Oz the Great and Powerful ★★★½

WE'RE OFF TO SEE THE PREQUEL


Australia: 7th March 2013; USA 8th March UK 8th March

Other Countries:  Release Information 
 

 

 

Decades ago my Mother leaned into my room and, with a twinkle in her eye, declared her favourite childhood movie was showing that Saturday night on TV.  This is before DVD players and the ability to record a programme, so at the appointed time our family gathered around our wood-cabineted box and marvelled at the wonderful 1939 ‘Wizard of Oz’.  It became my favourite movie too.

Then came the numerous incarnations of Oz, including the Muppets, Ice Capades, animated versions and even Michael Jackson with his own unique take.  Now Disney presents the prequel, "Oz the Great and Powerful" produced by Joe Roth (“Snow White and the Huntsman,” “Alice in Wonderland”) and directed by Sam Raimi (Spiderman Trilogy). 

L. Frank Baum wrote fourteen novels, from 1900-1920, set in the Land of Oz but he never fully portrayed the wizard character’s background in any of his books. Roth found that fact fascinating. “I love origin stories and I liked the idea of how the wizard came to be.  So, going back to Baum’s books to research and imagine his beginnings seemed like a great idea.”
 

 

Oscar Diggs (James Franco), his friends call him OZ, begins his journey (in black and white) as a vaudeville circus magician.  He’s a part-seducer, part-conman and a selfish chap.  As in the original, a freak storm lands him in Oz where the film opens to wide screen and our view erupts into vibrant color.  Before he crash-lands we are treated to a 3D roller-coast ride of thrills as we travel through gorgeous CGI landscapes, over massive waterfalls, through stunning forests, to land in a grove infested with nasty river fairies. Very few films warrant the extra expense of 3D but do hand over your money this time. It’s worth it.
Enter leather-pants-wearing witch Theodora (Mila Kunis). Theodora (who is a truly poor judge of character) mistakenly believes Oz is the legendary great wizard come to save Oz from the devastations wrought by the wicked witch.  Who actually is the wicked witch remains to be seen. 

On their journey to the Emerald Castle, they meet Finley (Zach Braff), a delightful, talking, flying monkey who becomes Oz's assistant of sorts.  The trouble starts when Theodora introduces Oz to her sister Evanora, played malevolently-well by Rachel Weisz.  Oz is offered a fortune in gold if he will destroy the wand of the supposedly evil witch Glinda (Michelle Williams).  Oz sets off down the yellow brick road, on the way picking up, literally, the gorgeous China Doll Girl (Joey King), who, undoubtedly has the best lines in the film.  The rest of the film and the liberation of Oz involves smoke and mirrors and good use of imagination.

Franco was the third choice to play Oz, behind Robert Downey Jnr and Johnny Depp (both declining due to other commitments) and he loved his character. No doubt, the $7 million pay-check proved endearing too.  
 

 “In some ways he touches on many aspects of Americana, while being a cross between Charlie Chaplin and Clark Gable," says Franco.  He also enjoyed another aspect of playing the magician character: he had to learn to perform magic tricks. He explains, “I actually came out two weeks early to work with the great Las Vegas magician Lance Burton. We worked every day. I learned dove tricks and fire tricks as well as pulling things out of hats and making things levitate. And I think I got pretty good!”

Oz is Disney's $200 million dollar bet that they can pull off another “Alice in Wonderland” success (with international grosses of $1 billion).  Whilst I don’t think Disney’s version of Oz will go on to become a favourite childhood movie of many, it still has enough of the right magic to warrant a visit to the cinema.  Whether it was the great idea Joe Roth imagined will be shortly judged at the box office.

 

Beautiful Creatures ★★★★

LOVE IS MAGICAL

  

 

 

 

Have you noticed there is a lot of supernatural loving going on lately at the cinema? Every trailer before the screening of BEAUTIFUL CREATURES was for a Fantasy-Romance film with either zombies, vampires or aliens.  Of course, it’s the story of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for the modern age.   And why not?  Star-crossed lovers, fighting to be together against all reason and parental approval, makes for a great story.   If it’s good enough for the mythical Gods of Greece, then it is good enough for the electronic-gadgetry-toting youth of today.

This year in book and film, it is going to be hard to avoid this genre, and Beautiful Creatures is a good example (please note Twilight producers) of how to make an entertaining, authentic film which can please fans of supernatural love as well as the non-converted.  The New York Times bestselling book of the same name is the first in the series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

 

Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich), a high school senior wants nothing more than to escape the Southern town of Gatlin and bid adieu to his Father who has withdrawn from life since the sudden death of his Mother.   For months he has dreamed of a strange, dark-haired girl he has never met.   Arriving suddenly in his class is a new girl, Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), looking a lot like his dream sweetheart.  She is immediately ostracized, as she is the niece of Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), the reclusive owner of Ravenwood Manor who most townsfolk believe is in cahoots with the devil.  Let’s face it, people who live in those big, creepy mansions usually are.

Mrs. Lincoln (Emma Thompson), mother of Ethan’s best friend is adamant that Lena must be banished from the town and spends a good deal of time pointing fingers and rallying the townsfolk against the young girl.

Despite strange happenings that surround Lena, and her spurning of his advances, Ethan ardently pursues her.    Lena reveals that she is a Caster, as is her Uncle, and each Caster has a special power.   On her sixteenth birthday Lena will discover which side she will practice her Casting based on her true inner self. Will she be chosen for the much more charming Light or the evil-doing Dark?  The entire clan, including Lena, fear she will be taken by the Dark which will prove to be very bad for the human race.  There’s also a curse hanging over Lena’s family and she and Ethan face many spells and dangers and even their love may prove fatal.

Beautiful Creatures is a stylish story, a cut above the Twilight Saga’s progressively more outlandish portrayals. There is a wit in the script and Thompson and Irons, who could have lapsed into overdramatics, rein it in enough to lend a sophistication that is usually lacking in these supernatural tales. 

Whilst I am not an urban-fantasy fan, I certainly can appreciate a story well-told.  And as the great man said himself, “a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” This love story smells of success and with four more books ,no doubt the sequels will be gracing our screens in the years to come.   If they’re as good as this, we are definitely on the side of Light.

 

 

Weekly Review Round-Up 16/2/2013

(My movie Pick of the week
West of Memphis ★★★★★
Opens in Australia: 14^th February 2013

Other Countries: Release Information
Perth West Australians:  See at Luna Palace Cinemas

OUR THOUGHTS

This is a riveting and shocking film. It is like a John Grisham book times ten. You couldn’t invent the twists and turns in this case, nor the travesty of justice that occurred. For most documentaries I would say wait and see on DVD but this one deserves your full attention on the big screen. You are immediately sucked into the story and spat out at the other end, bewildered and angry, and shaking your head. As a parent, I think some of the images will haunt me for a long time to come.

STUDIO BLURB

From director Amy Berg, in collaboration with first time Producers Damien Echols and Lorri Davis along with filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh comes West of Memphis, a powerful examination of a catastrophic failure of justice in Arkansas. The documentary tells the hitherto unknown story behind an extraordinary and desperate fight to bring the truth to light. Told and made by those who lived it, Berg's unprecedented access to the inner workings of the defense, allows the film to show the investigation, research and appeals process in a way that has never been seen before; revealing shocking and disturbing new information about a case that still haunts the American South.-- (C) Official Site

Safe Haven ★
Opens in Australia: 14^th February 2013
Other Countries: Release Information

OUR THOUGHTS

I haven’t seen a film as bad as this since, well, since the last Nicholas Sparks adaptation last year, The Lucky One. It’s so poorly scripted, directed and acted, it is hard to believe professional film-makers were involved.  Surely the books aren’t as bad as the films?  Was Lasse Hallström, the director (who has created such fine films as Chocolat, What's Eating Gilbert Grape and even the enjoyable Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) even on the set?  Seriously, rent out NOTTING HILL and re-watch.  Next time, above the posters please read, “From the author of The Notebook, another cliché”.  It received its one star rating because it really made me laugh watching Josh Duhamel fall off a roof and just walk away.

P.S.  Don’t believe the studio blurb below about it. It is neither affirming nor suspenseful.  However, I will now repeat the following affirmation, “I will never see a Nicholas Sparks adaptation again.”STUDIO BLURB

An affirming and suspenseful story about a young woman's struggle to love again, Safe Haven is based on the novel from Nicholas Sparks, the best-selling author behind the hit films The Notebook and Dear John. When a mysterious young woman arrives in a small North Carolina town, her reluctance to join the tight knit community raises questions about her past. Slowly, she begins putting down roots, and gains the courage to start a relationship with Alex, a widowed store owner with two young children. But dark secrets intrude on her new life with such terror that she is forced to rediscover the meaning of sacrifice and rely on the power of love in this deeply moving romantic thriller.

Anna Karenina ★★★★

Opens in Australia: 14th February 2013
Other Countries: Release Information

OUR THOUGHTS

Once you adjust to the strange framing of this story (it’s as if it’s a play and then morphs into a standard movie and then back again, often), this adaptation of Tolstoy’s tome Anna Karenina is very enjoyable. It’s sumptuous and dramatic on the big screen and I liked Keira Knightley’s portrayal.  Although I wish she would get her teeth fixed. You won't recognise Jude Law. (He's in a lot of films lately isn't he?)  If you love these grand historic films, this is definitely for you.

STUDIO BLURB

The third collaboration of Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley with acclaimed director Joe Wright, following the award-winning box office successes Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, is a bold, theatrical new vision of the epic story of love, adapted from Leo Tolstoy's timeless novel by Academy Award winner Tom Stoppard. The story powerfully explores the capacity for love that surges through the human heart. As Anna (Ms. Knightley) questions her happiness and marriage, change comes to all around her. -- (C) Focus

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