Every now and then Netflix decides to purge movies from my instantly streaming queue.  They give me some advanced warning, and then I have to go through and try to watch everything before it’s wrenched from my steely grip.  Since last week, I’ve had until today to watch Jack Ketchum’s The Lost, a grueling cat-and-mouse thriller, and Sgt Kabukiman NYPD.  You would be hard pressed to find two more different movies.  Sgt Kabukiman is a Troma film and it plays out pretty much how it sounds.  A New York cop accidentally becomes endowed with the power of Kabuki.  Which he then uses to thwart evil.  There isn’t much else to say about it except that I liked it.  I liked it way more than I should have.

The Lost, or, excuse me, Jack Ketchum’s The Lost, is a whole other kind of experience.  The film starts off like a kick in the shin, progresses like a poke in the eye, and then ends like a boot kick to the teeth.

HOLY SHIT there’s a huge wasp outside the window right now!  BIG!  I mean, like RODAN BIG!  Hope to God it never finds a way inside.

Sorry.  I’m trying to type whatever pops into my head and that was at the forefront of my thoughts.  Anyhow, if that description of the The Lost sounds enjoyable to you, then you should see it.  Otherwise, you should not watch this movie.  It will upset you.

I put this movie on a short list that includes Martyrs and Oldboy,  It’s a good film, a powerful film, but a very unsatisfying film.  It’s meant to be unsatisfying and it works best because it doesn’t satisfy.  I keep going over the ending in my mind, wondering how things could have turned out differently.  I don’t think I’ll watch it again, but I’m very glad that I saw this one before it was yanked.  Strong stuff.

Now, Sgt. Kabukiman!

Wow.  That was long.  I think you just watched the whole movie.