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I Tivoed this show in December and just watched it last week, so this may not be the timeliest of commentary!
The Sci-Fi channel's recent remake of The Wizard of Oz is a darker, more adult and scary vision of L. Frank Baum's classic. It's not perfect, but for those of us who have watched the original movie at least 25 or 30 times in our lives, it's fun to see what the writer and director have done to the source material. Reviews I've read are mixed; half are horrified that someone would dare to take on a classic, and the other half finding the fun in the differences. I watched it as more of an homage to the original and had fun watching it. Since the Sci Fi Channel replays their originals every few months, it's sure to come up again.
Zooey Deschanel plays DG, the main character, who is a waitress at a diner, lives with her parents on a remote Kansas farm, drives a motorcycle, and dreams of traveling to Australia. She has disturbing dreams, however, and she sketches what she sees in those dreams. She explains to her father that she doesn't fit in there, that she never has.
One night, during a wild tornado, the house is attacked by men in long leather coats. DG's parents push her into the tornado's fury, and they quickly leap in after. When DG awakes and sees two moons in the sky, she quickly realizes she's somewhere else.
The familiar characters are there, but they're...different. The munchkins are represented by a violent race of tiny tree dwellers who take DG hostage and put her in a giant bird cage. In there with her is Alan Cumming as Glitch, looking winsome in brown lipstick, with a giant zipper down the middle of his skull. They've taken half his brain, see, and what's left is addled (but very charming).
After they escape from the ewoks, DG and Glitch come across a iron maiden rusting in a field. It looks like an undersea diving suit complete with faceplate, and the faceplate is facing a projected hologram of a miserable scene of a family being tortured by longcoats. They realize there's someone inside, and once they let him out and he bathes, he becomes handsome Neal McDonough as Wyatt Cain, in an Indiana Jones fedora. He's a former cop (tin man) in Central City, and he's a member of the Resistance. He was placed in the suit many years before as a punishment, to watch, over and over, the destruction of his family. The O.Z. (outer zone) is not a friendly place!
They are off to see the mystic man, who's conveniently located in Central City, located on the Old Road which goes through the fields of the Pa-Pe, who are scary and they run fast and if they catch you they eat you. They find a captured meal hanging in a bush and it's Raw, a scared psychic who looks kind of lionesque. His race is able to read your mind by touching you, and sorceress Azkadellia takes them hostage and sticks electrodes on their heads to get information. He's escaped, and is terrified of recapture.
So they get away from the scary running things and then they get to Central City. Central City is kind of like Pottersville after George Bailey never existed. It's a den of sin, and the mystic man, played by Richard Dreyfus in a scene-chewing role, is a leering drug addict. He snaps out of it long enough to tell DG her next step in her quest, and off they all go, back on the road. They steal a camper, though, so there isn't much skipping. In fact, I think there was no skipping at all! And not really any singing, either.
It's a six hour miniseries, and it's all pretty dark, albeit fun. There's an evil witch who may or may not melt into a pile of goo, there's flying bat-monkeys who form out of Azkedellia's chest tattoos, there's saintly parents, a shape-shifter who turns into an adorable wee dog, misunderstood robots, latex galore, and a strange quest that DG must follow to find her place in the world. Involving an emerald.
There's definitely no place like The O.Z.!
The Sci-Fi channel's recent remake of The Wizard of Oz is a darker, more adult and scary vision of L. Frank Baum's classic. It's not perfect, but for those of us who have watched the original movie at least 25 or 30 times in our lives, it's fun to see what the writer and director have done to the source material. Reviews I've read are mixed; half are horrified that someone would dare to take on a classic, and the other half finding the fun in the differences. I watched it as more of an homage to the original and had fun watching it. Since the Sci Fi Channel replays their originals every few months, it's sure to come up again.
Zooey Deschanel plays DG, the main character, who is a waitress at a diner, lives with her parents on a remote Kansas farm, drives a motorcycle, and dreams of traveling to Australia. She has disturbing dreams, however, and she sketches what she sees in those dreams. She explains to her father that she doesn't fit in there, that she never has.
One night, during a wild tornado, the house is attacked by men in long leather coats. DG's parents push her into the tornado's fury, and they quickly leap in after. When DG awakes and sees two moons in the sky, she quickly realizes she's somewhere else.
The familiar characters are there, but they're...different. The munchkins are represented by a violent race of tiny tree dwellers who take DG hostage and put her in a giant bird cage. In there with her is Alan Cumming as Glitch, looking winsome in brown lipstick, with a giant zipper down the middle of his skull. They've taken half his brain, see, and what's left is addled (but very charming).
After they escape from the ewoks, DG and Glitch come across a iron maiden rusting in a field. It looks like an undersea diving suit complete with faceplate, and the faceplate is facing a projected hologram of a miserable scene of a family being tortured by longcoats. They realize there's someone inside, and once they let him out and he bathes, he becomes handsome Neal McDonough as Wyatt Cain, in an Indiana Jones fedora. He's a former cop (tin man) in Central City, and he's a member of the Resistance. He was placed in the suit many years before as a punishment, to watch, over and over, the destruction of his family. The O.Z. (outer zone) is not a friendly place!
They are off to see the mystic man, who's conveniently located in Central City, located on the Old Road which goes through the fields of the Pa-Pe, who are scary and they run fast and if they catch you they eat you. They find a captured meal hanging in a bush and it's Raw, a scared psychic who looks kind of lionesque. His race is able to read your mind by touching you, and sorceress Azkadellia takes them hostage and sticks electrodes on their heads to get information. He's escaped, and is terrified of recapture.
So they get away from the scary running things and then they get to Central City. Central City is kind of like Pottersville after George Bailey never existed. It's a den of sin, and the mystic man, played by Richard Dreyfus in a scene-chewing role, is a leering drug addict. He snaps out of it long enough to tell DG her next step in her quest, and off they all go, back on the road. They steal a camper, though, so there isn't much skipping. In fact, I think there was no skipping at all! And not really any singing, either.
It's a six hour miniseries, and it's all pretty dark, albeit fun. There's an evil witch who may or may not melt into a pile of goo, there's flying bat-monkeys who form out of Azkedellia's chest tattoos, there's saintly parents, a shape-shifter who turns into an adorable wee dog, misunderstood robots, latex galore, and a strange quest that DG must follow to find her place in the world. Involving an emerald.
There's definitely no place like The O.Z.!
