Blogcritics Author: David Desjardins

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Movie Review: 300

David Desjardins — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 16:10:33 EST

Every few years, a sci-fi/fantasy film comes along that changes every thing; the rules, how films are made, our expectations, the industry, the whole enchilada. In 1968, the release of 2001 set it all off. 1975 gave birth to the summer blockbuster with teeth when Jaws scared the living crap out of its audience. In 1977, Star Wars rewrote the concept of sci-fi movies and the world's culture was changed forever. Then in 1986, a sequel to a movie about a stowaway alien was taken to the next level with a commando of marines wiped out, leaving a woman and her flame thrower and an assault rifle. She took on a 15-foot tall alien queen and her army of drones in order to save a little girl and audiences in the theaters stood up in Super Bowl glee, cheering like mad raging fans when the bay door opened and Ripley stepped out with her yellow loader. With Aliens James Cameron re-wrote the "us vs. them" alien theme and created the first tough-as-nails heroine. That alone was a revolution that merited Sigourney Weaver the front cover of Time magazine. But Cameron would come back a few years later, proving that with an astronomically insane budget (for the time) of 100 million dollars, one could make a special effects driven movie and still have a superb story to boot. And he also managed with great directorial skill to actually make Arnold Schwarzenegger semi-funny. With Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cameron created a rift in cinema. Film buffs can now tell simply by looking at a movie's special effects, that the movie is either pre-T2 or post-T2. After T2 things changed. Movies like Jurassic Park were now possible. And the string of disaster movies that followed were also made possible. You can thank James Cameron's vision for this.Then in 1999 the mother of all cinematic culture shocks took place when The Matrix gave birth to the third millennium. The Wachowskis simply tossed the book out of the window and inspired themselves from so many other sources it's hard to point to a sure source; but one thing is certain -- The Matrix changed it all. Special effects were completely innovative. The storytelling was unheard of in mainstream cinema. The visuals were unparalleled. The philosophical complexity is still perplexing philosophers of all kinds to this day. The lay masses were prepared for some flashy, wire-fu, gunslinging, fast-talking coolness, but what we got was something that changed our culture forever. It was time for the next step, the next bounding leap to the next level. There have been some contenders. The shoulda-coulda-beens, like the Sin City blunder. Or even the Lord of the Rings trilogy – which I affectionately call the Bored of the Ring trilogy – which was nothing more than a big bucks production of a not so interesting book which replayed variations of the same fringing score over and over again.Ever since the first clips and stills from the production of 300 surfaced on the web, hopes had risen that perhaps this was the next step, the next cinematic evolution. It had all the promise, a classic telling of the mythological story of the Spartans; hero mythologies and archetypes is what the human psyche is built upon. It's why The Matrix was such a success. But sadly this film is not one of them.But that’s not to say that the film isn't a great work of art. It is, succinctly put, a bloody fantastic work of art. The story is simple -- very simple. The preview says it all. The thousand nations of the Persian Empire descend upon Sparta. There, it's said. But it's not a spoiler, everyone has seen the previews. But the simplicity of the story takes nothing away from the film. Is there nothing as simple as the smile of a child? Yet it fills us with happiness and contentment.So can esthetically pleasing violence and death. In the end this film is all about death and meeting it with honor. The Spartans are a society of warriors, trained from birth. They are inspected at birth and if they are not perfect, they are discarded in a pit. If they are chosen, they are trained by men to fight and to never surrender, to never give up, and that death in battle is the greatest of honors. One must return from battle with his shield, or on it -- any other way would be a disgrace. And this is how the film begins, a short training montage of sorts which shows our protagonist rapidly growing up into the warrior King Leonidas.Leonidas soon gets a message by horse that the Persians are coming, the Persians are coming. The messenger ain't no Paul Revere but some arrogant Persian errand boy who gets quickly "dispatched" by the King after getting shot down by the queen in what is the most remarkable comeback in years. But then, it could only happen in such a movie. Les jeux sont fait. The war is inevitable. Leonidas must consult the Oracle. This time it isn't a little old lady baking cookies but a young naked teenager smoking who knows what and babbling into her attendant's ears that Sparta cannot wage war. The King cannot in good conscience leave his country undefended so he takes 300 of his best "bodyguards" and goes for a stroll on the beach. Not very long afterwards, the all-out war begins, and this is where the film really shines. What did you expect? This film isn't about peace, bunnies, and daffodils. It's about the kill, the blood, ripping wounds, fire, screaming, chest pounding, testosterone, ferocity, manliness, honor, destroying your enemy, fun times. If seeing Leonidas eating an apple with delight while standing on a pile of eviscerated bodies and speaking of civility doesn't crack you up, this movie isn't for you. This movie is for the animal inside -- the one that wants to rip off the head of the co-worker who's pissed you off one time too many but you can't do anything about. For the one who's punched in a wall a few times. For the one who wants to scream. For the one who wants to fight. This is a man movie. It's not a girly movie, it's not a date movie, it's not a family movie, and it's not for the warm fuzzy people. This is for those who dreamed of being those Greek heroes.I say this because when I was in the theater, there were all the people who could be offended by this movie. Young children under the age of ten should not being seeing decapitations and dismemberments the likes of which are shown in this film. Not to mention the orgy scene. I don't know if I'd like to answer those questions as a parent, after the movie. Then I got that funny feeling looking at all those hijabs in the row in front of me during the very nude sex scenes. Here we have a restrictive culture where showing a woman's hair is proscribed, coming to a movie with naked teenagers' breasts the size of a building thrown in their faces. Oh the irony. Plus, you'd think that the sight of a man's naked ass wouldn't incite so much giggling in 2007. But I digress; I should be reviewing the film.From start to finish the film is visual feast that grips you from the fuzzy Warner Brothers logo to the end credits. Everything, every smallest detail is bathed in this light Gaussian blur with a golden overexposed hue. They never let go of it, except perhaps for the night shots, which take on a spirit of their own. Graphically from the start you know the movie is all CG with the exception of our heroes and their foes. But after maybe 30 seconds, you stop caring. You begin to look at it in another light, as perhaps the greatest mesh between live action and animation ever combined. All this latticing creates an ethereal glow to the storytelling that elevates it to its proper level, mythology. You feel now that you are neither in your time nor your world. It simply works. To top it off, the story is very well laid out. For those expecting one great big battle scene and then a cut to credits, you'll be disappointed. The story, as stated earlier, is simple, but not feeble either. There are flashbacks. There is also the question of politics – it's Greece, if this film didn’t mention politics I was walking out – and with politics come political games and backstabbing. How little things have changed over time. There's also the passionate love story between Leonidas and his wife, who becomes influential during his departure. The meeting between Leonidas and Xerxes, the Persian God-King is intimidating and hilarious at the same time. Leonidas has the same funny bone has a certain William Wallace. And the acting, for such an epic, effects-driven film, is rather impressive. Gerard Butler brings just the right level of intensity to his King Leonidas, which is, of course, kind of over the top. But a leader of men must be strong and intense to charge them into battle and almost certain glorious death. And Lena Heady, as Queen Gorgo, plays a rather strong woman in such a man's film and doesn't serve as set decoration, despite being very pretty. This review won't bother with all the players. But all of them are played very well. None stand out as bad apples. There is no Katie Holmes in Batman Begins here.The film isn't a revolution for cinema as the trailers foretell, but it does open doors for the way we can tell other great stories of our mythological past with greatness, like never before. The CG effects are so perfectly well-mastered that at no time, lost and immersed in the story, could I tell this was shot in my hometown of cold Montréal and not in Thermopylae, Greece. This movie succeeds in the way that I want to see more mythological stories told in this fashion now. The stories are plentiful, and now the technology to bring them to life is more than advanced, and the creative minds born and bathed in comics, graphic novels, modern sci-fi and fantasy are making movies. The time has arrived.A bloody five out of five.

Dave works in the IT industry despite his better judgment. He's an artist at heart with a critical mind. He enjoys photography more than he could ever express. Dave feels a need to tweak his brain with copious amounts of taurine to stay sharp while absorbing all kinds of media on any medium. He runs two blogs The End of Dave and Postcards from The End (a photoblog)

Movie Review: Jesus Camp

David Desjardins — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:11:12 EST

I sat, frozen stiff in fear, the low tone reverberating in my skull, the image of the young girl praying in front of me. I was afraid, and as I sat there paralyzed by the horror, I slowly realized the one truth that had escaped me: maybe I should press the play button as the menu onscreen was prompting me to do.I knew I was in for a ride just by looking into the glazed eyes of a brainwashed young girl enraptured by whatever thought of God she was experiencing. But nothing could prepare me for the scene from which this still is taken.Jesus Camp is simply the first horror documentary ever produced. It sent more chills down my spine than watching Regan mutilating her genitalia with a crucifix in The Exorcist. Never have I seen anything more revolting than what goes on in this movie. This is the neo-conservative/evangelical version of the Hitler-Jugend (Hitler Youth), but worse because they begin brainwashing these children when they are at a stage when most children can be made to believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.And the film comes out swinging. It begins with Levi, a home-schooled boy watching a cartoon explaining that the world was created 6000 years ago where humans and dinosaurs lived together. We learn that 75% of home-schooled children are evangelicals whose parents have become disenchanted with the separation of church and state and truly believe in creationism and that the Bible is the only true answer to any question about the world. You see, Levi was saved at the age of five. What does a five-year-old need to be saved from anyway? For touching his peepee?We also meet Rachel, and we learn from deleted scenes on the DVD that she believes she has the gifts of prophecy and speaking in tongues, and can speak directly to God. She also believes that God has preferences for certain churches. Roman Catholic churches are way too boring for God. He likes the ones where the folks are dancing and screaming His name. Another young girl, ten years old, practices her dancing to Christian heavy metal. She talks about the Britneys and how sinful they are because all they sing about are boys and sex. She goes on to say that she must dance for God and not for the flesh and that sometimes she does dance for the flesh and she must repent and that she also is a sinner; such a little tramp -- I jest. Ten years old and she's already consumed by Christian guilt over flesh. I wonder what will happen when she gets all hot and bothered over a boy when she gets a little older. The therapy bills are going to be through the roof.We didn't even get to the camp part yet. This is where things start to get weird. The camp, called Kids on Fire, at Devil's Lake - kids, fire, devil -- coincidence? - is basically a brainwashing camp for young kids that begins by scaring the crap out of them by telling them that the devil is always after young kids because they are easy to sway. Yeah, that will get their attention. At their age, they'll believe you if you tell them there's a monster under their bed, even if they see none as they look under it.What's really grotesque is the camp counselors all seem to believe in this entire BS. Before the kids get there, they bless the hall, the seats, the stage, they even ask that the devil not meddle with the PowerPoint presentations -- which tell that sins are punished with death complete with a blood dripping font.They also bring out some Sunday school teacher or speaker to tell them about the evil of abortion. These kids are 6 to 9 years old, they don't even know about sex (because sex education is evil because it will teach them to want to have sex) but they know about abortion and that's evil also. And they are being trained to oppose abortion before even understanding what it is. A cardboard cut-out of George W. Bush is brought out so that they can pray to him -- like he's some saint -- to have him select conservative judges so that Roe v. Wade can be overturned and render abortion illegal. During all this chanting of "righteous judges, righteous judges" the girl, from the menu, raises her hands, with streams of tears flowing from her eyes -- the most dramatic and gripping scene of the entire movie and most likely the most worrisome. At this point, I'm in total shock.These kids are being indoctrinated for a culture that doesn’t exist. When they come of age, they won't fit anywhere and they will self-destruct. When nature kicks in, where will they turn? Because we all know how well Ted Haggard turned out, don't we? These poor children are being programmed for a war they think is coming. An "end of days" war. They are taught that they are the generation that will bring about this end of days and save the righteous. These sorry kids are going to crash when they will have to meet real world responsibilities after being raised as warriors in God's army for a war that never comes.A disturbing film indeed. I couldn't take my eyes away from it. It's beautifully crafted, produced, and executed. It doesn’t concentrate solely on the children and the camp. It also sidetracks to a radio host for Air America who is undoubtedly a Christian but one who opposes the evangelicals as being off-message and a danger to American society. Having kids in camouflage make-up with weapons chanting songs about being God's army, well that's definitely being off-message, I should say. Why not let them have AK-47s while we're at it?The film reinforces the now almost stereotypical image outsiders have of America, which is one of extremism and contrasts. One should fear expressing one's opinions in America for fear of reprisal from whichever group would begrudge said opinion even though America claims to be the land of the free, home of the brave. After watching Jesus Camp and other such documentaries, you come to believe that the U.S. is a Christian fundamentalist country in the same sense that Afghanistan is a Muslim fundamentalist country; only the theocracy hasn't been established yet -- though not that far off. But it seems it's only a matter of time. I think Jesus Camp serves as a dire warning to the rest of America, and the world also, that it is wake up time. These extremists have had enough time and that maybe now would be the right time to pull the plug on them before things start getting really creepy. Just like Ted Haggard says in the film: "If the evangelicals vote, they determine the election." Well maybe the non-evangelicals need to rock the vote.If this movie doesn't scare the crap out of you, you are one of them. A disturbingly perfect 5 out of 5.

Movie Review: *F**k*

David Desjardins — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:40:57 EST

At last, a documentary about my favorite word of all time, "fuck." Now if the word fuck offends you, you may as well stop reading now because fuck is my favorite word, and the film is called Fuck, so I'm not going to shy away from using it.Fuck doesn't have a big outline to begin with. It's mostly built of vignette interviews with media personalities, politicians, scholars, and the sort. The film, though it revolves around the use of the word "fuck," is mostly about the reds and blues in America. The film is divided into neat little sections (or vignettes) that all begin with fuck: Fuck Politics, Fuck TV, Fuck Movies, etc., all with people representing the liberal and conservative sides rambling on and on about their ideological viewpoints. Thankfully we have comedians and queasy conservatives. Drew Carey, going on and on about class distinction. George Carlin's 1978 HBO special about the seven dirty words you can't say on TV (and he says them all). Then they bring out the big gun, Billy Connelly. Now that guy just doesn’t let it go and is of course hilarious as usual.Most entertaining is witnessing the conservatives squirming not to say the word and trying to defend their point of view. Especially the uptight Michael Medved and Miss Manners, Judith Martin, who after too much embarrassment is seen unplugging her microphone and leaving the interview. A shockumentary on the word fuck would be incomplete without the ubiquitous presence of Ron Jeremy. Is there a fucking documentary on pop-culture in which he doesn't appear? They also had other porn stars, such as Tera Patrick and her husband Evan Seinfeld.Sure the documentary is funny as hell, how could it not be? With a DVD feature like a curse counter, incrementing every time the word fuck is mentioned, it's pretty funny. By the way, the word fuck -- with all its colored nuances and variances -- is used over 800 times in less than 90 minutes, making for an average of 8.88 uses of the word fuck every minute.But the documentary is fucked, if you pardon my French. To begin with all the interviews are shot with a black backdrop, making the overall appearance bland and kinda boring after a while. And after six years of Bush in power, even this lefty is getting tired of red vs. blue docs over trite subject matter that only distracts from real issues. I was expecting a documentary on the word fuck; instead it was yet another doc on ideological division in America. I was expecting some background research; it is a documentary after all. Some more history other than the rapid-fire debunking that fuck wasn't an acronym for Fornicating Under Consent of the King or something of the sort.All we were treated to was an endless barrage of Hollywood stars pitted against conservative talk radio folks, all set up to mock the right. And it was an obvious set up to mock the right's prudish and Victorian attitude towards self-expression. This just plays into conservatives' constant paranoid conspiracy accusations that Hollywood is out to destroy American values.If you are going to make a documentary on a dirty word go the way of philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt who wrote a fantastic book called On Bullshit and went all out to make a dirty word intelligible, not just spin it into life by having stars quote they favorite use of the word.It could have been so much more. More intelligent, more in-depth, more penetrating, more stimulating. I just can't put my finger on it but this bird just doesn't fly. I wasn't even interested in seeing the DVD extras on this title. The documentary itself has little structure and just feels like it's rambling on in an amateurish sort of way. There's too little substance and much too much flash. To much importance is given to the political aspect and you get this from the beginning as Janeane Garofalo -– at the very beginning of the film -– starts ranting about Reagan setting America two steps back and then Bush, sixteen steps back. I just wanted out. I had enough. "Fuck it" I thought.Rating: 2 out of 5

Movie Review: An Inconvenient Truth

David Desjardins — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 20:36:40 EST

A Global Warning indeed. The documentary is quite depressing in the sense that once the viewer is done, he or she will be left with a feeling of despair, a feeling that it's too late for us to do anything about global warming. Despite what Al Gore may have to say about it. As a Canadian I never knew much about Al Gore other than the stiff, silent and very boring politician he was portrayed to be through American media. I never knew how much of an environmentalist he was until the media blitz surrounding the opening of An Inconvenient Truth. It was only in February 2007 that I got around to seeing the documentary.Let's face it; An Inconvenient Truth is a glorified PowerPoint presentation with a stage, video cut-ins and a soundtrack. But despite being a PowerPoint presentation and all the boredom that this entails, the producers and the director managed to make it into a completely engrossing and captivating presentation. The auditorium is a mock auditorium built from the ground up on a huge sound stage, all designed to get the best angles and lighting. It was all planned, rehearsed and re-shot until it was done right as is depicted in the DVD making-of extra. But the viewer doesn't mind this. This is just icing for the movie. This is the presentation he gives all the time across the globe anyway. The producers just wanted to capture it in the best possible light and the reviewer sees nothing wrong with that. What's important here is the message and not the paper it was written.Believe it or not, Al Gore can actually be funny and entertaining despite the dire emergency of his message. He starts out by quipping "I'm Al Gore, I used to be the next president of the United States of America." the people laugh "I don't find that particularly funny." he says smirking. But the jokes are to lighten up his message which is truly doom and gloom. If we don't clean up our act or should I say, our planet... we're screwed.And Al Gore has the presence and demeanor to drill it into your head convincingly. If I ever have any reproach to offer to the Greenpeacers of this world - a group of which I am a member - is that they all look the same, the beard, the long hair, the skinny physique. Basically they have the vegetarian pot-smoking tree hugger stereotype working against them. Want to convince the lay people, look like a credible leader. And Al Gore does just that. He comes out like a giant on stage and owns it. And he talks passionately but not obsessively, which also works in his favor.Then he lays out the truth. The world is going to snuff us out if we don't do anything about and we need to do it now. He does it so efficaciously you just want to sign up to anything and do whatever he asks of you to save the world. This film definitely needs to be seen by everyone. Because I will surely not dole out the gargantuan amount of information expressed in this film, there is simply too much of it for a single review.The message is clear and repeats what science has been telling us for decades. The earth is warming. The icecaps will melt, the water will rise. The hurricanes will get stronger, the droughts will intensify and it is all due to man made pollution. And all the data is there and the consensus is irrefutable despite what the American government does to re-write scientific data to seed doubt in the minds of Americans so that the economy can perpetuate the damage it does while making the rich richer.This is one good thing An Inconvenient Truth and Al Gore doesn't do, is start pointing finger at companies and rich politicians. He never makes use of cheap tactics, demagoguery or sophistry. He just keeps the focus on the message, the issue. Not that companies and rich politicians don't need to be lined up and pointed at as the culprits; but the film has nobler intentions, to change the world, not start a spitting contest. The message aims to unite and gather people, not to further divide. Because America surely does not need more division it needs unity in front of this looming catastrophe that needs urgent action by the country to help the rest of the world face what could end civilization.A climactic 5 outta 5. I urgently request that everyone who hasn't seen An Inconvenient Truth, do so quickly and if you have, encourage others to do the same. In the meantime please visit http://www.climatecrisis.net/ to see what you can do the help save the world. This is necessary.

TV Review: Heroes - "Fallout"

David Desjardins — Wed, 6 Dec 2006 23:07:01 EST

This week’s episode directed by John Badham was… wait! John who? Doesn’t ring a bell? Obviously you do not sit until the bitter end of movies reading the credits do you? Badham has made some culture warping movies and some easily forgotten ones also. But keep in mind that Peter Jackson made some horrid movies like Dead Alive before he was given the honor and distinction of directing The Lord of the Rings trilogy.Let’s start with one that did change pop culture forever. Saturday Night Fever ring a bell? That’s his puppy. The tear jerking Whose Life is it Anyway. Who can forget Matthew Broderick in Wargames? How about the suck-fest that is Johnny Five in Short Circuit. Yes, it blew chunks, but if you were alive back then, you remember Johnny Five, don’t you? Heck I remember J5 holding hands with participants in Hands Across America (I’m dating myself aren’t I?) He also directed the hilarious Stakeout; back when Richard Dreyfuss was still funny and Emilio Estevez was still relevant (I have yet to see Bobby). He also directed the not-as-good-as-the-original-remake Point of No Return. The last time Badham really pumped my nads was with the real-time suspense thriller Nick of Time. If you haven’t seen this forgotten gem, rent it, download it, pod it, I don’t care just get it in your brain.Since then he’s been relegated to directing television. Though this isn’t a condemnation since television now produces better quality story telling than the movies could ever aspire to accomplish. And Heroes isn’t his first foray into television. Way back in the '70s he directed episodes of The Streets of San Francisco. It’s just a damn shame the man doesn’t get more work but after this week's episode, he should be installed as a series regular. Why?Well, the over-hyped episode just rocked. "Fallout" was easily one of the best so far this season, even though it did not live up to the promotion machine. Nikki gets with the program and realizes that if her man can walk through walls, it’s going to take more than bullets to knock the brother down. Sure, he takes the first one, but the second one just flies right through his head like he’s vapor. So what’s a girl to do? Obviously the Sarah Connor on the warpath bit isn’t working. So let’s try to rip on Buffy Summers. DL can put up a good fight despite getting thrown around like a rag doll. But the fight ends when Jessica throws a meddling Micah aside and into a rock wall. Micah is injured, DL runs to his side and Nikki resurfaces. Nikki is engulfed with regret and turns herself in to the police investigating the earlier shooting. Personally I impatiently wait until Nikki and family get to meet more of the other Heroes.Meanwhile back at the Bennett front, not all is quiet on the range as you’d expect considering the involvement of Mr. Bennett. Here the story gets even more tangled and Mr. Bennett has way too much on his plate and he seems to be losing control of the situation. The question as to whether he’s the Big Bad remains unanswered but we feel that he’s simply out to protect his daughter Claire and that he’s willing to make very hard decisions to accomplish his goals. Even when confronted by Sylar, the obvious Big Bad of the series, he remains focused. Sylar even threatens to “take care” of Claire, which seems to seriously piss off Mr. Bennett, but he only uses this moment to taunt Sylar by calling him by his real name and reminding him that he’s just a lowly watchmaker. You see, Sylar is locked into a more sinister looking version of Hannibal Lecter’s cell, which apparently isolates his powers since he is incapable of pulling Bennett through the glass. Though I believe that The Haitian is simply close by guarding Mr. Bennett; just like he was when Claire Bear and Papa Bear were being interrogated by Agent Hanson and Matt the Mindreader. During the interrogation Matt was incapable of getting any “signal” from either party.What was even more interesting was Matt tried to read Peter Petrelli’s mind. Since Peter assimilates other mutant’s powers, they were both reading each other's mind, creating a very painful feedback loop to both. But enough information was transmitted between them for Matt to know Peter wasn’t Sylar. But Peter doesn’t seem to be feeling to well. He’s pale and coughs a lot even when Claire visits him. You’d think with her healing powers borrowed that he would heal, but he doesn’t. They have a heart warming talk. Peter tells her about the "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World bit," but she doesn’t understand what’s going on -- she’s still trying to cope with the fact that she’s not the only one with abilities. But at the urgency of her father, she leaves the cell, telling Peter that he’s her hero. Awwwwwww!Back to the Cheerleader storyline. Mr. Bennett swears Claire to secrecy after admitting that he’s known all along about her abilities. He asks her who else knows about her abilities… oh this can’t be good you say. Damn right. Mr. Bennett sends The Haitian to wipe the minds of her friend Zach -- the boy who filmed all her suicide attempts -- and of course, Lyle, her brother. Claire gets wind of what’s going on when she confronts Zach, implying they haven’t spoken in years and her brother, who can’t remember anything -- not even how he got home. She’s now in panic mode and calls her father to find out if he remembers what she can do. She hasn’t figured out that her father is behind all this and fears “they” have gotten to him also. Mr. Bennett asks if she is alone… yes… no. The Haitian is there and grabs her. He tells her he’s done this before, to her mother, many times before, but he’s unwilling to wipe her mind. “Can you keep a secret Claire?” The guy can actually speak.During all this time, Eden, the girl next door with vocal influence, seems to be suffering remorse. She leaves a note to Mohinder. She even gets Isaac the Stoner Psychic Painter out of his fake hospital room, because she is going off-reservation. But she wants to convince Sylar to kill himself first. She walks in the Lecter room with a gun but before she can use her voice, she’s thrown through the glass wall by Sylar telekinetic abilities. She points the gun at Sylar but as he tells her it won’t work on him, so she points the gun at her head and pulls the trigger, depriving Sylar of new mutant DNA. Can someone please explain to me just what he physically does with the brains? The morbid curiosity is killing me. Its also sad to see Eden go, as she was an interesting character. Such a tiny pixie with such great power over others.Isaac ends up in Texas, probably with the help of Eden, and meets up with Hiro and his sidekick Ando. They exchange the regular “So what’s your super-power?” chit-chat and get to work. Isaac explains that he can’t see the future unless he’s high, but Hiro will have nothing of it. They have to find out how to prevent New York from going nuclear. It becomes apparent after learning of Sylar’s imprisonment that he can draw without the smack when he takes out drawings he had made while straight. They get to work on seeing the next piece of the puzzle. What comes of it was just too out there for me. It reached to far out of the “realism” the show has given us so far. We see a painting of Hiro with a sword and what seems to be Godzilla. But then it could also be a dinosaur, since Hiro can travel through time, but please, please, please... no Godzilla in New York. The last time that happened, the box office numbers were disastrous. But Hiro discovers the next step of his mission, he must find that sword.Jailhouse Pete is bailed out by his brother, Nathan. Peter, looking sicker than ever, has trouble standing, even more trouble walking, and collapses on the stairs. There, he has a vision of all our heroes meeting up in New York. The city is completely empty and quiet. But he can’t hear the heroes talking either. They are coming out of cars and buildings when suddenly, Peter becomes luminescent, about to explode. He wakes up, thinking that he’s the one who will explode the city. “It’s all my fault… the explosion…. it’s me.”See you January 22nd to find out how it turns out. Meanwhile, a masterful 5 outta 5 for a surreal and captivating episode.

TV Review: 30 Days - "Jail"

David Desjardins — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 07:33:46 EST

For the uninitiated, Morgan Spurlock is the documentary genius behind Supersize Me, wherein he subjected himself to 30 days of eating nothing but McDonald’s restaurant food morning, noon, and night. And if asked to supersize the meal, he couldn’t refuse. Spurlock took the concept of the 30 day experiment to a whole new level last year when he released a series of one hour documentaries chronicling the events experienced by volunteers or Spurlock himself, as they lived 30 days immersed in a lifestyle very different from their own.For example, taking a die-hard right-wing Christian and making him live 30 days, not with a Muslim family in a Muslim community, but as a Muslim in a Muslim community. This means the Qur'an, the beard, the praying, the customs, the whole tabbouleh. An atheist free-thinker must live with an evangelical family. A pro-choice clinic worker must live in a pro-life home for mothers led by a very pro-life pastor. You get the picture -- challenging people with modern day divisive issues and making them face the issues. For the final segment of this season, Spurlock took it upon himself to live for 30 days as an inmate in a jail.This couldn’t have been easy. And it sure didn’t look very easy. He would live 30 days with the prisoners, including a 72-hour stint in solitary confinement.The deal was that he would receive no special treatment from the warden or guards. He was to be treated as a common inmate. And they easily complied. Though he wasn’t sent to a maximum security prison, the admission process alone was dehumanizing enough. He was searched, given clothes and a mattress for his bed, and told to find a cell with space. The poor guy goes in fearing beatings and getting raped (much to the desperation of his girlfriend) and now he has to pick his cell. Not easy when you know whoever you “bunk” with is a criminal, not to mention the overcrowding. Each cell built for two inmates is inhabited by at least three, so you are basically stuck sleeping on the floor until someone leaves or is transferred.If you can call it sleep. Morgan doesn’t get much sleep for the first few days. The environment is oppressive. No windows, no outside time, just the cell block open area. Oh, and the showers are right in the open area, the same place where they eat, live, and occupy their time. There is nothing to do, literally. All the prisoners can do is play cards, read, watch TV, and sit around and take root. That seems like the true punishment -- condemned to boredom. The prisoners, including Morgan, make use of stairs and T-shirts as makeshift bars to do chin-ups. The tables are used for tricep pushups. And mostly they walk around the perimeter like caged animals.His first cellmates are cousins, one a thief, the other a dealer. One of them was on his second day and another one of their cousins had been discharged the day before. Keep crime in the family, that always works out well. But the boys are nice enough characters, not the tough-as-nails bad-asses TV presents us with. No angels for sure, but not evil, either. They are victims of circumstance, dealing with the life that was handed to them, like most anyone in or out of jail.As Spurlock puts it: “Either we live in a country where we simply lock people away forever for making mistakes, or we live in a country where we try to help people who have made mistakes re-enter society as productive human beings. End of story. It’s that simple.”As usual with any 30 Days segment, we are presented with animation dishing out a plethora of information about the subject matter. So we learn that 25% of the world’s incarcerated population is in America, and the level of inmates in for drug use/possession has shot up 12 times since the Nancy Reagan "Just say No" crusade in the '80s. There are 2.5 million Americans in the penal system at this very moment. And then he gets to the meat of the subject -- money.The penal system is a profitable game and all the companies that supply the system with everything from hot dogs to body armor, are interested in keeping the business running as is because of all the benefits stemming from the incarceration of people, including all the mentally ill people who should be in hospitals and not in jails. Case in point, one of the prisoners is schizophrenic and has been jailed for trying to escape from a hospital. Hospitals are overcrowded, prisons are overcrowded, and meanwhile, thousands upon thousands of lives are being wasted to keep this penal economy going. No help, no therapy, nothing. That is, unless you are a drug addict.When this happens, you get sent to the cool cellblock -- the one with therapists, group sessions, plants, outside access, meditation time, and work to keep you busy. Morgan gets transferred there for the last ten days of his stint so he can experience all the layers of the prison. There he meets a former cellmate addicted to heroin who now resides in that wing. He’s dry, he’s clean shaven, and he’s thinking about getting a job once he gets out. Everyone in that wing is optimistic about when they leave. It’s a whole different ball game.But eventually the stint is over -- after 25 days. That’s right. Since most convicts get released on good behavior after 85% of their “shift”, so does Morgan. Sounds too convenient to me, but I can’t blame him for wanting to leave. And there were a few on-camera moments that seemed set up, but in an obvious way. He’s in solitary and yet there’s a camera with him and not the one hooked up to the ceiling. The toilet just happened to break and keeps flushing continuously. It all just sounds too neat to me.So did some confession cam time. This is one aspect I detest about both the show and Supersize Me. I feel he was over-emoting to get the message across. But I could be wrong. Still he knew in the back of his mind that this was a limited engagement and he would be quickly released or could be released at any moment, unlike his cellmates who were there for the long run.We do get treated to a segment at the end going over all the released inmates during that month and how they quickly returned inside after only a few months on the outside. How the system completely failed them. How they got very little help and are now condemned to a life in and out of jail for sometimes stupid mistakes, like getting caught with some dope.Despite some set up moments and some over-sentimentality I give this episode, perhaps the greatest yet. A four out of five.

TV Review: Battlestar Galactica "A Measure of Salvation"

David Desjardins — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 11:25:16 EST

Battlestar Galactica is definitely back to form. This week’s episode, “A Measure of Salvation,” proves it. After finding the disabled basestar, a team is sent to investigate and they find the Cylon bodies, but some are still alive. After the freaking out subsides, they decide to take some back for investigation and interrogation. The doctor quickly finds the disease to be some type of encephalitis that humans are now immune to. The Cylons however are not. This leaves Athena in question. But due to her carrying a partially human child to term, she also has been immunized. The doctor has a vaccine, and Adama and Roslin decide to use the vaccine as collateral to extract information from one of the Simons. Being the closest to “death,” they conclude he would be most willing to give up said information in exchange. And surprisingly, he does. He explains that the other Cylons fearing contagion of the resurrection ship, abandoned them. And he doesn’t fail to inform them that Gaius Baltar provided them with the information. Adama now understands that the Cylons are on their way to Earth as well. As Simon says, to begin again, much like them.Lee Adama comes up with an idea and it isn’t pretty. His plan is to jump the Galactica to a known passage of space where the Cylons are certain to detect them and bring in a fleet of baseships and of course the resurrection ship. When the ship gets there, they execute the Cylon prisoners who will get uploaded into the resurrection ship, basically causing the extinction of the Cylon race. And this is where it gets really good.This plan doesn’t sit well with the XO, Agathon, because he’s married to one of the "skinjobs," Athena. He sees it as genocide and rightly so. They may not be born or organic, but they are people, they are a race, a culture. This would constitute of a crime against humanity. He argues that humanity would lose a part of their souls if they proceed with the plan. But president Roslin is quick to remind Agathon that the Cylons were not content with killing billions of humans, that they persist in hunting every last one of them to the ends of the universe. Thus the dilemma: just how far will you go to save humanity?Adama reluctantly agrees with the plan and by reminding Roslin that he can not use biological weapons without orders from the president, passes the responsibility onto Roslin. But Roslin, wise enough to understand, but hawkish enough to persevere with it, orders Adama to render the Cylons extinct. Athena, though crushed by the news, accepts it and takes it better than her counterpart, Agathon.The whole episode is reminiscent of ethical dilemmas found in the Star Trek universe, allegories of present world events of our daily lives, though Battlestar Galactica is far superior to the Star Trek franchises. Trek fans will recall the “I, Borg” episode where Picard and his crew capture a lone Borg and debate over whether to send him back with new command sets to replicate in the Collective and destroy the Borg. And this is what makes science-fiction so great. To pit humanity against their own darkness, to face them with difficult issues that test the very foundation of our social contracts, our culture, and the very nature of what it is to be human.On a basestar, Baltar is facing his own demons in the torture chair of Number Three. During the torture session, which seems unbearable — but then Baltar is kind of a wuss — Gaius gets a projected visit from Six. She consoles him and reaches out to him, encouraging him to detach his mind from his suffering body, with the help of sexual healing no less. She tells him to challenge Number Three with his analytical and scientific mind, while she takes care of his body. And he does, he endures until Three is perturbed by what Baltar says and it’s not science talk. “You’re all I have left. I believe in you!” Baltar yells to Six and Three as he experiences both his reality and projection at the same time. Three is puzzled and ends the torture. “I love you with all my heart,” Baltar says as he passes out, or maybe he’s just in a post-coital sleep.Before Adama could execute the plan, Agathon cuts off the air in the holding cell with the Cylon prisoners, killing them all before the resurrection ship is in range, thus foiling Roslin’s plan. At the end of the episode we find Roslin and Adama discussing over drinks what happened. Roslin asks who will investigate, but Adama decides to “close the book” on this one. “Convenient” she replies. Adama points out that they’re on the right track to Earth, and so are the Cylons remarks Roslin.There were some unexpected changes in the storyline. Agathon is now a Captain. The Raptors are now super-loaded with rocket launchers. When did all this happen? Why not introduce these facts instead of simply making them appear out of the blue? How come the resurrection ship now tags along with all basestar incursions? It was rarely seen before and now the new reality is that it tags along? Or have they destroyed too many basestars?And the episode loses credibility for having Agathon utter the most stupid justification when he said to Roslin that the Cylons had tried to live with them on New Caprica, when defending his argument against Cylon genocide. That was simply indigestible. I would have preferred he lapse into a highly philosophical debate on what consists a sentient life form, a person, a being of will, rather than he make such a eye-rolling remark that anyone immersed in the story would have hysterics about.But as said above, the show is back to true form. 4 so-say-we-alls outta 5.

Movie Review: Babel

David Desjardins — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 10:46:12 EST

In Mesopotamia -- what is now Iraq -- there used to exist a city named Babel. It was the Holy City of Babylonia. But in Christian mythology, its meaning is interpreted as “confusion” in reference to the Tower of Babel. During the erection of the Tower of Babel, God saw the united people building this tower to reach the heavens as defiance to His greatness. The Biblical story tells that man is evil and rebellious by nature and the tower's construction was an act of ego, not an act of worship. As punishment, God confused the languages so the builders could no longer communicate; they stopped building and the people were scattered over the world. You could read into such a story that God is responsible for this screw-up the world finds itself in, but I digress.In Babel, we find the same motif in three or four stories, depending on how you interpret it, closely linked together but spread out over the world. The story begins with two young brothers in the Moroccan desert, shooting the new family rifle at jackals and rocks, while herding goats. The older brother, trying to prove the rifle is a dud, fires at a tour bus when, in fact, he’s just a poor shot. The younger brother -- who is a great shot -- proves the rifle isn’t a dud. Thus begins the beautifully crafted tragedy about death and loneliness.A couple on a retreat to mend their lives after the death of their child are on that bus. The wife, Susan, played by Cate Blanchett, who, with her pale visage, could easily appear in a Waterhouse painting, is hit in the shoulder by the bullet. As the bus stops, the boys, realizing what they have done, run for the hills -- literally and figuratively.A Mexican nanny in an upper-middle class home receives a call from the husband, Richard, played by Brad Pitt. She is forced to stay with the children, despite her son’s wedding the next day. Not able to find a sitter, she heads off to Mexico with the children to attend the wedding. Getting back into the U.S. with the children will prove disastrous.A deaf-mute Japanese student is thrown out of a volleyball tournament for hand-gesturing/mouthing off to the referee. Her troubles run deep. As with all girls, she yearns to be noticed by boys, but her physical handicap creates social handicaps as well and pushes her to disruptive behavior. She also mourns the suicide of her mother and paddles through a murky relationship with her father.All these seemingly disjointed stories unfold at the same time, over five days. And they are all intimately tied together despite being separated by great distance. And it is the unraveling of relationship, through the exploration of each story’s tragedy, that we come to understand something about ourselves -- that we are truly alone without the ability to communicate, that we all hunger to connect with others, even for the briefest of moments, through a gaze, a caress, a word.To serve the story properly, it presents humanity in its rawest form -- within the limits of acceptability of mainstream cinema, though nothing of this movie is mainstream; whether it’s a young boy masturbating behind a rock after peeping at his sister changing clothes in the house or a young girl flashing her privates to boys at a local restaurant. The uncomfortable moments include a husband helping his wife urinate in a pan and children witnessing a chicken getting its head torn off. Some scenes are definitely not easy to watch for the prudish. The story openly deals with teenage sexuality, without begin overly explicit. It also depicts romance between older people, something not often seen in modern cinema. But it’s not attempting anything tasteless; instead, it exposes us in our intimate moments with dignity and shows us as the validation seekers we are. Validation gives our lives meaning, purpose.Not only is the storytelling raw, though complex, so is the cinematography. There is very little make-up, only environmental lighting, and, of course, a gritty, grainy film quality. These features all come together to deliver the harshness of the tragic outcomes of all the stories. And let’s not omit mention of the beautiful score and music throughout the film. It is always perfect for the story’s locales and always lush and colorful.The viewer must be open to reading subtitles for great deal of the movie, since most of the film’s dialogue is not English. We have Japanese, sign language, Berber, and Spanish thrown into the mix. There is also the examination of cultures we know little about, but which, in the end, are very much like ours; exposing us for the frauds we are in believing we are so very different, at the core, from our neighbors. Everyone seeks happiness in the end; nothing less, nothing more. And it’s what drives us to such desperate measures when we fail to capture it for ourselves. But I won’t lapse into a Buddhist discourse on the nature of suffering.In the end, luminous story, exhaustive execution, surreal music and images, lessons to learn, and great acting -- even by the non-actors -- make for a fantastic experience and reinforces my belief that intelligent cinema is still possible in these bubble-gum flavored times. I won’t even rank it; it would demean the film, even if given the highest ranking. Babel transcends borders, languages, social taboos, and the mainstream.

TV Review: Battlestar Galactica "Torn"

David Desjardins — Thu, 9 Nov 2006 17:56:04 EST

It took all but 6 episodes to get season 3 underway. Episode 4, Exodus part II was the Big Reset, where the rag tag fleet was brought back together after the assault on New Caprica to liberate the colonists from Cylon occupation; giving us a glimpse of hope following the disastrous season 3, 2 hour bore-fest-opener. Don't get me wrong, I think Battlestar Galactica is the greatest TV series of all time all genres mixed together but the season 3 opener was a bust, many die hard fans also agree.Episode 5, Collaborators, in which The Circle, a special Star Chamber-like court doles out punishment to those who collaborated with the Cylon invaders served as the Boot Sequence. The secret court was ordered by then Interim President Tom Zarek who in the same episode realizes he's not the man to be president and promises Laura Roslin the presidency. Things seem to be falling back into place, but it isn't the same image as before.In episode 6, Battlestar Galactica is booted up, scripts have been run and the previously good version has been restored. Too many computer analogies? Just how good is it? Is it back to the greatness is once was? Is it still the best TV show of all time? Well, Apollo has dropped some serious poundage and he's back where he should be, in the cockpit. We even gleam at his markings on his viper, Maj. Lee Adama, not Commander. He's giving Starbuck a load of crap for being careless and grounds her.Gaius Baltar is back in self-preservation mode; selling out his species in exchange he remains in the good graces of his Cylon hosts. Colonel Tigh has jumped off the wagon - yes jumped, no falling - and is back on the bottle like a madman. Boomer is back in the gang; the gang even finds her a new call sign after she claims Boomer was another person. We hear a load of toaster flavored call signs being suggested but all said in a friendly tone. But they settle on Athena, Greek goddesses of war. But we all know Grace Park is a Goddess, period.So let's run down the list. Starbuck is in trouble with the CAG, Apollo. Check. Tigh is pacifying himself with alcohol. Check. Baltar is a sniveling paranoid megalomaniac doing everything he can to remain alive. Check. Sharon is back in the fold and hot. Check. Adama is still commanding. Check. Starbuck and Tigh are getting drunk together and having a good time, taking down the morale of everyone else and agreeing with each other. Che... Woe! Wait. What?That's right Starbuck and Tigh; both grounded, are consuming mass quantities of hooch in the rec-room like old war buddies and taking pot-shots at the other pilots who weren't part of the sequestered colonists on New Caprica. They say the fleet viper jockeys are a bunch of cowards and unmeritorious of gratitude for saving them on New Caprica. Obviously for both to agree, it's because they are working out frustrations and anger stemming from the events that unfolded on the surface during the occupation.Not helping Kara's matters is that Kacey (KC, Kara's Cylon) wanted to visit her with her mom. But Starbuck wanted nothing to do with the poor child who only wanted a big hug. The cute as a button kid is so happy to see her that Kara's repudiation is only heart breaking. The mother is not too happy with this, but if she only knew how they used the child to manipulate Starbuck, she might understand. Starbuck is still reeling from the events and is herself psychologically on the edge.Meanwhile back on the Cylon farm, the fleshbots want to know the location of Earth. They intend to make it their new home, reciprocally so does President Roslin and Commander Adama. Both sides are working furiously to find the 13th colony. Geata has found Baltar's research material on finding planet earth at the same time as Gaius is spilling the beans on this same research to the toaster army. The prophecy from the Scrolls of Pythia speaks of the red and blue eye of the Lion's head; a binary star in the Lion's head nebula. Both sides quickly find the system and head straight for it.Of course the technologically superior Cylons get there first. But something goes seriously wrong. The Cylon fleet gets a distress signal from the baseship sent to investigate what lies beyond the binary system. The ship and its crew have been overtaken by a virus. The ships are just as alive as the Cylons and are built of organic material. The ship even has an avatar called The Hybrid. The Hybrid resides in a resurrection basin, plugged into the ship. Every living Cylon on the ship is infected. The Cylons don't know what to do about this. They pull the resurrection ship away so the dying Cylons won't carry the contagion with them as they are reborn. They are literally torn as to what to do. They even show more compassion than our rag tag fleet does when they have to blow up a ship with humans on it.So Baltar volunteers for a recon mission after Number 6 (the one in his mind) tells him to, so that he can score more points with the Cylons and prolong his life expectancy. When Baltar reaches the ship with a captured Raptor (not a Cylon Heavy Raider because of the biological components) he finds endless corridors filled with bodies or dying Cylons. He finds a device of obvious human design and the body of a Number 6 with black hair. She's heavily infected and delirious and recognizes him as "the human" but not as Baltar. She starts ranting and raving, blaming Gaius for the contagion, yelling at him that he wants to infect the other ships - after he's taken a sample. Driving the already fragile Gaius over the edge, for which she pays with her life as he strangles her. Perhaps he does intend to sabotage the Cylon fleet, but this is doubtful.Ultimately the Cylons leave the basestar behind. A lone Raptor arrives with Athena (Sharon) at the helm to investigate the same system and find the abandoned and dead basestar with raiders floating aimlessly around it. But back on the Battlestar, Adama has been informed of the moral problem and confronts Tigh and Starbuck. Both are unresponsive to Adama claims. He demands Starbucks sidearm, takes the safety off and asks one of them to shoot him, telling them that their actions are tantamount to shooting him. When Kara tries to leave, he harshly throws her to the ground. He tells her: "You were like a daughter to me once - no more. You're a malcontent and a cancer, and I won't have you on my ship. So you have a choice - you can figure out how to become a human being again, and an officer; or you can find another place to live, off of this ship. You're dismissed."Adama always finds the words to say with deep impact. Or maybe it's just the authority he weaves. Kara complies and cuts her hair and seemingly gets back on the saddle and even gives us this moment, the ones I live for, those little moments of humanity. She of course visits Kacey. It's those moments that resolve Sci-Fi's meaning as storytelling. Tigh on the other hand, drowns his sorrows in a bottle in utter desperation.But what puts Battlestar Galactica back on track? What's new? Well during a discussion between Caprica 6 and Gaius, we find out why the ships are so bland and boring on the inside - except for the part where they walk into a room with a buck naked Number 8 (Boomer) doing some Cylon Tai Chi. Cylons use projection. They project the environment they individually prefer to experience.Caprica 6 prefers to live in "God's creation" as she eloquently puts it, a lush green forest. It doesn't take long for Gaius to put 2 and 2 together. With all the free-fall hallucinations he has of him and In-his-head-6 in paradisiacal locales, he asks if he is a Cylon. And if he wasn't unstable enough, this will most likely drive him mad in future episodes. We even see him looking for other Cylons than the 7 models we've seen so far when he's investigating the infected basestar. We don't talk about them, 6 replies. This only makes Gaius even more nervous. What's wrong with the 5 other models? This makes the plot even more intriguing to fans in my opinion.Are they even heavier than the seven current models? Are they Godlike? More evolved? Less Evolved? Are they less human? What went so wrong that the powerful Cylons won't speak of them? Is Gaius Baltar a Cylon?So with the new plot thickeners of projection and 5 Cylon models no one wants to speak about and traces of humanity coming back to surface for Starbuck. Battlestar Galactica is back on track after a fresh reboot. A fraking good 4 outta 5.

TV Review: Lost -"The Cost of Living"

David Desjardins — Fri, 3 Nov 2006 14:54:37 EST

I had heard rumors a character from Lost was going to get knocked off. So I thought, who is expendable? They won’t whack Jack, not that I would mind, but he’s rather integral to the show, being the first person we see in the first episode of season 1, waking up amongst the bamboo trees, miraculously un-impaled. Just thinking about it gives me shivers. They can’t kill Hurley, he’s the “real” person the viewers relate to, and he serves as compass and brings in the needed wisecracks. Kate? Hell, no. She’s the sizzling hotness of Lost everyone just secretly wants to save, though she can handle herself real well. Can’t get rid of Sawyer, he’s the bad boy men want to be and women want to be with. And no way could the story line remain solid without the presence of Locke. He’s the creepy mystical guy this island needs -- and no one will rest until we find out how exactly he ended up in a wheelchair. So this leaves mostly secondary and tertiary characters.Most of the Tailies have been killed off so far. Except Bernard and Mr. Eko. So Bernard gets the axe right? No Bernard or his wife Rose in sight. Where are they anyway? I miss those guys. Rose is definitely the matriarch for many, with her wisdom and peaceful demeanor. Libby and Ana-Lucia we’re killed off because the actors playing them were busted for drunk driving and basically creating havoc on the set. So they suddenly got rid of them last season. Can’t say I was sorry to see Ana-Lucia go. I found her annoying and too rowdy a character -- the cast had enough muscle anyway. Claire and Charlie haven’t been getting much screen time lately, other than holding the baby or tagging along with Locke.But they went for my second favorite character of the series. The tall, quiet, and strong Mr. Eko. How could the writers do this? Was Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje the one who wanted out? I do not know. I can’t stand shows the likes of Entertainment Tonight or Access Hollywood, nor do I venture in the entertainment news sections of papers, since it is mostly gossip and couple-mongering. But in writing this article, I decided to take a look.It seems Adewale never wanted his character to be a long commitment, but this seems to be the “official line”. According to some reports, Adewale was kind of a diva, refusing to film scenes and demanded rewrites and his character was written out for it. Just as with Michelle Rodriguez (Ana-Lucia) and Cynthia Watros, who played Libby and had an interesting back-story involving crowd favorite, Hurley, being unveiled.I find this character’s send off to cheapen the story line. Mr. Eko was a great character and brilliantly acted by Adewale. He was the Yang to Locke’s Yin. Teller to his Penn. Kant to his Locke (I couldn’t resist that nerdy part). The mystical discussions about fate between Locke and Eko were masterful and scary at times. Both were always on the edge of the precipice, starring into the abyss. I will miss the duality between both characters.Why does it cheapen the story line? Here’s why. As of late, Lost has lost some of the appeal it had for me. At first it was mystical, suspenseful, and mysterious. Locke served as a bridge between those facets and the more down to earth survivors. He brought willfulness and determination necessary to surviving on the island. Mr. Eko, Locke’s equal in matters of thought and spirituality, brought in strength of character and a certain primal wisdom to balance everything out.Season three has been more about Jack Bauer on an island. I love Sawyer and his bad-boy survive at all costs attitude, but we can get that on so many other shows. And Jack, well, he has to stop whining so much. Locke and Eko were the thinkers on the island and, what is essential to any epic story like Lost, the tricksters. Acting out to get the others thinking. Now Eko is gone. And Locke seems to be slacking around, suddenly asking for volunteers when he usually knows who has to go on missions and why, though he may not reveal it to the characters or the viewers. And the little volunteer figures out the concept behind all the CC monitors on the wall when Locke -- the thinker -- and Sayid, the strategic military techno-wizard man, couldn’t. That was quite weak and felt like filler more than anything else.This fifth episode was, of course, Mr. Eko-centric, giving us his back-story of when he was in Africa with his brother, Yemi, a priest. We finally got to understand just how Eko took over his brother’s calling after the shootout at the airport during the drug-smuggling incident. This is the same plane found on the island with the Virgin Mary statuettes on board, filled with heroin. Keep in mind, everything and everyone are somehow connected. The military saved Eko, thinking he was a priest, after which he took over the church, seemingly torn between his past as a smuggler and his newfound identity.We soon find out there are pirates in that village, stealing the antibiotic shipments in exchange for protection. This, of course, does not please Eko. This is all shown in flashbacks while Eko recovers from his polar bear attack. He has a vision of his dead brother visiting him, telling him it was time for confession, and that he knew where to go. This, of course, meant the plane is where Yemi’s remains lie. During his excursion to the plane, he is haunted by mutilated ghosts asking for mercy. Our man Eko needs a breather. He makes a little pit stop by the creek, where he drinks up some water. As he is hunched over in pain, drinking, in the reflecting water he sees the black cloud monster sneaking up behind him. The monster, which he does not fear. The Monster backs off pretty quickly and disappears into the woods. On the other side comes the search and rescue team. They clan together and head up to the plane.Locke and Eko remove the rocks blocking the entrance to the plane, while the others head down the shaft to investigate. Eko discovers the plane to be empty of Yemi’s remains. This he finds troubling, but who wouldn’t considering the circumstances? Eventually, Locke heads down the shaft for further investigation, leaving Eko by himself to ponder. Yemi shows up and leads him into the forest for “confession”.This is where we flashback again to the church in the village. Eko gets wind of the black market for antibiotics and makes a play for the profits. The pirates hear of this and confront Father Eko in the church. This is where Eko, about to get his hands cut off, gets into the zone and brutally dispatches the bad men to meet their maker. The God-fearing villagers cast Eko out and boards up the church because it has been desecrated.Back on the island, Yemi confronts Eko for a confession. Eko refuses, seeing no sin in killing to save his brother, seeing no sin in killing to survive the life he was given. Yemi turns his back to him and says, “You speak to me as if I were your brother.” Eko follows, asking him who he is. He loses his brother, but comes face to face with the smoke monster, which proceeds to give him the biggest smackdown ever seen on Lost. The smoke forms into a hand, grabs Mr. Eko and slams him into trees and then into the ground. Locke and company show up. He whispers to Locke, “You’re next”The smoke monster beating Eko into a pulp was well made and produced, but felt awkward for the show. It felt rushed, as did most of the show. But despite the killing of Eko, the Jack in the tank portion was more interesting.Jack has figured out that the x-rays he spotted in the previous episode were those of Benjamin Linus, the leader of The Others, and he confronts him with this evidence. Benjamin denies this at first, but later confesses that his plan was to try to break Jack into wanting to help him, that he wanted to live.“I want you to want to save my life. But we’re beyond that now. All I can ask is that you think about it.” He walks away, stops, and asks Jack, “Do you believe in God, Jack?”“Do you?” Jack says, still incapable of answering questions about spirit.“Two days after I found out I had a fatal tumor on my spine, a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky, and if that’s not proof of God, I don’t know what is.”With that said, maybe the writers are going to bring the mysticism back and this was promising. Time to bring back the mysterious and the nail biting, edge of your seat suspense that recently was replaced with violent intensity. Scenes like the one with Locke kneeling over the hatch, begging for answers, and having a light turn on at the last moment, are the scenes that made Lost great and created a mythology. There better be something in Benjamin’s tumor less mundane than it simply being a tumor. Desmond’s foretelling of events must be better explored. There better be a good reason for keeping Kate and Sawyer in the bear cages.Speaking of the bears, in the first season, Walt was reading a comic book with a polar bear in it, leading everyone to believe his imagination was manifesting itself. The same when his father, Michael, said as soon as the rain would stop, he’d go looking for the dog and it suddenly stopped raining. These manifestations were enough to get Locke’s attention and enough to get ours. Why were the manifested bears changed to caged bears on another island? Now with Michael and Walt gone, how do the writers intend to explain this? Will they be brought back into the story?There are now too many questions unanswered. The story seems to be imploding into boorish Lord of the Flies scenarios. Locke has become way too easy-going and almost overconfident. Jack still questions the obvious. Sawyer just wants to fight everyone. Kate is just sitting pretty. Hurley is always at the food station, cutting up fruit. Charlie just tags along but brings nothing to the story. Sayid has been going through the motions. Some of the characters have been all but forgotten this season. They have to stop killing off characters -- and their cool story lines -- whose actors want to be shown the money. Time to drink some Dharma Energy drinks and get things moving again. Lost 2.0, the sucker.A sadly given 3 out of 5.