LOST ROOM
(MINI-SERIES WIDESCREEN) (2006)
Lost Room (Mini-series Widescreen) (2006)
Actors: Peter Krause, Kevin Pollak, Julianna Margulies, Dennis
Christopher, Ewen Bremner
Directors: Craig R. Baxley, Michael W. Watkins
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
Region: 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Number of discs: 2
Run Time: 284 minutes
Movie:
 
Disc:
 The
"made for the Sci-Fi Channel" tag usually means it's rubbish. Fortunately
this is not the case with The Lost Room, a supernatural science
fiction mini-series that boasts some clever and inventive writing of the
sort one might have expected of Stephen King in his heyday.
A policeman investigating a bizarre murder comes across a key that gains one
access to what can only be described as an intra-dimensional motel room
through which one can in turn travel to anywhere in the world.
The keys
however aren't the only objects from the motel room with supernatural
powers. In fact there are hundreds of them
? anything
from an innocuous bus ticket that teleports whoever touches it to a small
town in New Mexico to a pair of glasses that prevents any form of combustion
from happening. Not quite useful if you're a mechanic, but rather handy when
someone puts a loaded to your forehead (it won't go off).
Soon the cop (played by a
laidback and likeable Peter Krause) becomes involved in a decades-old plot
involving secret societies obsessed with collecting the various objects
found in the motel room. Things take a turn for the worse when his small
daughter (Elle Fanning, sister of Dakota) disappears in the room and the
Krause character must find some way of getting her back . . .
The Stephen King analogy
isn't a stretch. The Lost Room is blessed with a sharp premise and
setup, but like many Stephen King stories the series doesn't exactly know
how to wind things up and the series' ending comes across as abrupt - maybe
because it is because one simply wanted more.
But when one's only complaint
about a TV mini-series is that one wants more one knows
that The Lost Room is destined to become a sci-fi fan favorite. Pity though
it was never expanded into a full series as it could easily have become a
new Lost or X-Files
. . .
THE DISCS: It is a
bit of a mystery that this DVD would be plagued by inexplicable image
interlacing problems and a glitchy menu. In this day and age one simply
expects better from a major home entertainment outfit such as Lion's Gate.
The discs' defects don't distract from one's enjoyment much (that menu
glitch is annoying though). Still, one would have expected more stringent
quality control.
WORTH IT? The
Lost Room is simply good story-telling: the premise is a 100% original;
the acting is good (except perhaps for Fanning); the dialogue fresh and the
show moves along at a decent clip. Also unexpected are some nice situational
humor. Boasting an expansive back-story and some decent character
development, The Lost Room could easily have been stretched out to a full TV
series.
RECOMMENDATION:
Great mini-series, disappointing disc. Still, sci-fi fans
-
don't be put off by the Stephen King analogy as the show downplays its
horror elements
-
should check it out as it boasts the freshest premise for a TV show in
years . . .
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