'Oz' the Mild and Mediocre

by Brett Parker

The Wizard of Oz is such a universally beloved classic that there are those who find the existence of Oz the Great and Powerful, a big budget special effects-ridden prequel to the classic tale, to be something of a sacrilege.  As for me, I don’t mind it so much.  Author L. Frank Baum wrote 14 novels about the land of Oz, proving that mythical landscapes are usually too vast and fruitful to be limited to one story.  What if Tolkien put Middle-Earth to rest after The Hobbit?  And those that accuse the new film of being a transparent excuse to roll out bloated CGI candy for cash forget that the original Wizard of Oz was also a display for Hollywood bells and whistles of its time (ponder when Technicolor was new and musical numbers were the norm).  The allure of the Oz universe mixed with director Sam Raimi’s adolescent need to deliver a popcorn genre’s giddy jollies had me sorta, kinda looking forward to the movie in the vain of growing an unexpected craving for a hot fudge sundae.

So it’s somewhat disheartening to the child inside of me that I found Oz the Great and Powerful to be a disappointment.  While the rainbow-soaked visuals give your eyes something to do and star James Franco’s reeking luncay is an entity to behold as usual, the plot turns out to be pretty flimsy stuff.  It’s obvious the film is pitching the story at a children’s tale level, but when you consider the richness of the original classic story, this film’s vapidness truly grows unnerving.  

The film opens in 1905 Kansas where we meet Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a sideshow con artist who uses slight of hand tactics and grand illusions to fool normal folks into thinking he is a powerful magician.  Aside from being a calculating huckster, we also learn that Oscar is a heartbreaking cad who has torn through a string of beauties, including the kind-hearted country girl, Annie (Michelle Williams).  Upon discovering that one of the circus strongman wants to hurt him for flirting with his wife, Oscar races to escape unharmed by hopping into a hot air balloon and flying away.  Yet seconds after doing so, the balloon comes up against a deadly tornado and Oscar gets sucked right up into the center of it.

Instead of dying, Oscar discovers that he’s been mysteriously transported to a magical land called Oz, a bizarre and beautiful hallucinatory landscape filled with singing munchkins, flying monkeys, dark forests, giant bubbles, and a yellow brick road to help guide him around.  The first person he meets in this strange land is a beautiful witch named Theodora (Mila Kunis) who believes that he is a prophesied powerful wizard who has been sent to save a kingdom from doom.  Theodora takes Oscar to an extravagant Emerald City and introduces him to her witch sister, Evanora (Rachel Weisz), who informs him that all the riches in the city will be his if he travels to the darker part of the land and kills a Wicked Witch.  Realizing he’s out of his depth but yearning for endless gold, Oscar decides to take the mission.

Guided by a talking winged monkey (voiced by Zach Braff) and a tiny porcelain girl (Joey King), Oscar travels to the darker forests of Oz and discovers not a scary, wicked witch, but a beautiful, pure witch named Glinda (Michelle Williams).  Since Glinda is a dead ringer for the sweet-natured girl Oscar knew from Kansas, he suspects that she may not be the evil witch he was led to believe and that the sisters back in the Emerald City may be up to something sinister.  This all leads to revealing motives and an epic struggle that will cause Oscar to rely on his wits and tricks to convince an entire kingdom that he has what it takes to be a mighty wizard. 

With all the dreamlike sights and capable actors on display, you keep wishing that the script would do evocative things with them, but things are kept achingly simple-minded and devoid of such things as complexity and creativity.  It’s a mystery why this written-from-scratch prequel didn’t dive more into Baum’s other Oz novels, which went to richer and darker places than the first story did.  Walter Murch’s Return to Oz, the 1985 sequel to Wizard of Oz which followed Baum’s novels much more closely, may have been too disturbing to become beloved family entertainment, but it was uncompromising and fascinating in the way it explored more troubling depths within Oz’s logistics.  I don’t feel like it’d be too daunting to find a middle ground between children’s entertainment and edgier mythic drama, and it would certainly make Oz the Great and Powerful miles more fulfilling than it actually is.

That’s not to say that potential isn’t hinted at in the film’s membrane.  One of the many pleasures of the Oz universe is how it’s an exuberant fantasy playground to work out human morals and values.  The eventual trajectory of Oscar’s journey of redemption evokes neat ideas regarding realizing one’s potential, the scrappy resourcefulness of oddball simpletons, the strength of ordinary people when they unite in a crisis situation, and the salvation one can find in camaraderie.  If only the screenplay by Mitchell Kapner (The Whole Nine Yards) and David Lindsay-Abaire (Rise of the Guardians) knew how to make these things pop with emotional power.  Plus another reason this prequel is so disappointing is because for some cinephiles, seeing the Evil Dead filmmaker at the helm of an Oz film is something of a beautiful oddball triumph.  One review pointed out that this flick has more in common with Army of Darkness than the original Wizard of Oz.  While some may find that infuriating, I find that some kind of awesome.  Raimi has always been a director in love with the simple, primal pleasures of popcorn movies, especially their corniness (which I mean as the sincerest compliment).  As a beloved fan of all things Oz, you can certainly sense Raimi’s childlike joy in dishing out his merry set pieces, especially in scenes where monstrous threats lunge at the camera with some of that old Evil Dead pluck.  The enthusiasm is certainly there, it’s just a shame a smarter screenplay wasn’t there to guide Raimi through his candy-coated passion.

While some people raised their eyebrows at the casting of James Franco as the man who would become the wonderful Wizard of Oz, I must admit that I was looking forward to the performance.  Franco’s puckish nature and curated weirdness seems like the perfect fit for a calculating conjurer in a mythical kiddie land and I feel like original choice Robert Downey, JR. would’ve been too overqualified to put yet another spin on his whole irreverent-oddball-seeks-redemption act he curated to magnificence in Iron Man (while were at it, I think Bruce Campbell, a Raimi all-star who turns up in his trademark cameo here, would’ve made a phenomenal Oz).  In practice, Franco isn’t as commanding or possessive in the role as you wish he could be, but his naturally oozing strangeness easily makes him the most interesting thing in the whole movie.  By the time he reaches his eventual destination as a gigantic floating head surrounded by smoke and flames, I smiled.  What’s really a let-down with the cast is seeing some of the most beautiful and talented of today’s actresses being wasted in watered-down witch roles.  Weisz and Williams look stranded in roles that are pure cardboard and Kunis is especially a gigantic fumble.  While her radiant eyes are certainly the most memorable visual from this trip to Oz, the eventual nature of her role has her overselling it way too much.  It’s annoying to ponder that she probably developed laryngitis from her performance.   And speaking of vocals, I found it extremely amusing that Zach Braff, voicing a talking monkey, sounds uncannily like Billy Crystal.

Lord knows this movie barely had any shot at toppling the original Wizard of Oz, but as much as I tried to conjure up my inner-child like the kidnapped tyke from Poltergeist, I honestly couldn’t make myself care that much about anything happening on the screen.  The best thing I can say about Oz the Great and Powerful is that I found it more enjoyable than Tim Burton’s misguided Alice in Wonderland, which more or less demonstrates the same plot and idea.  It’s been reported that another Oz adventure is in the works and I hope that this time the writers delve further into Baum’s novels and realize that a lot more was going on than just cutesy kiddie stuff.  And if for some reason James Franco can’t return for the lead role, they better get Bruce Campbell on the phone immediately.  

A 'Man' Who Knows His Noir

by Brett Parker

Dead Man Down is a neo-noir thriller which marks the English-language debut of director Niels Arden Oplev, and the film really signifies how much the genre and Hollywood needs people like him right now.  At a time when a lot of tough guy crime thrillers feel like copies of a copy of a copy of watered down ideas, Oplev dazzles us with his economical bag of tricks, which includes slow-burn narrative layers, rich characters who make you feel the ooze of their torment, and a relentless feeling of dread that never stops reminding us how this movie world has too many scary things in common with the real world.  All of these things come together in the end to create what has to be one of the most gripping and involving crime thrillers I’ve seen in many a moon.

As the film opens, we meet Victor (Colin Farrell), a rising player in a crime syndicate led by the ruthless Alphonse Hoyt (Terrance Howard).  Someone has been sending Alphonse and his flunkies ambiguous clues that hint towards a deadly game of revenge in which the crime lord is at the center of.  What starts off as distorted pictures and notes soon leads to the death of one of Alphonse’s comrades with the promise of more violent deeds.  This sends his crew of trusted thugs scrambling to solve the mystery of who could possibly be trying to wipe out the entire gang, although Victor knows more about the situation that he hints at.

Things grow complicated as Victor meets Beatrice (Noomi Rapace), a facially-scarred woman who lives in an apartment building directly across from him.  The two have been exchanging glances from their living room windows across the distance, and Beatrice has decided to break the ice and get to know him.  Yet what starts out as a harmless courtship turns into a dark plot of revenge once Beatrice reveals that she knows a dark secret about Victor and tries to blackmail him.  She wants him to kill the man responsible for the death of her husband or else she goes to the police with his secret.  As Beatrice tries to course Victor into her seething desire for retribution, what she doesn’t realize is that Victor himself is already deep into his own complicated plans for vengeance.  

Oplev is perhaps most famous for directing the original-Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the version that wisely knew how to make its troubled world terrifying while David Fincher unnervingly fetishized it in his American version.  The joy in watching Dead Man Down is the way Oplev allows his foreign values to nest right into a dependable Hollywood genre.  His characters hold a fascinating way of being both paralyzed and driven by concealed pain.  While his protagonists take direct lines of action towards vengeance, it’s that very thirst for revenge that numbs them out from making normal human connections.  This is felt in the way the early courtship scenes between Victor and Beatrice hold the quiet delicacy of trying to munch on potato chips in a library.  Most thankfully of all, Oplev knows how to conceal depths of duplicity and moral decay in his plot and allow them to spring up like baby sharks as the plot rolls along.  The smart script by J.H. Wyman (The Mexican) is ingenious in the way it ties everything together throw hidden motives and sneaky agendas and Oplev makes it burn with a vivid resonance of wistfulness and corruption.   

One of the biggest treats Dead Man Down dishes out is the pleasure of seeing an ultra-cool cast giving expert performances in roles they soar best in.  Colin Farrell gets to employ his action movie smarts and inward nuances to make you feel every inch of Victor’s haunted core.  As Beatrice, Noomi Rapace once again plays an emotionally and physically scarred woman for Oplev, but this time she is allowed more of a feminine vulnerability that is quite heartbreaking.  Terrence Howard finds the perfect villainous role to make great use out his dapper suaveness, smoldering masculinity, and distinct voice.  One of the great mysteries of the current Hollywood mentality is why a unique smoothie like Howard isn’t more of a marquee movie star.  And the cast doesn’t even slum it in the supporting roles, for Oplev is generous in giving us seasoned veterans who could crush these roles in their sleep.  Dominic Cooper, Armand Assante, and F. Murray Abraham bring such color and verve to supporting parts that it helps shade in the reality of this pulp world.

Dead Man Down hits so many right notes that it’s kind of a let-down to find that the film’s climax descends into the usual shoot-em-up and blow-things-up finale that Hollywood is known for.  This bang-bang ending really skewers the painful relish of revenge the characters have been itching for, all while reducing Alphonse from a complex demon to a bumbling baddie.  But I still must admit that I haven’t seen an ending with a car crash and an explosion like this in quite some time.  Still, Dead Man Down is a welcome antidote to the numbskull mentality of Hollywood’s action thrillers and easily the strongest film to come out of this popcorn-trash winter season.  If this film is indeed the first of many in a long, Hollywood career for Oplev, then I hope he shows us many more flicks like this one where pulp formulas are given expert dramatist flourishes towards fascinating multiplex entertainment.  

'21 and Over': Ho Ho or No No?

by Brett Parker

Its peculiar how a comedy can have all the right moves yet be devoid of the consistent laughter you'd expect from such an enterprise.  Such is the case with 21 and Over, an irreverent, college-age bromantic romp that serves up a talented cast, plenty of zingers, and endless slapstick gags, yet never really delivers the side-splitting belly laughs you yearn for.  If its any indication, the audience I watched the film with didn't turn out to be the laugh-on-cue sitcom audience you usually get with a flick like this.  Still, the film has its likable side.  Like a chubby, weird kid doing a stand-up routine during an elementary school talent show, you smile at the effort while secretly wishing that Richard Pryor-level laughs were being dished out in waves.

The film follows the drunken mishaps and chaotic mayhem that erupts on the 21st birthday of Jeff Chang (Justin Chon), an overly-studious college student.  When his big legal-drinking holiday finally arrives, that attracts a visit from his old high school buddies Miller (Miles Teller) and Casey (Skylar Astin).  The fellas can’t wait to take Chang out and get him drunk beyond belief, but they soon receive a dire warning from Chang’s stern and intimidating father, Dr. Chang (Francois Chau): Jeff has an early morning med school interview the day after his birthday and if he misses out on it as the result of a bad hangover, there’s gonna be hell to pay.  Although terrified at the prospect of Dr. Chang’s wrath, the gang decides to move forward with their pub-crawl plan all while being mindful of Chang’s early morning appointment.

As nighttime falls, the fellas hit the town and hit up every bar in sight, pounding endless beers and an obscene amount of shots.  Chang seems to be enjoying his own drunken exuberance right up until the moment he pukes his brains out and passes out.  As Chang lays unconscious, his friends discover a problem: they have no idea where he lives or how to get him home since they’re not familiar with his college town.  This sets off an epic quest to get Chang back to his house safe and sound so he can be fresh and ready for his interview, a perilous adventure that throws everything at our heroes from a wild buffalo, a sociopathic jock (Jonathan Keitz), a hostile sorority, a video-game style frat party, and disturbing revelations about Jeff Chang’s college life.  

21 and Over is brought to us by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the same frisky shenanigan-mongers who wrote The Hangover, and your heart sinks a little knowing that the duo is more or less just ripping off their own formula.  This plot also turns out to be a booze-soaked journey towards saving a fellow bro filled with outrageous detours and a near-identical climactic twist.  Yet the duo's work on this flick and The Change-Up proves that maybe The Hangover’s success was due more to the beautifully incongruent chemistry between its stars and Todd Phillip's knack for finding soulfulness in zaniness than the simple-minded script.   Perhaps this movie would've worked a lot better if it focused less on raunch fest hand-me-downs and more on actual situations faced with going-out as a 21-year-old, such as pub formalities, awkward pick-ups, dance-floor silliness, drunken fist fights, tacky sartorial choices, and bizarre conversations.  A little less of The Hangover and more Swingers, if you know what I mean.

Whatever saving grace this movie has comes from the more-than-capable cast.  Like the young crew of the Starship Enterprise on their first mission, you sense that these cool cats are destined for greater things.  Miles Teller proves here as he did in the Footloose remake that he's a charming comic actor, especially as this film pushes him towards becoming the next Vince Vaughn.  Skylar Astin is like watching a young Dane Cook trying to be a young Tom Hanks, which he makes miles more appealing than that sounds like.  And even if Jeff Chang skids dangerously close to being an Asian stereotype, Justin Chon sure plays him otherwise, which is a wildly optimistic observation considering the drunken Wookie his character is made out to be. 

On a spectrum where comedies are either wildly funny or mind-numbingly awful, there are those that fall in the middle of being occasionally funny with a few laughs here and there, which can sometimes be more frustrating than downright terrible comedies.  21 and Over falls into that middle category, with yearning eyes staring towards the top.  I'm really back and forth on whether or not the movie works for me, and I suspect that watching it at home after a few beers may enhance its appeal.  I'm reminded of how I saw Anchorman in theaters and disliked it, until I watched it again on DVD in college and laughed hysterically at it.  In the end, I’ve decided to give the flick a mild recommendation because the cast is likable, the soundtrack is rather fun, a party scene with video-game style levels is a cool idea, and the film's final moment had me smiling and laughing enough to think, "oh, what the hell....I'll tell people to go and see this."