What My Mom Thought of Tin Man

Because of my hellish schedule, I haven't watched Tin Man yet. I've been looking forward to it and it is in the process of airing for the next 2 days. My mother is a bit of a Wizard of Oz fanatic. I promised to let her know when Tin Man was airing. She was interested to see a modern twist on the story. She sent me an email giving me her first impressions.

I didn't like Tin Man - too far out there for me and kind of boring. I surfed it back and forth with other stuff on TV. Probably a generation thing - Ha!

First, I get it honest, eh? :D Second, if SciFi Ranter Mom felt this way, I wonder what others will think? Thoughts anyone?

Battlestar Galactica In a Theatre Not Near Me

Yes! I'm whining and moaning because Battlestar Galatcica: Razor will not be airing in Houston. It will be showing in Dallas but it's a 5 hour drive. I'm really considering the trip but tickets aren't guaranteed. If I do all that driving and don't get in, someone is going to loose a body part.

... in other news, a crazy science fiction fan is arrested because they wouldn't let her see Battlestar Galactica: Razor at a special screening...

I guess I have to be like everyone else and see it on TV. I guess I need to move to Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco or Seattle. These are the lucky cities that will have the screening. Hmmmm..... seriously thinking about packing up to Seattle. :) Le

Learn more about this event at Slice of SciFi.com and www.BattlestarEvent.com. If you are in one of those cities, report back. Let us know how it went!

Highlander: The Source - Worse Than Mansquito

I've been dreading writing the review for Highlander: The Source. I really didn't want to do a lengthy review because the movie doesn't deserve it. I have to say that I went in wanting to like. I did give it a fair chance. If first year film students worked on this, then it was amazing. If not... grab a barf bag.

The movie would have been decent if it weren't for the big bad who was stupidly named The Guardian. The Guardian had to be the worst character ever. Let's just say that The Guardian is the Jar-Jar Binks of Highlander: The Source. He looked like he was from the ECW and had the same type of sense of humor. (GIVE IT UP SCIFI CHANNEL!!! I'M NOT WATCHING WRESTLING!!!) He was not scary, just annoying. I'm not sure who thought his style was great but it wasn't or I just didn't get it. I'm betting on "he just sucks".

The reason why this movie exists is because there was some impossible planetary alignment. (An alignment that you can see happening with the naked eye on ground level with big bulbous planets. That made me wonder if the whole movie was on another planet. Whatever...) This alignment meant that The Source of all Highlanders was going to be revealed. The one that got to The Source and remained pure of heart would rule them all? I guess that was the plot.

The story drops in on Duncan Macleod. He's depressed and moping around. (He reminded me of Angel.) We find out that he had to break up with his girlfriend because she wanted to have kids. Highlanders are like vampires in that they can't have kids. Some how his girlfriend becomes the central focus because she has visions that will lead them all to The Source. They gather a gang of Highlanders to look for The Source. They are told that the closer that they get to The Source the more human they become. Because of this, The Guardian picks them off one by one. We have to endure some weird, cheesy, fast motion special effects. There was sex at some point. There was a show down. After he defeats The Guardian, Duncan realizes that he's better than The Guardian and won't kill him. This act kills The Guardian. Duncan's girl friend realizes she's pregnant and they both kiss in a ball of glowing light.

The End.

I want those two hours back. I want the time that I blogged this back.

SciFi Channel Re-Imagines Wizard of Oz

Someone, somewhere at the SciFi Channel has a big, massive balls. Re-imagining the classic and much loved Wizard of Oz is a little arrogant especially given SciFi Original's track record. Some of the movies are stellar but a lot of them disappoint.

Tin Man is "a modern re-imagining of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on the Sci Fi Channel". That is Wikipedia's description of Tin Man. I read the plot on Wikipedia and it seems the the basic story will be the same but there are things that are way different from the original 1939 movie. I think the differences will be enough for viewers to accept this project as it's own entity. It's also probably best to keep in mind that this isn't a re-make.

Another thing that eases my concerns about this movie is the cast. When I saw that Alan Cumming was on the cast list, I was elated. The first stand out thing that I remember him in is Titus. He was amazing in that film. He was also Nightcrawler in X-Men 2. Next for drooling is Neal McDonough. He was in Star Trek: First Contact and Minority Report. Zooey Deschanel played Trillian in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. Richard Dryfus will play The Wizard of Oz.

I'm going to stifle my expectations and hope that this is as fun as it sounds.Tin premieres sometime in December 2007.

TinMan @ SciFi.com

SciFi Channel Brings Back Highlander

Since the dawn of time, the Immortals have walked among us. No one has ever known the origin of their power... until now.

I swear if someone mentions anything like midichlorians in this movie I am going to slit my wrist.

I must admit that when I saw that The SciFi Channel was giving The Highlander its "Original" treatment, I was afraid. I promised myself that before I judged further that I'd look on the website to get an idea of what they were doing. When I saw that Adrian Paul was going to reprise his role as Duncan MacLeod, I got a little excited. Adrian is the same guy that was the star of Highlander: The Series and star in the painfully abysmal Highlander: Endgame. (I still want my money back for that one because I still feel physical pain when I think of it.)

Why am going to watch this when there is a good chance that it will suck? I used to watch Highlander: The Series and Highlander: The Raven and I actually enjoyed them both. Seeing Adrian Paul's face is nostalgic. I guess I'm interested to see what SciFi is going to do with it. Sometimes they hit and sometimes they miss. That and everyone should know by now that I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to science fiction TV shows.

You can catch Highlander: The Source Saturday, September 15, 2007 @ 9/8C and 11/10C on the SciFi Channel.

Highlander: The Source @ The SciFi Channel
Official Highlander: The Source Website
Highlander: The Source @ Wikipedia

Mega Snake: Better Than Mansquito

Is that really saying much? Yes, actually.

Truthfully, I only watched this movie because Matthew Atherton aka Feedback from Who Wants to be a Superhero was in the movie. Later, I found out that the steamy Michael Shanks was going to be in the movie. *drools*

Megasnake is a standard creature feature. There was a snake in Native American lore that if released and fed, he would grow into a huge beast of a snake and go on a killing spree. This movie takes place in Tennessee... British Columbia. I'm from the south and those accents were awful. Ignoring that, the movie had it's wit and the cast actually had chemistry. Surprisingly, I was actually impressed with the animation of the snake and how it fit into the scenes. There was hardly any green screen bleed. To be honest, I didn't notice any.

If you saw the commercial for Megasnake with Feedback, you saw his whole appearance in the movie. That was really disappointing and I think he was robbed. They could have really made a big deal out of a movie starring Feedback and brought back some of the other superheroes. It would have been really great, cheesy fun. Someone really dropped the ball.

All in all, not the ultimate way to spend a Saturday but if you have some time to kill it's worth a watch.

Megasnake | SCIFI.COM

The Lost Room is Awesome!

SciFi Channel, you are doing a damned good job with this one.

I remember being excited about The Triangle last year and being a bit disappointed with it.
The Lost Room had a bit of the same hype and I thought it was going to be a bit mediocre. Boy was I wrong and I'm glad!

The story is intriguing. I love the concept of the objects and watching the show, I now understand why the game they have could be so much fun. They could even get away with selling an adventure video game based on this. Right now, I'd be excited about it.

Tonight we get the ending to the story and I can't wait. I think SciFi is showing reruns of it so if you can check it out, do so.

Kristanna Loken is Painkiller Jane

from scifi.com:

SCI FI's New Superhero Series To Premiere Spring 2007

New York, N.Y. (October 20, 2006) — SCI FI Channel has cast Kristanna Loken (Terminator 3) in the title role of its new superhero actioner Painkiller Jane. Production on 22 one-hour episodes of the series, produced by Insight Film Studios, in association with Starz Media and Kickstart Comic Arts Studio, will begin in Vancouver next month.

Not a bad choice. She's pretty damned awesome in her own right.

I wonder what happened with Emmanuelle Vaugier and the SciFi Original Painkiller Jane that aired back in 2005? It wasn't bad for a SciFi Original, it even had Richard Roundtree