User reviews

While traveling from Green Lawn, California, to meet his wife and son in Red Ridge, Nevada, the driver Jeremy Stanton (Dean Cain) gets lost in a secondary road through the desert following an old edition of the Road-Aid Travel Guide maps. He calls the Road-Aid operator Judy (Ashley Scott), who tries to give directions to her client. Meanwhile, the police is chasing the criminals that have committed a bank heist in California. When Jeremy's Mercedes Benz runs out gas, he finds an isolated gas station in the middle of nowhere that operates with cash-only. When Jeremy opens the truck of his car, he opens a bag full of money, disclosing the reason of his road-trip.

"Lost" is probably the lowest-budget movie I have ever seen. The story hooks the attention of the viewer until the very last scene, is flawed and predictable. First, it is annoying to see Jeremy Stanton wearing necktie in a totally stressed situation through the heat of the desert. How can a man feel relaxed wearing necklace? Second it was quite obvious how Archer was tracking him. Last but not the least, why exchange his brand-new car for an old truck in a desert road without any other vehicle? My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Lost – Sem Saída" ("Lost – Without Exit")

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. Some of the dialog was a bit contrived, but so what? It was still a wild ride with unexpected moments thrown in throughout. I thought Dean Cain did a good job.

This movie is like a poor man's Duel (which I consider a compliment.) Duel, I believe was Steven Spielberg's directorial debut as this is for Darren Lempke. He has real talent. He is very good at building up suspense. I also liked the way it ended -- it wasn't a cop-out. It had good camera work and everything made sense at the end, which often does not in these types of movies. It was a fun way to spend 90 minutes. P.S. I don't have a clue as to why a reviewer thought this movie was a sci-fi picture. It bears absolutely no resemblance to one.

This is a nice little movie. It's nothing too fancy or big but just provide some good decent 90 minutes to enjoy.

It's a good written story. They used all of the script its potential and it provides the movie with a couple of nice and original moments, despite its unoriginal and restrained concept, budget and settings. You can also really thank the director for that, who brings everything very stylish to the screen.

Still the story has some lesser and more silly parts. Such as the way the main character is leaving a trail is unbelievable. Hard to imaging that anyone could be really that dumb and obvious in a situation like that.

It's unfortunately also a movie that begins very well and has a good middle but toward the ending it starts to loose some of its power and creativity, when the story starts to loose more and more of its credibility. A shame really.

The acting is good surprisingly and it definitely uplifts the movie and makes it feel more professional than its budget would allow it to be. Dean Cain plays a good main character and he gives away a nice performance. And hey, it also has Danny Trejo in it as the main villain. We don't too often get to see him as such but his role is also more limited down as you would perhaps expect.

Still a movie well worth seeing.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

If you enjoy watching footage of someone driving around in the desert you'll love this movie. Lowest budget film I've ever seen. I could afford to make this movie and I'm currently unemployed. The plot fails for a movie script IMO. It might work as the basis for a short story which may be where it originated. The classic film starring Dennis Weaver comes to mind, the one where he is chased in his car by a lunatic truck driver. That film worked. There was constant suspense and many episodes of contact/conflict between weaver and the unknown truck driver. Lost falls flat because of the lack of interaction between the main character and the man chasing him.

I heard the movie was bad...I heard it was boring...I heard it was itself, lost. However, the mere thought of staring at Dean Cain, and only Dean Cain, for 90 minutes didn't seem like a bad idea...and at first, it seemed to pay off. The movie started off incredibly well-paced, the plot unfolded perfectly, as were learned more about Cain's character, and what he's doing lost in the desert. The movie hooked me quickly, and did manage to hold my interest through it's running time. Dean did a find job, as did Lemke, a first time director. However, the WRITING...it was atrocious. Somehow the writers envisioned the main character as a grown man, a business man, as someone who talks with people like a teenage boy to his toked up pals. I tryed counting how many times he said 'man', but I lost track. You know..."I can't believe this, man", "how could you do that, man?", "hey man, what's your problem?!". I mean, seriously...it got to be a bit much. Also, they had his character doing some of the most ridiculously stupid crap that any living person could do while lost in the desert...such as fail to ask a cop for directions, and trading in your perfectly functioning BMW for a $500 Ford truck, that you don't even know runs, for the sole reason that you want to avoid a cop that doesn't like you littering (at least, that's how it seemed, since there was really no point otherwise). Towards the end, the movie became so predictable, I was sure my assumption had to be wrong. It just couldn't be the resolution...it's too easy! Sure enough though, it was. Some great acting on Dean's part (for what he had to work with, anyway), an interesting story (before it took a wrong turn, no pun intended), and decent direction made this movie a 6/10; and surprisingly, I'd probably watch it again (perhaps something to do with staring at Dean Cain for 90 minutes, ).

It's fun to see a raw, well shot independent film every now and again and I do, in a way, feel privileged to have seen Lost despite the certain things that I thought kept it from being a great film although kept it at being a good film. It's difficult to pinpoint the exact genre for this film as it's really just a 'road movie/thriller' and revolves around a guy on a road in a desert trying to get home to his wife and child; he's also carrying some cargo but the surprise when it is revealed exactly what the cargo is is far too enjoyable for me to say so here.

The person who wrote and directed this film, Darren Lemke, has obviously paid close attention to certain thrillers and such from the past. Jeremy Stanton (Cain) driving along and getting into all sorts of rather illegal mischief is very reminiscent of Psycho (1960) especially when you realise what it is he's carrying and who he actually is; also, the fact he's pulled over by a state trooper is either supposed to remind us of how we felt when we saw Marion Crane asleep at the wheel in a lay-by when a police car pulled up or it's supposed to create a whole new feeling of paranoia within itself despite the fact the 'twist' of what it is he's actually got in the boot isn't revealed yet.

As Stanton attempts to make his way home, little obstacles that pop up are not only a little predictable but also a little anti-climatic. Like I said, it takes a while for what it is he's carrying to be revealed so any hindrance that occurs is purely going to frustrate him without leaving us on tenterhooks; needless to say that changes later on. Although this could be seen as quite clever, Stanton's reactions to things like: running low on petrol, not being able to communicate to a petrol station attendant due to a language barrier and as mentioned, being stopped by a state trooper aren't really as desperate nor do they make us think that maybe there's more at stake than merely getting home to his family.

I don't like to gripe at independent film's writing but the script is a little weary in Lost. Stanton makes trouble for himself on more than one occasion and to me, it was rather noticeable. Anyone who's seen a road movie before will know that usually the people in the car are in some sort of trouble and have to do their very best not to make things worst for themselves: simple, just drive and drive until you're home, right? Wrong, not in some films. In Thelma and Louise (1991), they were on the run and due to good writing, they avoided trouble most of the time, in a film called The Hit (1984) one character throws a piece of clothing out the window and another says something like: "That was a bit silly – it could act against us later as some sort of clue". As a result, in Lost, when Stanton throws several things from his car I immediately thought of that scene from The Hit. Stanton also makes things worse for himself on numerous other occasions, one of which occurs when he moves his 'cargo' from one large bag to several smaller ones meaning more luggage for him.

The film uses another convention it has; an operator called Judy (Scott) to good affect as she acts as Stanton's lifeline although the twist involving her was a little unbelievable just as it was able to plan the feeling of 'It's possible for them to do this twist but I hope they don't' inside of me. Along with this, the multiple problems Stanton comes up against does create good suspense so the director has obviously thought out how he's going to make it all work from a suspenseful point of view. Going into the film, don't expect anything too fantastic but it is a well made, well shot film that uses and borrows to good effect.

This movie was the worst (and most boring) movie I've seen in a long time, and that's quite an accomplishment. It tries so hard to be a professional movie, but none of the tries actually succeed. It's sad, really..

I don't think there where any plot-twists, and if anyone had told me this was the 'bloopers-version' of the real thing, I'd believed them straight away.

Total waste of time, money and effort, but thats just my 2c..

Regards,

Marno

As one of the four hundred people lucky enough to be present at the premier of this movie, I can honestly say it was one of the best psychological thrillers I've seen in years. This is a breakout performance for Dean Cain who, up to this point, has had to struggle to overcome the typecasting that comes with portraying a superhero (Lois and Clark, The New Adventures of Superman, 1993-97).

Lost is, as a previous review stated, PHONE BOOTH in a car. Cain fans will be pleased to know that 99% of the movie is All-Dean, All the Time. The range of emotion the actor shows is phenomenal and adds fantastic characterization to what could easily gone the other way and been boring if not done correctly. Writer Lemke has done a great job of keeping us on the edge of our seats. If there were anything bad to be said about the movie, it might have been that it started a bit slowly. However, that's been corrected and the first five minutes retooled. When this film reaches theaters, it will be worthy of recognition in the award department.

"Lost" is the perfect title for this movie. "Junk" would have been a good title. "Stinko" comes to mind also. I rented this movie, not knowing what to expect, because I didn't remember ever seeing it advertised. I had always enjoyed Dean Cain as Superman, so it can't be too bad, right? The entire film has you wondering if this is a sci-fi flick or what. I still don't know if it was a scifi film. It's full of flashbacks, but you will never have a clue as to what's being flashed back to. If you enjoy watching a guy drive around in circles in the desert, doing everything you probably shouldn't do in the desert, you may like this movie.

A snapshot of one day, perhaps the last day in the life of the main character, Lost is the story of a young banker that finds himself trying to escape the desert's unnamed roads and reach his highly needed destination in time. Of course, having to go from point A to point B through the arid land has a slightly more illicit goal than just sight-seeing Nevada, and early in the movie we see why this is the case and who and how he got involved in that adventure.

If nothing else, setting the movie the first 30 minutes does help to expect more from this adventure, and we are even willing to forgo or "understand" why from now on every other close-up frame of Mr. Stanton (Dean Cain) is him talking on the cell phone and driving. I have seen other comments here comparing the movie to Phonebooth (2002) which I find irresponsible and ill-dignifying of the later, unless is all right to compare movies by the simplest coincidence, in the case here, that two males are talking on telephones.

But beyond that, this is nothing but the Saturday morning cable-TV filler film that demands nothing from you and takes you as co-pilot with the hero (anti-hero? not so) seeing here, seeing there for so long, that its outcome is more than expected, even though you wished all along something else could have happened.

I must agree with other comments calling it boring, but what troubled me more was all the missed opportunities to go one step deeper and reveal, in parallel with the allegory of being lost in the desert, the inner struggle of the character for his actions, to whom he is impacting and how to deal with the results. The chances where there, but they were always "Lost".

Although Dean Cain was not among the candidates for the lead, he is the perfect lead for the role! His performance is multi-layered and intense.

The villain, played by a favorite villain actor, is well written and well acted. The premise of the movie does keep you guessing, and the surprise ending is, well, a surprise.

Refreshing, considering the studio product these days. No market research garbage here! (Sorry, suits!)

The director takes some chances that really pay off, and for an indie, it comes across very well done and satisfying!

The movie is, overall, quite well made for a first-time director. See it if you can!

all in all it was a pretty good flick,but a few questions need to be addressed;first off he was driving a brand new something perhaps a BMW i dunno couldn't really tell, but he did run low on fuel and had to stop and fill up,but later when he was driving the 1980,81 ford f-150 p.u. gas was no longer an issue.(i drove one of those gas hogs for years),and his ran pretty damn good for $500; 2.if archer was such a good Apache tracker why couldn't he see the rush cover-up job that Stanton did with his tire tracks in the sand when he hid behind the billboard? i mean the apache man did see a cigarette butt on the highway while doing 70!; 3. how in the hell did archer figure out he was using g.p.s. and Judy at that? but in the end i thought she was working with the feds and was leading him into a trap for a reward.

Lost (2004) had the misfortune of being named the exact same thing as one of the most popular TV-series of all times that started the same year and most likely got lost (pardon the pun) in all the commotion over THAT 'Lost'.

Not that they by any means are anything similar beyond the title.

No, if I was to compare it with something it would probably be 'LOCKE (2013)' (which funnily enough is one of the more popular characters names in the series, but that's beyond the point lol).

Anyway so yeah the reason I compare those is because more-part of the duration is the main character by himself in a car (mostly inside or always very close to it) and also taking a bunch of calls.

But where as 'LOCKE (2013)' had Tom Hardy to mantle a one man show, 'LOST (2004)' has Dean Cain.

Now don't get me wrong, I like Dean Cain a lot (he's my favorite Superman in fact) but he's no Tom Hardy and can't quite carry the movie all by himself on his back (extremely few people could, so again this is nothing too negative towards him).

Also the plot is way too predictable.

It's not a awful movie and kudos on trying something different but it just doesn't quite work as the suspenseful thriller it's supposed to be.

If you're curious about Danny Trejo's involvement, he is 'in it' quite a bit BUT mainly as one of the voices Dean Cain talks to on a mobilephone.

Sometimes I really feel sorry for Dean Cain. A very talented actor that was horribly typecast due to his role on the TV show "Lois and Clark". This movie is a perfect example.

'Lost' is an excellent thriller and definitely worth a watch to any fan of the genre. It will keep you guessing till the very end! Dean Cain shines in this movie and does a great job. Not wanting to give away any plot points, the film centers around Dean's character Jeremy Stanton for the entire film as he is lost trying to find his way home.

This straight to DVD release is worth a rent in my opinion.

9/10

Slick and smarmy Jeremy Stanton (Dean Cain) is lost in the Mojave desert, surrounded by foreign wilderness and clueless as to where he is. Things are made steadily worse when the mysterious Archer (Danny Trejo) starts hunting Jeremy down. What does Archer want, and why is he chasing Jeremy?

A very solid, mysterious and engaging thriller from first-time director Darren Lemke. Direction is dead-on and the audience is consistently interested in Jeremy Stanton's plight. Writing is exceptional and photography is the same.

Lost almost being a one-man show, Dean Cain leads the film with ease. We slowly like him as he grows more and more desperate to survive. Trejo only appears fully at the end, but his presence is felt. The rest of the cast is just as good.

A solid indie thriller that I really recommend.

I just rented "Lost" from iTunes for $.99. Can I have my 99 cents and 90 minutes back? Yes it's "Phonebooth" + "Duel" + a few other bad movies I can't put my finger on right now. And CHEAP! Looks likely was shot in two days for about $1000.

Voiceovers by Danny Trejo and somebody (my guess is the writer of this travesty) doing ALL of the other voices ( radio & TV voiceovers, "audio guru", even the VERY bad hysterical Mexican woman) Ludicrous writing. NO production values. NO character development. NO suspense.

Also, there aren't that many roads in the entire state of Nevada! And the ridiculous road and place names sounded like the writer was sitting in his apartment in Santa Barbera ( where the story starts) and just picked random cul-de-sac names from his posh housing development! C'mon, guy! Do a LITTLE research before you kill an entire weekend banging out a script! At least pretend to strive for a teeny bit of authenticity!

I won't say I'm disappointed because this is just the kind of crap I would expect to see Dean Cain in.