Movies Blog : zombie

"Tin Man" a fun "Wizard of Oz" remake

MediaPhile@evpl — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:22:00 GMT

This Science Fiction Channel hit remake of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was recently released as a 3-dvd set. Stars include Zooey Deschanel as DG (a Dorothy figure) and Richard Dreyfus as The Wizard. The movie website has a nifty comparison of the Tin Man characters with the classic L. Frank Baum novels.

Take a stroll down memory lane by recalling some other Oz incarnations.

MOVIES

NOVELS

The original children's stories by L. Frank Baum
Graphic novels by Eric Shanower and Hee-June Son and Michael Cavallaro
The Wicked Years adult novels by Gregory Maguire, including the latest, A Lion Among Men

NONFICTION ABOUT OZ

The Wizard of Oz catalog : L. Frank Baum's novel, its sequels and their adaptations for stage, television, movies, radio, music videos, comic books, commercials, and more
100 years of Oz : a century of classic images from The Wizard of Oz collection of Willard Carroll
Oz before the rainbow : L. Frank Baum's The wonderful Wizard of Oz on stage and screen to 1939
The Wizard of Oz : the official 50th anniversary pictorial history

"Spaced" a short-lived, hilarious TV comedy

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:02:00 GMT

I'm a fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. In the States, this comedic duo is best known for Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (both of which I highly recommend!). They got their start in a British television comedy called Spaced; it ran for two seasons (14 episodes total) during 1999-2001. It finally made its way to the US this past July in a DVD box set of the entire series.

It's a very difficult show to describe...so, ripped from Wikipedia:

Tim Bisley (Pegg) and Daisy Steiner (Jessica Hynes) are two London twenty-somethings who meet by chance in a cafe while both are flat-hunting. Despite barely knowing each other, they conspire to pose as a young professional couple in order to meet the requisites of an advertisement for a relatively cheap flat, in the distinctive building at 23 Meteor Street, Tufnell Park, which is owned by and also houses the landlady, Marsha Klein. Also in the building is Brian Topp, an eccentric conceptual artist who lives and works on his various pieces in the ground floor flat. Frequent visitors are Tim's best friend, Mike Watt (Frost) and Daisy's best friend, Twist Morgan.

The series largely concerns the colorful and surreal adventures of Tim and Daisy as they navigate through life, decide on what they want to do with their lives, come to terms with affairs of the heart, and try to figure out new and largely unproductive ways of killing time. Tim and Daisy repeatedly stress that they aren't a couple to everyone but Marsha, but despite (or because of) this, romantic tension develops between them, particularly during the second series.

The central comedic conceit of the series is that it portrays the rather ordinary lives of Daisy and Tim using overblown Hollywood blockbuster clichés.

Like their forays into Hollywood, Spaced provides non-stop laughs, constant pop-culture parodies, crazy camerawork, a great cast, and a surprising amount of character development.

With 5 stars on Amazon, a 9.8/10 rating on IMDB, and my rave review, Spaced comes highly recommended.

More Information

EVPL Catalog: Check the availability of and/or place a hold on Spaced.
Amazon.com: Buy it at Amazon and support the Public Library Friends!
Wikipedia: Find out about the history of the show.

Zombies vs Ghouls

this.is.not.here@evpl — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:21:00 GMT

So tell me what exactly is the difference between a Zombie and a Ghoul? I have always heard that Ghouls eat the living. Night of the Living Dead was supposed to be about ghouls which is why I have always found it so frightening. Then I also heard that a Zombie is a walking dead person who has had a voo doo spell cast on them. This is just one of those isolated questions to ponder---or not.