'Tin Man' is long, clunky and cliched; But the evil flying monkeys are boobalicious
November 30, 2007
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television Critic
Here's how the wicked witch rolls in a new "Wizard of Oz" miniseries: She opens her bosomy bosom-holder, so that evil flying monkeys awaken as inky tattoos from her bulbous chest. They grow lifelike and fly the unfriendly skies in search of Dorothy.
This catch-and-release flying monkey routine appears quite a bit in Sci Fi Channel's six-hour miniseries "Tin Man." Evidently, evil flying monkeys are boobalicious.
As you can see, "Tin Man" does not resemble the classic movie "Oz." It's mildly inspired by the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book, which is in public domain, therefore no one has to get permission to rewrite and film it.
There's no singing, no dancing, no Toto at the start, and the wizard's on drugs. Oh, how the times keep a- changin'.
Screenwriters Steve Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle turned the whole thing into a standard sci-fi techy tale entrenched in the theme of man vs. anti-utopian state.
"OZ" now stands for "Outer Zone," a non-Earth place that the dictator-witch has turned into a gray cloud of gun-toting brutes and dead trees.
Dorothy (Zooey Deschanel) is no longer named Dorothy Gale. People awkwardly call her DG. She's not 20 years old, she's 20 annuals. And the antagonist doesn't appear as a green witch; she's DG's monkey-boobalicious sister Azkadellia (Kathleen Robertson).
None of this is a bad idea. I'm reminded of a way cooler 1997 Sigourney Weaver movie, "Snow White: A Tale of Terror." It reimagined "Snow White" as a moody spook fest. But the execution of "Tin Man" is flat, flatter, flattest.
The dialogue is utilitarian, except when it's "Dungeons and Dragons" cliche, like: "We're travelers of the realms seeking a warm meal and a cold cup of grog. ... May your hearth be warm." Puke.
The actors look rushed to stay on production schedule. The direction and camera shots are workaday.
The pace of "Tin Man" reminds me of tortured, role-playing video games where the journey is a string of clunky objectives, like: Talk to a guy, who gives you a riddle, which leads to a map, which leads to a guy, who gives you a mission, which leads to a room, where you enter a code, which unlocks an item, which combats the villain.
Also, at six hours, it feels four hours too long. So if you're interested, record it and watch it on fast-forward. You can hit pause for the evil flying monkey boobs.
delfman@suntimes.com
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television Critic
Here's how the wicked witch rolls in a new "Wizard of Oz" miniseries: She opens her bosomy bosom-holder, so that evil flying monkeys awaken as inky tattoos from her bulbous chest. They grow lifelike and fly the unfriendly skies in search of Dorothy.
This catch-and-release flying monkey routine appears quite a bit in Sci Fi Channel's six-hour miniseries "Tin Man." Evidently, evil flying monkeys are boobalicious.
As you can see, "Tin Man" does not resemble the classic movie "Oz." It's mildly inspired by the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book, which is in public domain, therefore no one has to get permission to rewrite and film it.
There's no singing, no dancing, no Toto at the start, and the wizard's on drugs. Oh, how the times keep a- changin'.
Screenwriters Steve Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle turned the whole thing into a standard sci-fi techy tale entrenched in the theme of man vs. anti-utopian state.
"OZ" now stands for "Outer Zone," a non-Earth place that the dictator-witch has turned into a gray cloud of gun-toting brutes and dead trees.
Dorothy (Zooey Deschanel) is no longer named Dorothy Gale. People awkwardly call her DG. She's not 20 years old, she's 20 annuals. And the antagonist doesn't appear as a green witch; she's DG's monkey-boobalicious sister Azkadellia (Kathleen Robertson).
None of this is a bad idea. I'm reminded of a way cooler 1997 Sigourney Weaver movie, "Snow White: A Tale of Terror." It reimagined "Snow White" as a moody spook fest. But the execution of "Tin Man" is flat, flatter, flattest.
The dialogue is utilitarian, except when it's "Dungeons and Dragons" cliche, like: "We're travelers of the realms seeking a warm meal and a cold cup of grog. ... May your hearth be warm." Puke.
The actors look rushed to stay on production schedule. The direction and camera shots are workaday.
The pace of "Tin Man" reminds me of tortured, role-playing video games where the journey is a string of clunky objectives, like: Talk to a guy, who gives you a riddle, which leads to a map, which leads to a guy, who gives you a mission, which leads to a room, where you enter a code, which unlocks an item, which combats the villain.
Also, at six hours, it feels four hours too long. So if you're interested, record it and watch it on fast-forward. You can hit pause for the evil flying monkey boobs.
delfman@suntimes.com
Comments