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.

I saw the trailer for this TV-mini on some obscure satellite channel and thought, hey that's a cool looking movie. I'm a huge sci-fi fan so naturally I had to see this. To my surprise it wasn't a feature film but a TV-mini series. That sort of put my high hopes into lower gear since quite a few sci-fi mini's has been either low budget looking or plain simply bad.

Well, I started to watch and I was slowly but surely sucked in and saw the entire set from start to finish. Yep 4½ hours non-stop watching. I just couldn't stop.

The story is so cleverly written that I was (and am) simply amazed. I have seen it four times now and every time I see something new or find new answers that I didn't see before. To come up with this kind of story and use it so well must come from some tremendously inventive minds. Everyday items with some special power that came to be because....well you just have to see for yourself.

The cast performance is top notch. I especially like the performance of Kevin Pollack as Karl Kreuzfeld, Dennis Christopher as Ruber and the absolutely superb, paranoid but believable performance of Ewen Bremmer as Harold Stritzke. Character development is good and even the shorter guest episode appearances like Ewen Bremmers are handled very well.

The effects and production design fits the story very well and are nicely executed. Add to this a well written score and you have a winner. I'm really, really glad they made this into a mini series and not a feature film because the running time is needed. It doesn't feel like it's dragging or boring anywhere but rather every minute is used wisely. It starts slowly and builds and adds to itself in an even pace.

Had they made this into a feature film I'm afraid it would probably have been destroyed by too much effects or too much action. Or even worse, the story been dumbed down to please audiences.

If you like clever sci-fi drama with nice twists and turns and a creative original story you absolutely have to see this. It beats soo many big budget movies at so many levels.

Really great stuff!

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.

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.

I was surprised when I checked the credits of this miniseries to see that it had not been based on a book. It feels like something based on a book, because it has such a complete and detailed mythology and a feeling of back story that is rare in the work of screenwriters. The Lost Room has created a very complete world for its characters and for its central premise.

It also, like a movie based on a book, feels like you can only get the full story by reading the book. One is left with a lot unknown. For the most part this is fine, but I don't care for the fact that at the end you really don't understand .... well .... anything. Although I'll admit that even though I was worried that this would be the case, it didn't bother me all that much, because the story had good forward propulsion and a resolution that was emotionally satisfying although not intellectually so.

Since this isn't from a book, my guess would be they're considering this for a TV series, both because some threads seem to have been left loose on purpose and because it does feel like there's more you could mine out of the material. I hope I'm right about that, I would like to see more. But if it is a series, they'd better come up with some answers.