Comments on: Media Maven’s Friday Five – 2/29/08

By: Ste

Ste — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:01:12 +0000

I don’t think her baby would work as an anchor because she wasn’t born before she got on the island and she didn’t see her until now. I also thought you only got these effects if you tried to get off the island. Rousseau never mentioned her or her crew having anyway of attempting escape.

By: warsh

warsh — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:23:33 +0000

true. and rousseau survived because she had an anchor…her baby.

By: few4th

few4th — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:57:52 +0000

Speaking of Rousseau’s crew, I read one person’s idea on the Rousseau’s crew might have experienced the mental time traveling like Desmond and that’s what killed them. Sounds plausible to me.

By: Ste

Ste — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:51:18 +0000

I agree about the black rock being a low priority in the scale of things but I think thats why i enjoyed it so much the fact that they managed to lnk it in without the need for dynamite. It was a really good link in and brought Penny’s dad more into the mystery I just thought it was cleverly done and unexpected. I also want to know how penny knows about the island? Has she seen the journal her father bought??? I also hope we have an episode with a Roussou (spelt wrong) flash back. I want to know what really happened with her crew and where she really comes from.

By: Media Maven

Media Maven — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:52:53 +0000

Guess I’m the odd man out on this one. I guess it just felt very forced to me. How many times are we going to have the same scene between Penny and Desmond, with Des apologizing and Penny loving him anyways? Its happened like 8 times already!

And yes, maybe that journal and Black rock stuff will have actual significance, but I highly doubt it. There are about 5000 other things on the list of “Things Yet To Explained” and I’d say the elements introduced by this episode fall somewhere around #4333.

But thank you Ste and Frank for your comments– I need readers like you to keep me in check!

By: few4th

few4th — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:21:03 +0000

Ste – I agree about the most recent episode of Lost. It was one of the best episodes ever. I think what really made the episode great was the Desmond and Penny story. The two scenes when Desmond and Penny were talking were very powerful and very well done.

By: Ste

Ste — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:55:40 +0000

I think you needed to open your mind more to the latest episode of lost possibly the best this series. We now know about the time shift. We know that Sayid and Desmond have a friend on the boat who let them out of the medical centre on the boat. I believe we have already seen Faraday travel in time, in ep2 when we see his flashback he is crying at the crash report and doesn’t know why i think this is because he has travelled in time. The black rock (the ship) came up again and why did Penny’s dad want that black rock journal so much? He obviously has some sort of link to the plot and island. Why did one of the hanso’s sell the journal at auction? (as in hanso corporation) – There was lots and lots of interesting bits of information in this episode.

By: Media Maven

Media Maven — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:02:47 +0000

Thank you SO much for weighing in, Suzy. The whole point of this blog is foster exactly this type of discussion.

I fear we’ll have to disagree on this one though. For me, the songs barely relate to the film’s subject matter, the characters are as 2-D as you can get, and there is no real plot. What’s Gene Kelley’s character arc? How does he grow? What are his flaws?

And as cool as the dream ballet stuff is, Oklahoma did it almost a decade earlier and to much better narrative effect.

By: auntsuzy

auntsuzy — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:19:19 +0000

Hi, I strayed onto your blog via a Gene Kelly Google alert. I am a little disappointed by your comments on An American In Paris. It is my most special movie musical. Just shows how opinions can differ. Can I just say that GK was 38/39 when it was made, and his character would not have been early 20s, more like early 30s, as he had ‘fought’ in the 2nd World War which had ended 5 years earlier according to the setting for the film. And there was a plot, an American artist living in Paris is involved in a ‘love triangle’, with an older rich woman who is trying to buy his love, and a young shop girl who is about to marry an older man out of gratitude. Many other movies have been built around similar or lesser themes. Also there are 4 tap numbers, not 7, and each is fully integrated into the plot line. The other dances are not tap, they feature a range of dance styles.
For me, the only weak areas in this excellent piece are some aspects of the screenplay and Oscar Levant’s self-satisfied section in which he imagines himself to be a complete orchestra. Any movie using Gershwin’s music is worth watching, and the 17 minute ballet is testament to Minnelli’s artistry and Gene Kelly’s imagination and unparallelled choreographic and dancing skills. It was a phenomenal achievement. It was a smash when it was released, adored by both the public and the critics. It actually overshadowed Singin’ In The Rain which was released the following year, though eventually most people would come to agree that SITR was Gene’s masterpiece and probably the best movie musical ever. I love SITR but for me, AAIP has more emotional impact.
I guess we will never agree on AAIP, but I wanted to put in my two pennorth to give a different viewpoint. Hope you don’t mind.