Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)

11/21/2013

Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) - A fun, eye-popping adventure

♥♥♥♥

A quartet of stars in fantastic costumes are at the center of this fantastically, escapist poster for Sam Raimi's Oz the Great and Powerful

A traveling magician/con artist 'Professor' Oscar 'Oz' gets to the land of Oz during a tornado storm and restores order there.

Oz the Great and Powerful is written by Mitchell Kapner (Romeo Must Die (2000)) and David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole (2010)), based on the Oz novels by L. Frank Baum (The Road to Oz (1909)), and directed by great Michigander filmmaker Sam Raimi (It's Murder! (1977)). It is a 'spiritual prequel' to Victor Fleming's classic musical masterpiece The Wizard of Oz (1939) from Warner Bros..
The film is an adventure that is continually funny and visually impressive, - although, in the unavoidable comparison, the CG VFX which accounts for almost all the wonders of the new Oz cannot compete with the beauty and mystery created in the real sets, costumes and early Technicolor magic of the original film.
James Franco (Milk (2008)) is, - contrary to what many have called his turn as Oz, - good as the sly but good-hearted charlatan trickster. The story might (with no less than three of them) have one too many witches, and there definitely isn't enough singing, dancing or Munchkins in my opinion, but Oz the Great and Powerful still is a visually hefty, thoroughly entertaining and adventurous time. I didn't see it in 3D, but I didn't miss it for one second.

Related posts:

Sam Raimi: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess
Evil Dead (2013) - One hell of a ride (producer)

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Drag Me to Hell (2009) - Raimi returns to horror in high style

The Quick and the Dead (1995) - Raimi forgets a good story in tiring 90s western style exercise

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) - The Coen's satirical firecracker mega-flop (co-writer)

1992 in films - according to Film Excess
Army of Darkness (1992) or, Medieval Death

Top 10: Best franchise movies

Evil Dead II/Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987) - Campbell, Spiegel and Raimi's crazy, gory classic

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 215 mil. $
Box office: 493.3 mil. $
= Minor flop (returned 2.29 times the cost)

[Oz the Great and Powerful premiered 14 February (Los Angeles) and runs 130 minutes. Franco was paid 7 mil. $ for his performance. Shooting took place from July - December 2011 in Michigan and California. The film opened #1 to a 79.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #1 for another weekend and then remained in the top 5 for another 2 weekends (#3-#5), grossing 234.9 mil. $ (47.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 27.3 mil. $ (5.5 %) and China with 25.9 mil. $ ( 5.3 %). Approximately 100 mil. $ were spent to market the film. It made in excess of 52 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Sequel plans were scrapped due to the disappointing commercial performance. Raimi returned with 4 short and TV titles prior to his theatrical return with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). Franco returned in As I Lay Dying (2013). Oz the Great and Powerful is rotten at 56 % with a 6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

11/21/2013

Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) - A fun, eye-popping adventure

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