♥♥♥♥
 |
| 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
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.]
What do you think of Oz the Great and Powerful?
No comments:
Post a Comment