Sometimes I wonder whether the thing I'll most be remembered for as a critic will be having gone easy on proclaimed-to-be-foredoomed-by-mainstream-media Disney blockbusters. Yeah, I see that Oz The Great And Powerful Oz has been getting overall better reviews than John Carter (which you may recall, and this is central to my point, I rather liked), but still, you get my gist. I'm mixed on Oz—James Franco's casting is very nearly disastrous, for one thing—but I do insist that by the end it gets its job done. Your mileage may vary, of course, and this of course depends very much the extent to which you're invested in the job the movie proposes to do. Reviewed for MSN Movies.
Also reviewed: Christian Mingiu's entirely admirable...perhaps TOO admirable...Beyond The Hills.
I'm pretty much with you on this one entirely, though I found more of Franco's performance enjoyable, if still a tad too loose at times. Raimi really conjured a couple big wow moments for me though that lingered, which isn't common in these effects spectacles. The torando scene, the Wicked one's arrival through the portal and Oz's final plan all standout.
Posted by: BrianZ | March 07, 2013 at 03:42 PM
So, his name is Oz, and the land is also called Oz? Does anyone at least comment on that?
And how do they ret-con the fact that this is a prequel to a story that was all a young girl's dream, which takes place before that girl was even born? Is this one Auntie M's dream?
Posted by: Josh Z | March 07, 2013 at 07:04 PM
Josh: I've always been of the mind that any time an entire film is supposed to have been a dream-- be it WIZARD OF OZ, DR. T AND THE WOMEN, what-have-you-- that it all really happened. More magic that way.
Posted by: Tom Russell | March 07, 2013 at 10:16 PM
... And that should be THE 5000 FINGERS OF DR. T, obviously. Oy.
Posted by: Tom Russell | March 07, 2013 at 10:19 PM
I don't know, Tom. Doesn't a tornado carry Richard Gere away at the end of Dr. T, and then he delivers a baby in the middle of the desert of something? I may be remembering it wrong.
Posted by: Joel Gordon | March 07, 2013 at 11:08 PM
What the hell kind of man has ever seen THE WIZARD OF OZ in the last 30 years? CHRIST.
Saw that shit once in 1980 or 1981 on TV, my mom putting it on telling me it was a classic, me all thinking it was kind of old and shit.... Then my dad came home drunk as fuck and put on his best imitation of Frederic Forrest in FALLING DOWN impression, all wound up "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?" And Ma hurriedly turning it up but not in time, cuz you best motherfucking believe a shoe was flying across the room and the next day I went WAY the fuck out of my way to break out my pack of FLEER CARDS so the old man knew I still liked pussy.
Also does Kunis show her feet?
Posted by: Lex | March 08, 2013 at 07:01 AM
^^^ Just gross and not funny.
Posted by: Jeff McMahon | March 08, 2013 at 03:29 PM
"What the hell kind of man has ever seen THE WIZARD OF OZ in the last 30 years?"
MY but you'e proud not to be gay, Lex.
A tragedy in my book.
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | March 08, 2013 at 03:43 PM
Have not looked into it (barely knew it existed until now, which only shows that my taste for pre-publicity has died way down) but are Raimi & Co. saying it's a prequel to the movie, or to the books? Because in the books Oz isn't Dorothy's dream, it's an actual place.
Adore the Wizard of Oz. And I use the word 'adore' deliberately. One of the wonderful things about not being a Real Man and having no interest in being one is being one's whole self, not just a tiny slice with a checklist of attributes that you're not allowed to stray from.
Posted by: Grant L | March 08, 2013 at 04:26 PM
I think it's great - so many artificial walls falling. Here's a pretty smart girl singing a song about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg4YdXUaCg0
Posted by: Grant L | March 08, 2013 at 04:33 PM
Here are two of my favorite REAL MEN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLoZTZjzhNo&feature=player_embedded
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | March 08, 2013 at 04:34 PM
Gotta add, for fans of her work it ain't too hard to discern whose body is underneath that green in the banner ads splashed all over the MSN site, and I don't think her initials start with M.
...maybe.
Posted by: Not David Bordwell | March 08, 2013 at 05:56 PM
Totally with you on this one, Glenn. I brought my five-year-old, and she enjoyed it pretty much as well as I did (though she did loudly say, about six minutes into the b/w prologue, "Daddy? When does it start?"). The mismatch between the A story (Will Oscar grow up and start to respect women, and himself?) and the B story (something about a prophecy, yada yada) is pretty wide, but the narrative ticks along nicely enough with visual setpieces aplenty to enjoy while waiting for the big Inglourious Wizards finish. If this doesn't make Mila Kunis a big star, nothing will. She's flat-out great, as great as Franco is... absent. Raimi needs to cultivate himself another, younger Bruce Campbell (whose small scene here is a tiny, very Raimi, delight).
Posted by: Paul Duane | March 09, 2013 at 01:01 PM
It's CRISTIAN MUNGIU !
- nice review, though, will check out that Schrader book.
Posted by: Yann | March 09, 2013 at 06:29 PM
Mila Kunis has been a "big star" for about 12 years.
Posted by: Lex | March 10, 2013 at 04:11 AM
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/03/mila-kunis-oz-bbc-interview.html
She is awesome (and so is she).
Posted by: george | March 10, 2013 at 05:15 PM
I meant THIS is awesome (and so is she).
Posted by: george | March 10, 2013 at 05:16 PM