Out Today on DVD!

Check out what came out on DVD today!

Yes, the best of Crank Yankers!

For the low price of $14.99 you can own a blank dvd.

Really, that show was terrible. Never got a single laugh.

The O.Z.

Yesterday, I watched the first segment of Tin Man (we had DVRed it).

It is a mixed bag so far. On one hand, it doesn’t have any annoying songs (i.e. no “Lollypop guild,” “Follow the Yellow Brick Road,” or “Over the Rainbow”). So, it is instantly better than the old Wizard of Oz movie.

On the other hand, while the world is a pretty decent set up, everything comes off with a B movie quality (since it is on Sci-Fi). The computer generated graphics are laughable (especially the CGI creatures). But more than that, the story line comes off a little hokey. The most hokey part was the whole sending the troopers from the O.Z. to the real world to hunt down DG. It seemed a bit forced.

While we are discussing the O.Z. and DG, we have to talk about how asinine the abbreviations are. The O.Z. supposedly stands for “the Outer Zone.” But because they abbreviated it, I keep waiting for Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows to show up because it sounds like the O.C. A similar thing goes for DG. When you say Dorothy Gale, there is a flow to the name that makes it okay when spoken out like. When you say DG out loud it sounds stupid. If the last name started with a J, then we can talk. But the flow of saying two letters that end with the ee sound to it just doesn’t work. It’s the ultimate in a screenwriter writing something clever, but then it doesn’t work when acted out.

The direction of the movie is certainly nothing to write home about. It is like the director watched LOTR and Harry Potter and decided to make a cheap imitation of them. The problem is that the shots come off feeling artificial. Yes, there are the big swooping shots to establish the grandeur of the city, but the shot doesn’t work as well as it did when Peter Jackson showed off the grandeur of Middle Earth. Then in the “action” sequences, the director decides to throw out additional techniques to “enhance” the image. Things like blurring the edges, slow motion, and quick cuts. It is more disorienting than tension creating.

But even with these flaws, the mini-series has been worth watching so far. You might blame that on my fascination of Zooey Deschanel. But I’ve enjoyed a new interesting take on OZ (kind of like how Return to Oz was a better movie than Wizard of Oz). Alan Cumming’s character has provided several funny one-liners. The work of him and Deschanel have really held the film together (the titular Tin Man has been really lame/dull so far, the Lion has yet to really be in any scene).

Overall, if you want a version of Oz that doesn’t feature a bunch of song and dance, rent Return to Oz. If that is not enough for you, check out the miniseries. It’s worth investing the time.

Stat Line of the Night

Check out this stat line from last night’s Atlanta Hawks game:

BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Zaza Pachulia, FC	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0

 Yes, Mr. Pachulia came through in his 0 minutes of playing time with 1 assist. How is this possible? The only way this works is if Zaza checked into the game, made an assist, and then after less than a minute of playing was pulled from the game.

By the way, in my fantasy league I was preparing to trade Monta Ellis or Richard Hamilton for Zaza Pachulia (I only had 2 centers, but I had/have 5 or 6 SGs [including Kobe and Ray Allen]).