The Lost Room

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!

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

This mini-series is quite original and I found it very entertaining. The idea is pretty wild and far fetched but they make a lot out of it. As with so many mini series the first two episodes are better than the 'conclusion' which really only sets possible future episodes up. That being said, this is the best thing I saw on TV this year. The lost room reminds me of 'Dark City' with the surreal reality that it creates. I also liked the fact that ordinary items, or 'objects' are used as props to advance the story in a very cheap yet efficient way.

The production value is good and the atmosphere created is very convincing. The acting is great for a TV production and I wouldn't mind if 'The Lost Room' would be picked up for a full season.

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.

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.