Castaway with 47 other people instead of a volleyball

TV REVIEW: Lost
Doctor Jack (Matthew Fox) wakes up surrounded by the Burning wreckage of an Airplane. He immediately jumps into saving the lives of his fellow crash survivors, who are all stranded on a desert Island. He immediate makes friends with fellow survivor Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and goes out to find a way to call for help with tag a long Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) who claims to be a rock star. They discover that no one may be coming to save them. Additionally, there's something big on the island stalking everyone, but no one has seen the creature yet.

The opening 15 minutes of the show may be the best opening of a show ever. The show begins with no explanation and no forced introductions. After the initial crash sequence, the show jumps back to the airplane to give us a little hint of what happened before the crash; It doesn't tell us what happened, it just hints that something strange is going on. The Tension in the show is extremely high. Additionally, it's not all plot. We get time to meet the main characters and the acting is top notch. The only question for the show, can it keep up the same level of quality? Four Stars, Highly Recommended.

Yesterday's Tomorrow Today

MOVIE REVIEW: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
In 1939, ace pilot Joe (Jude Law) is called upon to stop robots that are stealing the world's natural resources. His mission leads him around the world with his former girfriend, reporter Polly (Gwyneth Paltrow).

The film embraces the comic book-Flash Gordon style rather that parodying it and succeededs because of it. We never have room to question the improbabilty of the plot or characters. The film is also quite beautiful, with everything but the actors being rendered on a computer. The cinematography fails in a couple places. First, the visuals occasionally feel a little claustrophobic, especially in the first half-hour. Second, the film is too symetrical (that's something I'll probably never say about a film again). Robots generally line up in neat, orderly lines. Groups of people also seem to move in sequence. This seems to give away the computerized origins of the movie. The film also does not have the versimilitude that makes the similarly inspired Radiers of the Lost Ark so endearing. Three Stars, something quite different.

Fall TV Quick Hits

HAWAII - Very similar to Miami Vice in Hawaii, except without the brooding about the Vietnam war. It's so similar I could do a side by side chart of similarities. I'm too lazy to do that. I didn't like the first episode until about halfway through, when it had a shift in tone and began to come together. The second episode was good. A moderate weight cop show. Three Stars, fun but not deep yet.

FATHER OF THE PRIDE - First, let's ignore the whole Seigfried and Roy thing. Father of the Pride is a technical wonder; It's too bad they didn't feel the need to create an original plot. The story for the first episode was so tired it might have worked as a self parody. Unfortunately it wasn't self parody. The John Goodman character was modestly appealing. Everything else was a waste of time. When the best thing that can be said about the show is that it looks good, it probably doesn't have a long life span ahead of it. Two Stars, mostly tolerable.