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Lost (15)
American Broadcasting Company
Director: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Josh Holloway,
Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly
F
ollowing
the
well-trodden
footsteps in the sand of Treasure
Island and Robinson Crusoe,
this existential thriller series seemed
to
have everything going for it.
With its exciting combination of
shipwrecked angst and darkening
shadows of the paranormal added to
the mix, it certainly created vibes on the
gogglebox.
But while the countless flashbacks were
original at the beginning, they actually
turned off many first-time viewers as the
series went on.
These flashbacks ruined the flow of the
overall plot, especially with viewers keen
to find out WTF was actually happening
on this gawd-forsaken island.
People’s irritation was understandable
– who wants to be jerked around by
some smartassed storyline that looks to
be leading you nowhere? However, as
I doggedly pursued the footsteps in the
sand, I felt that the show connected with
me on a philosophical level and saw that
the flashbacks were the driving force
behind it all.
They allowed a deeper understanding
of the characters, revealing their past
and troubles and defined who they were
today, marooned on that island. I found
this really fascinating and it raised deeply
personal questions. Can you really get
away from your past? And do you really
know the people you think that you totally
trust?
But the result was that as the series
progressed, it became very characterdominated and less about plot, with new
characters coming crowding in the later
episodes of the show. Big mistake. This
only confused viewers and shows that the
script wasn’t completed before shooting
had started.
LOST played with the ideas of multiworlds, alternate realities, life after
death and time travel. This made for very
complicated plotlines but I praise the
courage of the director and his creative
execution of a challenging format.
Navid Naghdi
Need for Speed (2014)
Director: Scott Waugh
Starring: Aaron Paul, Dominic
Cooper, Imogen Poots
M
ultiplex-friendly car porn has
become all the rage since the
big money shots of the Fast &
Furious franchise proved that a B grade
movie formula can work in Hollywood.
But once you’ve seen flashy cars
thrusting in and out of the latest airplanes
it’s difficult to guess where to take the
spectacle next. So Scott Waugh scrambles
that staple of Uncle Sam’s foreign legion
the Apache helicopter to spice up the
car-on-car action. It succeeds in spades,
with grunting engines and exciting geargrinding groans with every 3D climax.
As you’d expect from a video game
spinoff, the plot gives you the ultimate
adrenalin rush: a rivalry between two
butch ciphers (one of whom has a
sensuous weakness for black attire)
involving an old girlfriend, a dead brother,
and adventurous road races.
The result is a megabangs-for-yourbucks storyline where nothing and no
one in the world seems able to stop the
chase and the race! Hundreds of innocent
10•FAN FA R E JUNE 2 0 1 4
civilians are merrily run off the road but
no one gives a damn!
But I bet you will care when Breaking
Bad’s hot hunk Aaron Paul falls for
flawlessly beautiful Brit Imogen Poots
while travelling at 230mph. Doesn’t that
sound risky yet romantic? Something’s
missing though! A little more time.
But the way the filmmakers squeezed
a 79-minute premise into a two-hour-11minute movie makes it a must watch.
Asim Plhanmay