E-Dunc Watches Lost for the First Time: Part IV

(Post 1) (Post 2) (Post 3)

Season 2: Episode 15 – Episode 24

Well, just when I thought we were expanding  we immediately turned around and kill off two of the new additions. The good news? No more Michelle Rodriguez stomping around the island squinting at things. The better news? Mr. Echo is still around. So I feel like we made out in this exchange.

Confusion Rating:    5/5
Um, okay. I don’t know where to begin. So The Others are the Dharma Initiative? Or did they just run them out of town and steal their stuff? Ethan also seems like a pretty decent dude, minus the whole “going to kill Claire” thing. I literally don’t know what to think.

Intrigue Rating:      5/5
With this confusion comes near giddiness over the direction they’re going to take. And given the greatness of the beginning of Season 2, I can’t wait to see what completely random beginning we have in store for Season 3.

In-Tune Rating:    3/5
Again, doing pretty well in-episode but still the long-term predictions seem to be getting worse. I’m going to refocus here and hopefully do a better job in Season 3.

Enjoyment Rating:    4/5
I’m really enjoying this but I want to make sure I leave room for the rating to move. Plus, I’ve been told by a couple folks that Season 3 is probably the best season.

Lost Rating:        17/20

Nailed It
The big twists that I nailed in this section.

Henry was one of The Others
I know this was somewhat obvious but I’m taking victories where I can, alright. I just can’t believe that everyone fell for all his mind games. Seriously, he was messing with people’s minds in such an obvious way that I couldn’t believe they were even speaking to him.

Michael made a deal with The Others
I thought this was obvious because there is absolutely no way Michael could make it out of the jungle by himself. And there was certainly no way that it went down the way he said it did. Oh yeah, and he could be the worst liar on the island.

Blind Sided
Things I just didn’t see coming.

Dave didn’t exist
This didn’t even occur to me. I don’t know why. The amount of times I’ve seen Fight Club, you would think it was something on the forefront of my mind. But there I was at the end of Episode 18 banging my fist into my head saying, “Stupid! Stupid!”

Libby was a patient with Hurley
Another one of those things that I’m not sure I could have seen coming but this blindsided me. I like it but with Libby dead, how are they going to explain this? NOTE: I will be super pissed if they never explain how she got there/got sane.

Henry in charge of The Others
I figured that he was one of The Others but the leader? Didn’t see that coming. In retrospect it makes sense. But hindsight is 20/20.

Crazy/Interesting Observations

The numbers on Claire’s injections
Did you notice the numbers on Claire’s injections? Well, they were 4-8-15-16-23-42. Yeah, they’re everywhere.

Fall Theory Update
You remember my Fall Theory, right? Whenever someone on the Island falls down, they discover something crucial to moving the plot. Anyway, we had another sighting of it in this block: Hurley falls in the woods and finds Dave’s slipper.

Predictions

The Others want Jack, Sawyer, and Kate
I’m not sure why they want them, but my current theory is that they are the strongest on the Island and therefore have the best chance at surviving. Since that seems to be The Other’s ultimate goal, I think they see these three as being able to help them the most (although, why they wouldn’t want Sayid and Echo is beyond me).

Desmond, Locke and Echo survived the blast
There’s no way they’re killing Locke and Mr. Echo was with him when the Hatch blew, so he can’t die. Desmond is another story but the ominous “See you in another life, brother!” tells me he’s coming back.

Power Rankings

E-Dunc Watches Lost for the First Time: Part III

(Part I) (Part II)

Season 2: Episode 1 - Episode 14

I wasn’t really expecting the cast to expand this season, but here we are, back at 42. My hatch prediction couldn’t have been farther off but I’m pretty damned intrigued about the direction they’re going.

Confusion Rating:    4/5
Two things are really bothering me: the Dharma Project and The Others. I feel like I have most of the info I need to figure out what their deal is but I just can’t put it together. Everything else is still pretty straightforward.

Intrigue Rating:      5/5
I already mentioned the Dharma Project and The Others but among the other things I’m interested in are why Sawyer is trying SO hard to be hated; what’s with Locke and the baby; and where are we going with this whole Walt thing? I have no answers for all of these.

In-Tune Rating:    3/5
I’m still solid when it comes to in-episode predictions but my long-term predictions have been off … a lot. I’m going to spare myself the embarrassment of listing them all (mainly because I have a feeling I’ve embarrassed myself  enough already).

Enjoyment Rating:    4/5
Things are getting good but I’m worried about the direction of Locke and Charlie. They seem to have lost the character. It happens from time to time in shows as they try to hustle through plotlines. Hopefully they’ll settle back in in the second half.

Lost Rating:        16/20

Nailed It
The big twists that I nailed in this section.

Goodwin was one of The Others
I had this narrowed down to two (Goodwin and Nathan) and when Ana threw Nathan in the cage, I knew it was Goodwin. Kudos to the writers for making Nathan from Canada like Ethan to try to fool us.

Ana was a cop
To be fair, I was using the types of roles she played since Lost to inform this decision. What really convinced me was seeing how she held the gun. People who haven’t held guns before do stupid things like lock their elbows, or use one hand to look gangsta. She handled it like a pro. A bit of a leap of faith, I know, but I was right wasn’t I?

Sawyer was behind Sun getting taken
They did a good job of disguising this except for one large fact: it was during Sawyer’s back-story and the episode was called "The Long Con." I was a little fuzzy on the detailed but I figured Charlie helped due to the conversation they had on the beach (nailed it!). Now why he did it, is still beyond me.

Blind Sided
Things I just didn’t see coming.

Shannon dying
Don’t get me wrong, I was pretty happy about it, but another main character death? Wow, not expecting that, especially this early in the season.

The whole deal with the Hatch
Wow, so I was super wrong. To the point where I’m too embarrassed to relive my prediction. Needless to say, I was not expecting some dude living in a 1970s style bomb shelter pushing some button for some reason.

Ana killing some dude
I think my biggest flaw is assuming that the writers wouldn’t make any of their main characters too evil. Something I clearly need to stop given Sawyer, Kate, and now Ana.

Crazy/Interesting Observations

The plane must have been carrying an industrial sized order of tarps
Seriously, have you noticed the number of tarps they have on this island? Where do they get them all? I figure an international flight could have upwards of 10 tarps on it but on the show, I’m estimating there are roughly 50 tarps being employed.

Locke is also a film-restoration expert
Did it bother anyone else how easily Locke spliced the two films together? I mean, it was seamless. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t make that splice with the latest in film splicing technology and yet Locke does it with scissors and scotch tape.

Locke is the worst possible person to have push the button in a crisis
Have you noticed the amount of times he’s entered the number wrong when the world is about to end? I mean seriously, dude, how many times have you see those numbers? I guarantee it’s less than me but watch how easily I type in the correct numbers: 4-8-15-16-23-42. Come on, dude, man up!

Predictions

The Others all have “The Sickness”
Russo said she killed the members of her party because she had “The Sickness” yet we know that her husband was alive and kicking when she shot him (she tells Sayid that her husband fell for the ol’ pulled out the firing pin trick too). This leads me to believe that “The Sickness” is either some sort of mental illness or the perception thereof. I’m not sure which, but given the direction the show is taking, I’m going to say that “The Sickness” is the belief that the island is your home and you do not want to leave.

Charlie dies the end of this season or early next
His character is quickly becoming useless. Right now, he’s just being used as a patsie for Sawyer and Sayid’s plans.  That and he seems to have totally snapped. Now, this goes against every rule of television logic, I know, but Lost seems to be trying their best to break those rules. So there you have it: my boldest prediction yet.

Power Rankings

The E-Duncs: Part II

(Part I)

The John Travolta Award
(Best Performance By an Actor Thought to Be Washed Up)

Nic Cage – Kick Ass

After seeing Nic’s most recent “movies” it makes it difficult to give him a positive award, but if you saw Kick Ass, you have to admit, he was pretty damn cool. I was hoping beyond hope that this might be the beginning of a comeback of sorts. Drive Angry has convinced me otherwise.

Honorable Mention
Tom Cruise – Knight & Day

The Halle Berry Award
(Actor Who Made the Worst Career Decision of the Year)

Danny Glover sheds a tear for what will
become of the Brodster

Adrien Brody – Splice & Predators

If I haven’t been clear enough up to this point, let me spell it out for you: these two movies were BAD. I watched them back to back as a part of an Adrien Bronanza. It made me sad. From such a promising start in Angels in the Outfield to this? Such a shame.

The Christopher Walken Award
(Best Performance in an Otherwise Bad Movie)

Zack Galifianakis – It’s Kind of a Funny Story

I think this movie just tried too hard to be edgy and meaningful. It wasn’t terrible but it could have been good and just, sort of, dropped the ball. Galifianakis was quite good in it, though, and show some real serious acting chops that I didn’t think he had.

The Epic Movie Award
(Worst Screenplay)

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland won all sorts of artistic Oscars but was in nobody’s Top Ten movie list. Translation: your movie was enjoyable only on mute. Burton’s attempt to fabricate a sequel about an older Alice went about as well as you expect. Why he didn’t just go for a modern telling of the classic tale is beyond me. But in addition to a meandering and often haphazard plotline, the dialogue was suspect and me constantly rolling my giant-3D-glasses-clad eyes.

Dishonorable Mention

Splice
Robin Hood

The Denise Richards Award
(Worst Supporting Actress)

Lyndsy Fonseca – Kick Ass

Don’t get me wrong, Kick Ass was one of my favorite movies of the year, but even I have to admit that Lyndsy’s acting was so stiff it made me consider renaming this award after her. Like the award’s namesake, Lyndsy and her absurdly spelled first name were in the movie to do only one thing: be hot. And I have to say, she knocked that one out of the park.

The Colin Farrel
(Worst Supporting Actor)

"Hello? Anybody home? Think, McFly!
Think!"

 Crispin Glover - Alice in Wonderland

My general rule is if it’s not Back to the Future and Crispin Glover is in it, it’s probably a bad movie. I was pleasantly surprised to find that wasn’t the case for Hot Tub Time Machine. But my Glover fever lasted a solid month until I saw Alice in Wonderland and he returned to appropriate level of awkward looks, confusing reads, and, well George McFly-ness. The world is back in balance.

The Sofia Coppola Award
(Worst Actress)

Sarah Polley – Splice

Merely being in Splice automatically puts you in the running for worst actress but out-stinking Brody? That locks it down. Whenever you’re actively rooting for the protagonist to die, you have to wonder if maybe the actor didn’t necessarily do a good job portraying the “hero.”

Dishonorable Mention
Mia Wasikowski – Alice in Wonderland

The Orlando Bloom Award
(Worst Actor)

Adrien Brody – Splice

I’ve ridiculed the man enough so I’m just going to say one more time that Adrien Brody should really be ashamed of himself for this year. I do want to bring up an idea that Bill Simmons and Adam Carrola came up with on Simmons’ podcast. If an actor wins an Oscar and then proceeds to make nothing but terrible movies for the next ten years, the Academy should come back and remove their Oscar, giving it to a more worthy performance. You’ll never guess what Academy Award winner sparked this idea: Nic Cage.

The E-Duncs: Part I

Worst Timing of 2010 Movie Awards


The E-Duncs


You know when's a good time to release your awards for the 2010 movie season? January. You know what is the absolute worst, most inexcusable time to release movie awards? March. I offer no excuses other than my own laziness. But I vow to make up for it with increased sarcasm and harsher criticisms. Let's get it on!

The Starship Troopers Award 
(Most Awesomely Bad Movie)

I find that I sometimes enjoy bad movies as much as I enjoy good ones. I call it my “absolute value theory.” Ask me about it sometime.

Predators

Predators strived to take the bad movie to new levels and nearly succeeded. With appearances by Topher Grace, Morpheus and Academy Award winner Adrien Brody, we had ourselves quite the enjoyable hour and a half. The problem is, I’m not sure I enjoyed it for the reasons the filmmakers wanted me to enjoy it …

The Al Neri Award
(Most Unheralded Hero)

For those of you who don’t know, Al Neri is perhaps the most important character in the Godfather who nobody has heard of. Al is the guy dressed as the cop who guns down Bazini at the end of Part I and becomes Michael’s right-hand man for the other two.

Little Blackie – True Grit 

I have to say, the character that I felt was the true hero of the movie was Little Blacky (it’s a horse you racists). I mean, this poor horse trekked all over the wilderness, crossed a neck-deep river, and gave its life to save what’s-her-face. What did Rooster do? Suck out some poison? He didn’t even save her hand.  LB was the one with true grit not Rooster.

The real hero of True Grit? Is there any doubt?

“Loser’s always whine about their best …” Award
(Best Quote)

“Great White Buffalo” – Hot Tub Time Machine

I really liked this movie and I feel like it has largely been forgotten already (more on this later). What I really like about this quote, is its utility when you want to be mysterious. “What are we doing for the bachelor party?” “Great White Buffalo.” “What, is that, like, a bar or something?” “Great White Buffalo.” “Thanks that was really helpful.” See!

The Terminator 2 Award
(Biggest Plot Hole in an Otherwise Decent Movie)

Unstoppable 

So I don’t mean to ruin this story based on an actual event, but they stop the unstoppable train (I know, false advertising). You know how they stop it? They hooked up a train, and then ran to the front of the runaway train. You know how long they took to figure that out? An hour and fifteen minutes movie time. How was that not the first thing they tried? I mean, they tried to shoot the air-breaks with riffles before they tried the most logical solution? Really?

The Kevin Costner Award
(Actor’s Who’s Stock Dropped the Most) 

Your 2003 Academy Award Winner!

Adrien Brody – Splice & Predators

Now this is going to sound absurd, but I promise you it’s 100% true. You ready? Adrien Brody won an Oscar. No, seriously! Yeah, the really bad singer from the Stella Artois commercial. He won an Oscar! Now he’s making classic films like Splice and Predators. Watch out Nic Cage, there’s someone gunning for your “No Seriously, He Won an Oscar” Title! 

The Leonardo DiCaprio Award
(Actor’s Who’s Stock Rose the Most)

Mila Kunis – Book of Eli & Black Swan

Remember That 70’s Show? I do because when unemployed it was without a doubt the best show on television before 5 p.m. Anyway, who would have bet that in 2010, Jackie would have been the most accomplished actor from that show? If you say you would, you, sir, are a liar!

It's Not Good ...
Not At All

The Core Award 

(Worst Movie of the Year) 

Splice

I don’t know where to even begin with this movie. As a master of science, the absurdity of the concept alone drove me nuts, especially the spontaneous gender switching (no, you read that correctly; animals randomly went from chicks to dudes). It wasn’t even bad enough to be properly enjoyed. It was just BAD!

Runners-up:
Predators 

Robin Hood 

The Pearl Harbor Award
(Most Disappointing Movie of the Year)

Alice in Wonderland

I have no idea why I had high hopes for this but I did. I mean, watching the trailer again it was obviously going to be bad and it was. I guess I just thought that with Johnny Depp in it it couldn’t have been too bad. How wrong I was. And we finally have an answer when somebody says, “Name one movie where Johnny Depp was not awesome!”

The China Syndrome Award
(Movie Most in Need of Christopher Walken)

Robin Hood (Sir Walter Loxley)

I thoroughly disliked this movie. It was essentially a collection of movies that have already been made (and made better) loosely set to the story of Robin Hood. And by loosely I mean clown-pants loosely (sorry, it was the best I could come up with on short notice). You know the one thing everyone remember about Robin Hood? That he robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. You know what’s the one thing Robin Hood never does in this movie? Robs from the rich and gives to the poor. It seems that Ridley thought he could have made Braveheart better, and set about doing it. What could have rescued this movie? Why, Christopher Walken of course. There’s an elder blind man who says bizarre things and guides Robin down the path towards … something. Christopher would have knocked the role out of the park and I would have had at least 20 minutes of the movie I could enjoy.

E-Dunc Watches Lost for the First Time: Part II

(Part I)

Season 1: Episode 15 – Episode 24

So, stuff started getting real. Really real. And fast. Really fast. Like, lightspeed fast. So let’s dive into this.

Confusion Rating: 3/5
For as crazy as things have gotten, there really isn’t anything that has me completely befuddled. Sure, we don’t know what’s in the hatch yet or what that T-Rex sounding thing is, but everything that we can know, is pretty straight forward (you know, as far as Lost goes).

Intrigue Rating:      5/5
I literally gave the season finale cliffhanger a standing ovation. I still have no grasp of the big picture but now I can feel one taking shape. I have some theories, but I’m not too confident. I can’t wait to see what direction they go in.

In-Tune Rating:      4/5
I’m still calling most in-episode happenings correctly. But as things are getting more and more complicated, I have a feeling this rating is going to start going downhill faster than a Bills' season. The only major thing that I didn’t see coming was Boone dying. I took a full point off just for that.

Enjoyment Rating: 4/5
Outstanding back story, fantastic characters, and solid plot twists. Still, I don’t think the show has reached its pinnacle. I’m giving it a 4 just so I have somewhere to go from here.

Lost Rating:           16/20

Nailed It
The big twists that I nailed in this section.

Sawyer went to Australia because he thought he found the real Sawyer
I outlined my reasons in the last post so I’m not going to go over them again. Two things: (1) I admit, it was pretty obvious but I’m taking victories where I can; (2) I suspected that he wouldn’t actually kill the real Sawyer but killing the wrong man I did not see coming.

Walt set the raft on fire
To be fair, I equally suspected Locke at the time but I’m still claiming victory. My original thought was that Walt set the boat on fire with his mind because he hated it so much. So I missed that, but come on, it’s a little impressive that I thought of Walt, right?

Locke hit Sayid the branch
The fact that they never confirmed that Russo was the tree-branch-swinging fiend put up all sorts of red flags in mind. There was no reason to keep concealing the culprit's identity if it was her. So it had to be either a character we hadn’t seen yet (which would have been incredibly lame) or one of the main characters. It took me roughly three milliseconds to settle on Locke as the culprit. No one else is so adamant to stay on the island.

Blind Sided
Things I just didn’t see coming.

Hurley’s entire back story
Never would have suspected he was loaded. Not sure I could have seen that coming, though.

Boone dying
I said it earlier, didn’t see this coming. My working theory was that any meaningful character deaths would have occurred in the finale.

Michael was poisoned by Sun who was trying to poison Jin
The writers were trying so hard to make me suspect Kate that I should have seen this twist coming. Sun has been doing nothing but making herbal remedies so it should have been obvious and I fell for the old red heron.

The Others wanted Walt, not Aaron
This was just well played by the writers, no real indication otherwise.

Crazy/Interesting Observations

Kate has never spent a summer not doing something that would help her on the island
This bothered me much of the second half of the season. It seemed that every time they needed someone with a certain skill set, Kate spent a summer doing it. Example: They needed another tracker instead of Locke; Kate spent two summers with her father hunting in the woods.

No one has ever fallen on this island without discovering something
Here’s a list of things discovered after falling: the hatch, the numbers on the hatch, the plane up in the tree, and Russo.

The numbers in the background indicate … something about the character/scene
I’m still developing this but I’m sure all you Lost fans realize that the famous numbers (4-8-15-16-23-42) are in the background of just about every flashback. Well, the only one I’m coming close on is 8. More on this later.

Predictions

The hatch leads to the underground tunnels that the monster was dragging Locke into
This is mostly a gut feeling so I don’t have a lot to support it. So how does this fit with Walt’s premonition not to open it and the “evil numbers” being on it? I think that blowing the top off it is going invite the monster and “The Others” into their part of the island. And after typing this, I’m starting to feel like that sounds stupid. But you know what? I’m staying with it.

The monster is actually some kind of mechanical dealie
What’s really driving me towards this is that Russo referred to it as a “security system.” If it were something that were alive, I feel like the analogy she would have used would be a “guard dog.” Also, when Locke was being dragged into the tunnel, there was the distinct sound of gears turning. I’m still working on the T-Rex noise it makes but I figure that could simply be a recording that operates a warning to try to get you to leave on your own.

Power Rankings