Widescreen

Please do just the tiniest bit of research before you fork over your money at the box office. Please, don't take your young children to see R-rated films. Please, don't take them to see "Watchmen." And if you do, don't do what the parents at Friday's 9:15 p.m. screening at the AMC 30 South Barrington did.

My sister, who came with me to the movie, summed it up best on her Facebook page:

"Sean's sister doesn't understand people. They bring kids to see Watchmen and sit through incredibly graphic violence, but they walk out during a sex scene."

No new episode of "Lost" tonight -- just an "enhanced" rerun of last week's fabulous Sawyer-centric episode, "LaFleur." So tonight let's take stock of where each of our main characters is, halfway through this most revelatory of seasons (in alphabetical order).

Ben -- He has figured into the show's main action ever since he was introduced as "Henry Gale" in Season 2, and Ben continues to loom large over Season 5. At first, I thought we could finally declare Ben to be one of the good guys, his promise to Charles Widmore notwithstanding. When Ben had his outburst in the van with Jack, Kate and Sun ("This Place is Death," 5x05), I was totally with him: "What I'm doing is helping you. And if you had any idea what I've had to do to keep you safe -- to keep your friends safe -- then you'd never stop thanking me!"

Reasons why this week's episode of "Lost" put a big, stupid smile on my face:

"Terminator: Salvation" opens May 21.

So Friday night I went to the Allstate Arena in Rosemont to see Avenged Sevenfold, a SoCal metal band with Iron Maiden's guitar chops and GN'R's swagger. Unfortunately, they shared the bill with Buckcherry, a disgusting L.A. throwback that's like an even trashier version of Motley Crue. Their big hit is a lovely little ditty called "Crazy B****," whose chorus says it's OK if the woman in question is crazy because she's so good in bed. The second verse is particularly awful: "Take it off, the paper is your game / You jump in bed with fame / Another one night paid in full, uh / You're so fine, it won't be a loss"

Guess who went the craziest for "Crazy B****" Friday night? The young females in attendance.

John Locke: If it's not real, then what are you doing here, Jack? Why did you come back? Why do you find it so hard to believe?

John Locke: It's never been easy!

-- "Orientation," episode 2x03

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I, on the other hand, have always found it easy to believe -- in John Locke. The show's two-part pilot was exciting, and the third episode, "Tabula Rasa," introduced the intriguing notion of the flashbacks, but "Lost" had me in its fourth episode, "Walkabout," in which we learn that Locke was a paraplegic before Oceanic 815 crashed. Jaters and Skaters be damned, the human story at the center of "Lost" -- and what will hopefully, ultimately, be the show's true tale of redemption -- belongs to John. He has endured so much, and we've endured it with him.

And it all became too much to bear Wednesday night.

"Back to the Future"
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Screenplay by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis
Released July 3, 1985

Two weeks ago, in a spectacular feat of multi-tasking, my roommate and I played Facebook Scrabble, listened to my iPod, and watched "Back to the Future" all at the same time. We didn't need to hear "BTTF" because, between the two of us, we performed every line of dialogue. That reminded me of the night of my senior Homecoming dance at Wheeling High School, strangely enough. A bunch of us wound up in John Zelenkovich's basement after the dance -- no, there (sadly?) was no hanky-panky going on. "Back to the Future" showed up on cable, and I decided to say every single line out loud, much to the dismay of everyone else in the room.

That endlessly quotable dialogue is a major reason why I have long considered Bob Gale and Bob Zemeckis's script for "BTTF" to be one of the best ever written, but not the only one. "Back to the Future" is a movie that rewards its audience, every step of the way, for paying attention. Nearly every scene, every line is either a set-up or a payoff.

Among the unsung heroes of the suburbs are the fine folks at the Illinois Entertainer, that free monthly publication you get at your local watering hole, movie theater, all-night diner or, in increasingly rarer incidents, independent record store. You can always count on a good interview or two, but the main attraction of the IE, I must confess, is its complete collection of ads touting suburban bars' live entertainment for the month.

In this month's ads, I discovered the best band name in the world: Judas Beast. That's right, a Judas Priest and Iron Maiden tribute band. (Presumably, The Number of the Priest was too cumbersome a name.)

I refused to watch "Lost" for so long, because I just knew that any explanation the writers would offer up for the island would inevitably disappoint. I didn't want to waste years of my life trying to figure out a TV show, only to see the story go completely off the rails -- I already did that for nine seasons with "The X-Files."

So when I finally caved and started watching the "Lost" DVDs last year, I had this horrible thought in the back of my head plaguing me, even though I was totally into the story every step of the way -- they crash, Claire gets kidnapped, they find the Hatch, they push the button, on and on and on -- I couldn't help but fear that, one day, showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse would go too far and explain too much.

That fear almost came true last night.

If you're finding it hard to care about the Oscars in a year where the combined gross of the five best picture nominees is a little more than half of what "The Dark Knight" grossed in North America, consider these local rooting interests:

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The dark horse candidate in the best actor category is DeKalb's own Richard Jenkins, a character actor who finally graduated to a leading role -- at age 60 -- in Thomas McCarthy's "The Visitor." Jenkins plays Walter Vale, a college professor defeated by life who finds new purpose when he discovers two illegal immigrants squatting in his New York City apartment. Jenkins brings an uncommon subtlety to the part, and creates a fully realized, three-dimensional character out of material that could have fallen into cliche. Little seen, the film is now playing on Starz and Starz OnDemand.

Where have you seen Jenkins before?