Tss5078 Several years ago, the SyFy channel decided to take a crack at re-inventing the classic Wizard of Oz, a noble task, that many have tried and failed. I didn't know what to expect, but I assumed it would be some variation of the classic tale, hoping it would be more the like books and less like the films. Tin Man is defiantly not for kids and takes a unique approach to the classic story. In this version, OZ is not the friendly lovable place with strange characters and happy times for all. It's a dark story, about a dark place, where presently there is a lot of pain and misery. The big twist in the story is that this OZ is centuries past the one visited by Dorothy Gale. In the Outer Zone (O.Z.), Dorothy Gale is a revered as the start of the royal families bloodline, but she has been dead for centuries! That being said, quite ingeniously, the future residents of the O.Z. parallel the old story, but not because they have to, they are in a sense mocking the original story in subtle ways. There's D.G. (Zooey Deschanel), the girl from the other side, who was forced into the O.Z., with no memory of ever having been there before. She soon meets Glitch, (Alan Cummings) a man who had part of his brain removed for disobeying the Queen. As they try to figure out what is happening around them, they run into a man (Neal McDonough) being punished in a Tin Man suit. This man was a Cop or Tin Man in the O.Z. who was deemed a threat, and put into this horrible form of torture. Finally, they come to the rescue of a native healer, named Raw (Raoul Trujillo), who has become trapped by carnivores and is about to become dinner. Together they go to see the wise man, to find out how to proceed in helping D.G. The Wise Man (Richard Dreyfuss) turns out to be a drugged out magician doing parlor tricks! There are a million other parallels to the original story that make the journey through the O.Z. that much more enjoyable. Zooey Deschanel is the star and even though people often mistake her unique style of acting for inexperience, she was the perfect choice to play D.G. The other standout is veteran character actor, Neal McDonough, who gives a gut wrenching and strong performance as the tortured former cop, in search of his family. The rest of the supporting cast was equally as impressive, taking you through the full range of emotions. As I said before, this is certainly not the OZ you grew up with and it's certainly not what I expected. Everything from the special effects, to the story, and even the modernization, was extremely impressive. It really is a shame that this was only a three part mini-series, but this would have made for one hell of a regular series. Some of the parallels are obvious, but there were plenty of times where I legitimately forgot that I was watching The Wizard of Oz. Leave the musical for the kid, this is what Frank Baum had in mind when he started this series, and it's most defiantly meant for mature audiences only.

MrGKB ...despite the elaborate (and often effective) production design by Michael "Riverworld" Joy, some nice camera-work by Thomas "ditto" Burstyn, an occasionally evocative score by Simon "Phenomena" Boswell, and relatively competent direction by Nick "(Close Your Eyes)/Doctor Sleep" Willing. The acting is okay, too, with the possible exception of Zooey "Almost Famous" Deschanel, who turns in a performance that relies far too much on wide-eyed innocence/confusion to play believably on a mid-20s woman. Kathleen "Beverly Hills, 90210" Robertson offers up a magnificent, tattooed décolletage and not much else (hampered as she is by several hideous outfits, and completely outclassed by her young counterpart, Alexia "Fido" Fast); Neil "Band of Brothers" McDonough plays the eponymous support role as a re-fried Harrison Ford; Raoul "Apocalypto" Trujillo is the Cowardly Lion stand-in, but is given nothing beyond plot-driven telepathy to make him stand out; while Alan "Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical" Cumming contributes a sometimes delightful, sometimes colorless version of the Scarecrow, this time named Glitz and afflicted with a bad case of zipperhead. Richard "you have to ask?" Dreyfuss has a few cameo appearances as Mystic Man, the revamped Wizard, but with so little to work with, even he fails to register more than momentary interest.The problem, as I see it, rests (as it usually does) with the ambitious-yet-unextraordinary script by the longtime writing/producing team of Steven Long "The Pretender"/"She Spies"/"Alien Nation" Mitchell and Craig W. "Same here" Van Sickle. Despite veering toward outright camp (check out some of those fetishistic costumes), and a plethora of references, veiled and not-so-veiled, to the MGM musical classic, "Tin Man" doesn't have a whole lot of heart, and not much in the way of good humor, either, and all this despite the avowed intentions of those involved (at least according to the DVD extras).I can only imagine that watching this mini-series as originally presented in a commercial setting would have been an exercise in frustration and tedium. It hits most of the same thematic notes that one would expect (friendship, knowing yourself, etc. etc. etc.), but none of it comes anywhere near the impact of either the original L. Frank Baum tales or the iconic Judy Garland/Four Friends version. It's worth a watch, but definitely not a keeper.

ctomvelu-1 What an odd miniseries. Dorothy (Zooey Deschanel) is back in Oz, and is accompanied in her wanderings by a tin man turned human, a scarecrow that isn't a true scarecrow, and a beast-man who vaguely resembles the old Cowardly Lion. Toto isn't really Toto, but a shape shifter named Tutor. Dorothy has an evil sister who has locked away their mom and seeks an emerald to gain ultimate power over the land. I am yet to catch the whole thing but I can see it will certainly appeal to fans of ongoing Oz tales and who don't mind watching a very long story. I am not a big miniseries fan, and would rather see a 90-minute DVD of this, but I suppose that's never gonna happen. So one of these days I will have to watch this to the bitter end. It seems to me Frank Baum wrote several sequels to WIZARD. I wonder why Hollywood hasn't adapted them instead of creating new OZ material periodically. Maybe because the sequels do not all feature Dorothy. Anyway, the CGI work here is pretty good for TV, and there are some lovely torture scenes. And I like Zooey Deschanel in anything.

FlorisV I highly recommend this miniseries to anyone looking for something in the fantasy realm but still fresh and new. It's very original even though some (but very little) is borrowed from the original Oz. It has been called a steam punk variant of it: there's a lot of old but fantastic machines that really add a new flavor to the setting.The performances are all as excellent as they are effortless, as each character simply has been perfectly casted. Guys will adore the irresistibly big-eyed and cute Zooey Deschanel as main character DG while the male supporting cast is great too with variants of the original tin man (the title is a bit confusing since he's neither really of tin nor is he the main character), the lion and the scarecrow.It was simply a wonderful 3 hours of TV with great attention to detail, costumes, backdrops and pretty much everything else Only the animation was not Hollywood level but it was adequate.