Blowing Smoke: A movie about poker, cigars, women, and getting screwed: Yay, <em>Lost</em> time again

Thursday
February 28, 2008

Yay, Lost time again

Get it, "lost time"? Let's all watch Desmond completely lose his mind!

Wow, they're getting off the island. I know we know that, but it's still cool to actually see.
Desmond expects... heh... he expects answers on the boat... hhhhhnk!
Desmond used to be Private Pyle! So, what, his brain has switched places with his own brain 10 years ago? I wish I could do that....
You might want to wear extra-sturdy pants to go see Iron Man, because it is going to blow your ass wide open.
Faraday: "Maybe we should just, just... tell 'em..." YEAH! Time moves slower on the island, we get it. Why? How? I know, I know, it's Lost.
"Ah don't noo you!" Boy, don't the new freighter guys look trustworthy? I really think they have Desmond and Sayid's best interests at heart.
If Dez keeps flipping back and forth in time like this, he's going to earn himself a soap party from the other trainees. If they even have soap over there.
Kevin Durand rules. Oh, he's going to do bad things, very very bad things...
So this must be the fabled Minkowski! "It's happening to you, isn't it?" He's another time-flippy guy too, then?

Lapidus: "Don't go tryin' to call Baghdad, those phones can only call each other." Of course they can only call each other. We wouldn't want somebody from the outside world giving us a hint what's going on!
Doctorish guy: "I don't want to stick you with anything." I think that's a lie in more ways than one.
Does PastDesmond get out of the phone booth by the end of the episode?
Desmond thinks it's 1996. That explains the hair!
So: Whatever happened to Desmond when he turned the key in the Hatch when it was about to blow up, it like... um... magnetized his brain, which... is totally turning his life into Slaughterhouse Five. Hey, why not?
"When you see me in the past, tell me to set the device to 2.342 and make sure it oscillates at 11 Hertz. If that doesn't work, you need to tell me you know about Eloise." Please pass the ketchup, I think it's going to rain!
How does PastDez know what PastFaraday looks like? He couldn't remember him 5 minutes ago.
Hints from Eloise: Don't let some crazy Jesus-looking guy stick you in a box and put time-rays on you!
Michael is the Captain, right?
I can't tell if this is awesome or infuriating. Can it be both? It's not telling us anything, but it's doing so in a very entertaining way. Oh wait, I forgot which show I'm watching for a sec.
Any smart people in the house? Does any of that crap on the blackboard actually mean anything?
So Eloise died because she couldn't call her boyfriend?
Tovard Hanso (who presumably has something to do with the Hanso Foundation) owned the ship's ledger of the Black Rock, the ship in the middle of the Island, and now Penny's dad just bought it. And Dez knows about it because...
Can Sayid fix the radio? Of course he can fix it, he's Sayid!
Waking up on the floor of a bathroom with water running all over the place. Somehow I get the feeling this is not a first for Dez...
Penny's number is 7946-0893. Get crackin', Even Bigger Nerds Than Me!
Farady is another time-flippy guy. Why wouldn't he be? And eventually we'll find out that Michael left the door open for Sayid and Dez. And the Losties are gettin' nuttin' for Christmas.
Well, that kinda sucked, but at least they threw a lot of nonsense at us. Yay!!!

P.S. As the AV Club blog points out, one thing they did tell us: It's still 2004 outside the island. Christmas Eve, to be exact. So whatever time discrepancy there is, it's not in terms of months or weeks. The island is just a half-hour out of phase, then? Who knows.

P.P.S. One thing that just occurred to me: Eloise died because she didn't have a "constant," right? Something familiar that existed in both timelines she was switching between? But... how much "time shock" is a rat going to experience? "Wait, this isn't the piece of cheese I was just eating! And wasn't I just on the other side of this cage?" It's not like the little critter had a rat drill sergeant screaming in her face every five minutes. Kind of a contrived way to work in the Dez/Penny love story. It worked emotionally, but it makes less sense the more you think about it. Yay, Lost!

P.P.P.S. I just watched it again, and it's not fair to say it sucked. No, it didn't really have any big revelations for anybody who's been paying attention (and obsessively scouring the Internet for clues), but it did spell out several things that until now have only been hinted at. Not to mention that Henry Ian Cusick and Sonya Walger were terrific. Walger was only in the last 10 minutes, but she went from the 1996 "Desmond sucks" version of Penny to the 2004 "Desmond rules" version flawlessly. And Cusick has the craziest crazy-man eyes that ever displayed craziosity. Greatness.

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Comments

Ok, the writers kinda pulled it out of the fire in the last scene, I think. They nearly shit the bed. But why didn't they need an international code for Penelope's number?

Comment by Mark V. on February 28, 2008 7:05 PM

Why does Penny wait 8 years for Desmond?

.....that's reeeeaiight Bruthuhhh...it's trooooo..."

Comment by Tman on February 28, 2008 7:10 PM

Why does Penny start looking for Desmond 5 years after he dumps her? What does she learn in those 5 years that changes her outlook on why he left? Perhaps her Daddy's nefarious connections to a time shifting island somewhere past Figi? I don't care - CusicK and Walger sell the relationship with only 5 minutes screen time together.

Sayid rocks. Fix a trashed phone system in 5 minutes? Sure. Make the right decision about letting Des call the girlfriend who has the resources to find them? No problem. Jack would have stood there arguing about not making personal calls and then blown their clandestine chance at the phone call then blamed Desmond for doing it.

Comment by Taleena on February 29, 2008 4:15 PM

Yeah, I loved Sayid's take on the bank of totally demolished equipment: "I'll need a minute..." He can fix anything! He's like the Iraqi Scotty. (Sqotty?)

Comment by Treach on February 29, 2008 6:20 PM

As we can see from the Desmond/Penny resolution, Eloise did not die of a brain aneurysm, she died of a broken heart:(

Comment by dorkafork on February 29, 2008 9:17 PM

Which makes no sense. But hey, it got Desmond and Penny together.

Comment by Treach on March 4, 2008 12:31 PM

Late one night, seven guys are sitting around at a cigar club in Beverly Hills, smoking cigars, playing high-stakes poker and complaining about how men always seem to get screwed-over by women. Suddenly, there is a knock at the door.

The movie is about what men talk about when women aren’t around. In the end they get fucked but not exactly the way they wanted it... You can love this movie or you can hate it. You might get it and enjoy it or you might get it and say a smart ass comment like "nothing here that I didn’t know about". That's fine, we can take it.

Oh, and we have used some really groovy digital technology making this movie, which should make any movie geek go weak in the knees.

The movie is now released on the blog and available to download directly.

Blogging Smoke

The Blog

This is where Blowing Smoke's cast and crew used to talk about everything related to the experience of making the movie, and the topics it addresses: men and women, cigars, and the crazy-ass world of relationships. Those dudes still check in from time to time, but right now your daily blogger is Jim Treacher, a guy who knows a thing or two about movies and the themes of Blowing Smoke. And if he doesn't, he can at least be funny about them - or die trying. (Yep, the death thing is in his contract.) It is also a conversation with those who have seen Blowing Smoke or are considering doing so. This blog has no non-smoking section.