The Lost Room

I have to give this movie very high marks because it maintained an incredibly high level of suspense, surprise and novelty through most of its 4.4 hour (without commercials) run-time. This is very unusual for the sci-fi genre - most ideas and plots are very well-known.

I won't give anything away about the story because the unusual plot is is part of the wonderful experience you'll get from watching this movie. Suffice it to say that the story follows a detective who comes across a very unusual key to a very unusual hotel room. Admittedly, it sounds like the movie is going to be a bomb (what I thought), but it is anything but that.

Once you start watching - you'll be hard pressed to stop. The pace is excellent: something interesting is always going on - hardly a moment is wasted during the multi-hour runtime.

This movie could not have been as good without a good strong lead character. Peter Krause does a great job - he presents a well-balanced, intelligent and easy to like character. The supporting characters are pretty well done - even though some of them are a bit wacky. Everything seems to work.

One thing I really appreciated in the movie was the intelligence of its characters. There aren't any ridiculous decisions that are made to advance the plot (or remove characters). In fact, they are mostly very smart ones - so you don't feel shortchanged by the story or the filmmakers. Applaud them in this case. It really makes a story go from interesting to fascinating.

Is it perfect? I can squabble about a few things towards the end - but it doesn't matter. What matters is that I was strongly entertained for 4.4 hours and am going to watch it again.

I could go on, but you'd be better served by watching the movie. This level of film-making will appeal to all moviegoers. Strongly recommended for all.

Though I like fantasy and SF, I have to admit to being fondest of rule-based fantasy, like that of Tim Powers -- as a reader or viewer, you have an idea of what's possible and impossible, despite the supernatural elements of the story. Fantasy without rules is far less satisfactory, since characters in those stories can do whatever the writer arbitrarily decides they can do (or can't), and as a result, the writing is lazier.

"The Lost Room" is all about rules and the characters who find creative ways to abuse them. (Tim Powers fans would like it, I'm sure.) The writers have come up with cool supernatural powers for a host of innocuous looking objects (combs, pens, cards, bus tickets, watches, a key, etc.) Each object has a power and rules to govern them. Many of the powers don't seem that nifty, until you see how creatively they are used. And, along those lines, virtually every scene contains a fun, "Hey, that's a good idea!" move, and they tend to come at you faster than you can anticipate them if you aren't taping the show and hitting pause.

What's best about this is that the writers stick with it all the way. Many of these shows go David Lynch/Twin Peaks on us, setting us up with the promise of great stuff to come, and then disappointing us in a big way later. (Dean Koontz novels always seem to fall apart in this way, at least for me.) "The Lost Room" keeps up its promises all the way to the very end, which, like the rest of the miniseries, is clever and interesting and makes perfect sense in hindsight, given the rules.

I honestly can't think of the last time I saw a miniseries or movie of this ilk that pulled off its ending this well. It's a darned good miniseries, and I sincerely hope it becomes a full-blown series, as apparently is being considered.

Woof...just saw The Lost Room on Sci Fi. I wasn't expected much but boy was I surprised! Great miniseries and I'm hoping its one of those stealth pilots that might lead to a miniseries.

If you've read the 2 sentence blurb about the show (everyday objects, fantastics powers!) don't think you've got it. There are complexities underneath the surface of this show and it was very well done. The lead, Peter Krauss, used to be the lead on Six Feet Under. I expected higher profile roles for him after SFU died, and when I saw he signed on for Lost Room, I was disappointed. It sounded boring.

It isn't. Its a wild ride and I promise three things. You'll believe that Kevin Pollack can play menacing exceedingly well and Dennis Christopher isn't as cool as you remember him being back in Breaking Away about 100 years ago.

The last thing I can promise is that you will dig the show. Its supposedly coming on again in Jan 2007. If you haven't seen it, see it and tell your friends. This is one we want to get behind.

Scifi is starting to show up more and more often on my ReplayTV list. Being a huge science fiction fanboy geek, that's probably the way it always ought to have been but for years the channel was showing reruns of The Hulk and and old bad scifi TV. Lately, with BSG, Stargates (all flavors), hopefully soon for Painkiller Jane and Dresden Files, its finally coming into its own. I expect that in 2007, I may be watching it as much as I do HBO and Showtime and I pay for those! Now, if I could just get Scifi to stop showing stuff like Mansquito and the like, I'll be one happy damned camper.

While investigating a weird murder case in a pawn shop, Detective Joe Miller (Peter Krause) finds that a key opens any door to a mysterious hotel room in another dimension. Joe´s daughter Anna Miller (Elle Fanning), who is his pride and joy, is kidnapped by the criminal Weasel (Roger Bart) that proposes to swap the girl per the key. However, Anna flees and uses the key to escape from the criminals that retrieve the key. Weasel resets the door and Anna is lost in another dimension. Now her father learns that there are sects and people from the underworld using the power of the mysterious objects from the room and he teams up with Jennifer Bloom (Julianna Margulies) from The Legion and the millionaire and collector Karl Kreutzfeld (Kevin Pollak) expecting to rescue his beloved daughter.

"The Lost Room" is mini-series divided in six chapters - The Key, The Clock, The Comb, The Box, The Eye and the Occupant - with a fascinating premise. The story is a sort of "The Twilight Zone" with a good cast. Unfortunately there are many flaws in the conclusion that does not close many situations and forget important characters. Maybe the intention of the producers would be another season that was never done. Anyway the intriguing and original plot entertains. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

If you like Lost/Stephen King style mysteries, then you will love The Lost Room! I found this series in 2022 and the story still entertains (compared to many of the poor quality sci fi shows coming out today). You will binge watch the whole thing. It's that good!

It's a 4 part mini series adventure mystery similar to classic Stephen King mini series from the 90's. It reminds me of Lost or the X Files in terms of vibe.

This series does show it's age in terms of film style and acting/story tropes. Not anything story breaking but does stand out if you watch a lot of these kinds of stories.

I would give this 10/10 but it's the last episode that is weak. It's like everything was awesome but the way it wraps up is not up to the same bar as the rest of the show.

I did some research and found these 4 episodes were supposed to a pilot for a full series but that never happened. That's why it ends the way it does, so there is enough story for a full series.

Such a shame. So much potential for a great series.