Oz: The Great and Powerful

[Kitsune]

Saw it, liked it., despite the crushing irony of Disney using an out of copyright work for a movie.  The plot fails to defy any Hollywood tropes, nothing I saw caught me by surprise, but then it's a setting for kids, not The Usual Suspects, so I don't really count the by the numbers story against them.  Raimi's strengths really shined through on this, the actors were all clearly having a good time, right down to the extras, and there are a few instances of Raimicam and Bruce Campbell being beaten as fun calling cards to Evil Dead fans.  The scenery and visuals were all top notch, and the sidekicks were good enough that they arguably outshone the leads.

Don't go expecting Lord of the Rings and you'll probably be happy.  Some specific stuff in spoiler tags.

[Samwise]

Handsome goober gets sucked into a strange and primitive magical land and is hailed as the chosen one, starts off conning everyone but grows to care about them and ends up using textbooks he brought with him to help them build gunpowder and steampunky machines to win the day and become the hero he's been pretending to be.

I half expected James Franco to say "Hail to the Wizard, baby" at the end.    

[Shannow]

I half expected James Franco to say "Hail to the Wizard, baby" at the end.    

If he did I would go and see this film tonight..   My son watched Evil Dead III on the weekend with me and loved it. I'm still trying to figure out why the fuck that film had an R rating.

[Samwise]

I believe by the standards of the day it had more than enough blood, f-words, and nudity to qualify.  (There were a couple of topless girls in one scene, and I'm pretty sure that in the early 90s even a quick flash of nipple got you an automatic R.)

I would definitely recommend Oz if you're an Army of Darkness fan.  I would go so far as to call it a spiritual successor.

I was going to say the one thing it was missing was a Ted Raimi cameo, but I just checked IMDB and nope, he was in there.

[murdoc]

I half expected James Franco to say "Hail to the Wizard, baby" at the end.    

If he did I would go and see this film tonight..   My son watched Evil Dead III on the weekend with me and loved it. I'm still trying to figure out why the fuck that film had an R rating.

They mentioned that in the Evil Dead Q&A at SWSX that they had do a lot to get Army of Darkness an 'R' rating instead of NC17 and that everyone is shocked that the reboot of Evil Dead had no troubles with the MPAA despite being much, much, MUCH gorier and gruesome.

[Shannow]

I believe by the standards of the day it had more than enough blood, f-words, and nudity to qualify.  

I couldn't remember seeing/hearing this (ok I fell asleep for a bit of the film on Saturday night and its been a while since I saw it) so I actually went and checked.

List of items from IMDB page

No nipples, one faint f-word, and really not much blood....definately a different standard.

[murdoc]

I believe by the standards of the day it had more than enough blood, f-words, and nudity to qualify.  

I couldn't remember seeing/hearing this (ok I fell asleep for a bit of the film on Saturday night and its been a while since I saw it) so I actually went and checked.

List of items from IMDB page

No nipples, one faint f-word, and really not much blood....definately a different standard.

The MPAA gave it an NC-17 rating for a shot of a female Deadite being decapitated early on in the film. Universal, however, wanted a PG-13 rating, so Raimi made a few cuts and was still stuck with the MPAA's R rating. In response, Universal turned the film over to outside film editors who cut Army of Darkness to 81 minutes in length and another version running 87 minutes that was eventually released in theaters, ending up with an R rating as a result

[Selby]

I enjoyed this.  I normally dislike movies of this nature but the dialogue was entertaining enough to not be over the top idiotic that most Disney movies tend to go for and there were no fart jokes.  I actually walked out of the theater thinking that I wouldn't mind seeing it again, can't remember the last time a movie did that to me.

[Kitsune]

There was a more than passing resemblance between wicked witches and Deadites, I noted.  There was even a golden opportunity for a, "You found me beautiful, once." line in there, and I was sad that they didn't take it.  And you can't go wrong with Bruce Campbell being beaten by a midget.   

[Samwise]

There was even a golden opportunity for a, "You found me beautiful, once." line in there, and I was sad that they didn't take it.

There were so many parallels like that it's probably better they didn't actually say the lines in any of them.  It's more fun to feel clever for spotting the subtle wink than to groan at the obvious one.

[Venkman]

Is it good for kids? I personally have been interested in seeing it, but am wondering about the fam.

[Ironwood]

Wife wants to, so that's happening.

[MahrinSkel]

Is it good for kids? I personally have been interested in seeing it, but am wondering about the fam.

Should be fine for kids, a few mild innuendos that will probably go over their heads.  Flying monkeys/baboons are still moderate nightmare fuel, like the original.

Dave

[Venkman]

Ah excellent.

[Selby]

Is it good for kids? I personally have been interested in seeing it, but am wondering about the fam.

Girlfriend's 10 year old went and loved it.  There were kids much younger than her in the theater too.

[Mrbloodworth]

This movie is kinda terrible, Mila kunis was the wrong choice for this role, so was James Franco. But yes, completely fine for kids.

I would definitely recommend Oz if you're an Army of Darkness fan.  I would go so far as to call it a spiritual successor.

Not even a little bit.

[Kitsune]

Franco I thought only did okay overall save for some of the more quiet bantering dialogue moments, but I loved Mila Kunis's acting in the second half; it was so insanely over the top that I could not stop grinning whenever she'd go off on some batshit crazy cackling spree.  Which is not to say that it was good acting, just very fun acting.

[Riggswolfe]

I finally saw this. It was good if predictable. I do feel like they missed a chance:

[Lakov_Sanite]

That look was very intentional.  It was a fun movie, I agree about Franco and it's sad because I think he's a good actor but way too hammy in comedies.