.  But this was one more example of the magic between Penny and Desmond.

 

#3.  S3 E22/23 Through the Looking Glass.  Season three finale where we had the loss of Charlie, sacrificing himself so Desmond would be able to live.  Charlie still took the time to let Desmond know that the freighter off the coast of the Island was “Not Penny’s boat!”  We also followed along with Jack in the real world as he was addicted to pills and having a breakdown.  When could this be taking place?  Everybody’s mouths dropped when we found out that it was taking place in the future.  Jack was off the Island!  So was Kate as we saw her too.  What does that mean?  Is it the freighter who gets them off the Island?  Who else made it home?  So many questions brought up by this, one of the best cliffhanger endings to a season finale ever.

 

#2.  S6 E17 The End.  The final episode of LOST delivered in all kinds of ways, and I don;t care what anybody has to say about it.  It was an emotionally beautiful story that saw the final fate of our favorite survivors of Oceanic 815.  We saw the final battle between Jack and the Man in Black/John Locke.  We saw Jack pass on the mantel of leadership to Hurley because he knew he was going to die.  The End has brought me to tears every time I have watched it.  I know there are haters out there who think that LOST dropped the ball or did not explain enough of what was going on and they are welcome to their opinions, no matter how wrong they are.  The End is an epic finale for the greatest series ever.

 

#1.  S4 E5 The Constant.  This Desmond episode is one of the best hours of television you are going to see anywhere.  I absolutely love The Constant as Desmond’s consciousness jumped back between present day and his past and he desperately tried to stop the jumps from happening before it killed him.  How does he do it?  According to Faraday, he had to find a constant, something in common between both time lines.  That meant Penny.  The phone call between Penny and Desmond is electric, crackling with energy and chemistry.  It is the most creative hour of the entire series, and that is saying something.

 

So there it is.  All of the LOST episodes in order according to EYG.  You may have some differing opinions and that is fine, but this is the list for me.  Honestly, who knows how it might change over time.  That’s the great thing about television.

See you in another life, brother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Spy That Dumped Me

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The Spy Who Dumped Me Movie Poster

I saw a special preview of The Spy That Dumped Me tonight and it was probably not a good idea to see this movie so close to Mission Impossible: Fallout because there was no way to think about this as a spy movie after seeing that other one.

Audrey (Mila Kunis) had been dumped by her boyfriend Drew (Justin Theroux) and she, with the help of her best friend Morgan (Kate McKinnon), was trying to get over it.  However, she found out that Drew was actually a CIA agent and he gave her a package that needed to be delivered to Europe.  Suddenly, Audrey and Morgan are swept up in a convoluted story of international espionage and treason.

I’ll start with the positives, which this film did have.  I really enjoyed the chemistry on screen between Kunis and McKinnon.  They played best friends and they seemed to be that very way.  I bought the relationship between them and that is important since that is the true relationship driving the film.

There were some great actors and actresses appearing in the film beside them:  Paul Reiser, Jane Curtain, Gillian Anderson, and Hasan Minhaj.  Unfortunately, a lot of these actors had little to do in the story and were there for basic cameos.

We also see some growth in Kunis’ character as she goes from having a lack of confidence to being strong enough to become a kick ass spy.

Now, Kate McKinnon was hit and miss.  Her character was so over-the-top throughout the movie that at times she became annoying.  Other times, when she was downplaying her weirdness, the character was considerably more entertaining.  The dialogue between Kunis and McKinnon ranged from funny and witty to nothing but low brow jokes.  The inconsistencies hurt the film.  Then, if you really sat down and look at the plot, some of the twists make no sense and really screw up the narrative the film had been building.

The film also tried to be smarter than it is with a series of obvious twists that you could see coming a mile away.

There were moments in the movie where I found myself laughing, but it was never a lot of laughing.

I feel as if this movie had a chance to be better than it turned out and could have done with some rewriting to focus more on the characters and less on the events.  Though it was not as bad as I thought it could have been, The Spy Who Dumped Me was at best, average.  It certainly was not the best spy movie of the weekend.

2.5 stars