1st time:
where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Thursday, March 7th, 2013
show: 10:15 p.m. Advanced Screening
costs: $14.00 Ticket + $1.30 bulk Chocolate Candies + $4.50 1-litre Dasani Water = $19.80
auditorium: 5, with a 3-D screen
seat: 3rd row ( counting from the front ), 9th column ( counting from the left )
2nd time:
where: EDWARDS FAIRFIELD STADIUM 16 & I-MAX in Fairfield, CA
when: Friday, March 8ht, 2013
show: 9:55 p.m.
costs: $17.50 Ticket + $0.72 bulk Mixed Nuts ( bought at Benicia, CA, Safeway Supermarket earlier in the evening and smuggled-in ) + $5.25 1-litre Dasani Water = $23.47
auditorium: 12, with an I-Max 3-D screen
seat: 6th row ( counting from the front ), 9th column ( counting from the left )
synopsis/overview: Oscar Diggs ( James Franco ), a philandering small-time circus magician who aspires to greater things, finally gets his wish when a tornado transports him against his will to the Magical Land of Oz where he can start a new life and where he meets three witches: Theodora ( Mila Kunis ), Evanora ( Rachel Weisz ) and Glinda ( Michelle Williams ). The denizens of Oz welcome him well into their lives, thinking that he is the eagerly-anticipated mighty wizard prophesied about who has come to rule the Land of Oz. That is, if he can first defeat the Evil Witch of the West! The reluctant Oscar has a sudden change of heart when China Girl instills in him a good measure of moral resolve and courage!
favorite scenes: I liked some scenes with China Girl, a pivotal character in this movie.
favorite females: Evanora ( Rachel Weisz); May, the magician's assistant ( Abigail Spencer ); and China Girl.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Knock; 2.) Wire; 3.) "Make me walk"; 4.) "I want to be a great one"; 5.) Trap door; 6.) "I promise, I can change"; 7.) Flowers; 8.) "I can't swim"; 9.) River fairies; 10.) The prophecy; 11.) The Evil Witch's minions; 12.) "What would I do with a broom"; 13.) "What kind of teeth you got"; 14.) "Zim, zim, zala bim"; 15.) "Well, he is cute"; 16.) Three Ups; 17.) "All hail the Wizard"; 18.) "Deep down, you are wicked"; 19.) Treasure room; 20.) "I could cut-up an onion"; 21.) China Doll; 22.) "Let's go kill ourselves a witch"; 23.) Crows; 24.) Scary carnivorous plants; 25.) Cow; 26.) Witch of the South; 27.) "He said we would rule Oz together"; 28.) Tears; 29.) "So, that's the prophecy"; 30.) Cemetery chase; 31.) "Do what I do"; 32.) Townspeople; 33.) "Yes, I know"; 34.) The Green Apple; 35.) Munchkins; 36.) "May I have this dance"; 37.) "Someone needs to tuck me in"; 38.) "Can you grant wishes"; 39.) Battle plan; 40.) "I know someone"; 41.) "The only person you got fooled is yourself"; 42.) "It's a trick"; 43.) Captured; 44.) "Stick to the plan"; 45.) Opening act; 46.) "I'm invincible"; 47.) Fireworks; 48.) "What have you done"; 49.) Gifts; and 50.) Goodness.
audience reaction: The audience liked it, but it didn't get a "Hands Clapper" ending.
recommendation: I liked this movie, an interesting prequel to the original THE WIZARD OF OZ ( 1939 ). It's a good enough Family Movie to take your brats to go see.
spoiler alert! Even though only a handful of coins was collected prior to the magic show, practically all of the seats were filled with spectators once the show started. The tornado lifted his hot-air balloon high enough that objects started to float about freely all around him--this would suggest that he was lifted high enough where there was very little ( or none at all ) air for him to breathe. Therefore, it begs the question: Why didn't he gasp for lack of air to breathe? Before the show, he only had one Dove to hide on his person, the same bird which flew away when he was running away from the circus strongman; but when he and Theodora were hiding in the small cave, he managed to somehow come-up with another Dove! Where did China Girl hide the knife all the time that she was with Oz and the Monkey? The monkey could barely lift the bag yet, in later scenes, it was able to fly around with it! When the monkey sneezed, how come the witch didn't hear it? Does a powerful witch, with a magic wand, really need a key to open a gate's lock? Three beautiful, available single witches with no known prior suitors---O...k...a...y .... About the initial "acid" tears, why didn't they roll-out from the Tear Ducts? Dang, I thought that she was gonna rip-off her corset! Oh, right! it's PG-rated--darn it! When the Evil Witch slammed Oz's body against the wall, he should have been killed as a result of it! The Evil Witch's Baboon Minions should not have been able to fly away with a human being the way they did because their inner wings would have flapped against each other; a better way for the minions to snatch away a human would have been if one minion grabbed the human by the wrists while another minion grabbed the same human by the ankles! ( Hollywood, hire my services as Cine-Man, the technical script consultant, already, will you? ) When the Evil Witch flew away, why didn't it notice the source of the fireworks? In that darkened throne room, Glinda failed to notice that a green glow was emanating from Evanora's back. If I recall correctly, there were no colored people in the original THE WIZARD OF OZ! So, between 1905 and 1939, a span of just 34 years, the Wizard of Oz managed to rid the land of every colored person--what a great and terrible wizard!!! Ha, ha, ha.
fyi: Thomas Edison's invention of the Phonograph in 1877 earned him the title, "The Wizard of Menlo Park," New Jersey.
The 1939 original was produced by MGM. This 2012 prequel is by Disney. Hence, the difference in "feel" between the two movies. Too bad ....
A tree-ripened Granny Smith Apple ( the green apple in this movie ) is actually not tart at all but pleasingly-sweet to the taste!
Supposedly, according to Conspiracy Theorists, an Oz-like Hologram, projected against the sky, will be used by the New World Order ( NWO ) to fool people into thinking that Jesus Christ has returned!
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Here's something that I found on the Internet:
Oz the OK and Sorta Effective
Critics not over the raindow for Sam Raimi and James Franco's prequel By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff
Posted Mar 8, 2013 10:11 AM CST
(Newser) – Sam Raimi's prequel to the Wizard of Oz hits theaters this weekend, but critics weren't exactly swept up and blown away by it. While few really hated Oz the Great and Powerful, few loved it either, and most concluding James Franco was a poor choice for the lead. Here's what people are saying:
•The movie makes "an honest effort to capture the family-movie spirit of old Hollywood," writes Alex O'Hehir at Salon. But it winds up feeling like "a lumbering, bloated spectacle," with no real point and a badly miscast lead in Franco. "I can tell he made all sorts of acting-school decisions about this character, but I don’t think we needed his introspective, discount-Brando act when it came to playing the Wizard of freakin’ Oz."
•Ty Burr at the Boston Globe was not transported. "The landscapes have the craggy, familiar 'awesomeness' of every other computer-generated fantasy film these days," he gripes. The film does have a great ending, but that just makes you realize that the men behind the curtain/camera "are more interested in building a new machine than in taking us over the rainbow and bringing us back home."
•In Franco and Raimi "you have two determined ironists tackling a fable of utter sincerity," muses Peter Howell at the Toronto Star. Raimi plays it straight, which is both a good and bad thing. "You could easily see this playing as part of a double bill with The Wizard of Oz, even if the effects in Raimi's film often look cheesier."
•Mick LaSalle at the San Francisco Chronicle gives the film high marks—his only criticism is that it's too long, and "the individual scenes are so good that … it's hard to say what exactly should be cut." Fans of the original especially will appreciate it. "Appreciate," he stresses. "Enjoy. Admire. Be glad to see. Have fun with ... But as for love—well, love will be harder to come by."
Showing 2 of 6 comments
DougMasters Mar 8, 2013 11:08 AM CST .I wouldn't mind seeing a movie version, non-musical of Wicked.
fred.lapides Mar 8, 2013 10:31 AM CST .few people it seems know that Baum, author of the Oz books, was a genocidal racist.
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word of advice: You have a Moral and Ethical responsibility to those you love and care about.
CGI doesn't always make for a great movie! A movie's characters still count for a lot.
1st tidbits: I went to bed at around 1:00 a.m. today, Thursday. I had to be awake by 8:00 a.m. because the plumbers were scheduled to work on a unit in my building at 9:00 a.m. and I wanted to take a shower before then. I was awakened from my sleep by a cold touch on my right cheek. My brainwave frequency was in the Alpha State when it happened. Because of the state that I was in, I experienced Sleep Paralysis. So, I used my Mind's Eye to see what it was that woke me. There, on my right side kneeled ( or stood? ) a handsome little white boy with short wavy brown hair and who wore a brown long-sleeved sweater and a pair of navy blue pants. Yep ... it was a ghost. It kneeled or stood there smiling at me. Maybe it found the mouthguard ( i.e. bite guard ) in my mouth very amusing to look at! But, no matter, I was awakened from my much-needed sleep. I needed to teach it a lesson in manners. I pretended to still be fast-asleep, waiting to get movement going in my extremities, especially my left hand which I planned on using to slap the boy-brat ghost away! My limbs were still in paralysis except for my left leg. With a quick movement, I brought my left knee up to hit the boy-brat ghost in the ribs; but it vanished before I could hit it---Don't think of me as being an old meanie, though; after all, ghosts pass through solid objects and vice versa. That boy-brat ghost will have to seriously think twice first the next time that it wants to ruin my sleep. I looked at my alarm clock; the time was 3:40 a.m. Great, just great, I was fully awake and would have a hard time falling back to sleep again, the light sleeper that I am.
What is it about myself that white ghosts find so attractive? Am I sending out some kind of "beacon" because of my Meditations and because of my Spirituality? I've lived in my condo for practically twelve years now and in that time, I've been visited by a number of white ghosts ( not counting my mom, my dad, my cats, and some spirit entities ). Here's a break-down of all my white ghost encounters through the years that I have lived in my condo, and in the order that they occurred:
Middle-aged Chubby Woman
Mother, Father and Son
Father and Daughter
A co-worker's Grandmother, Aunt and Uncle
Sexy Blonde Girl
Boy-Brat
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I wasn't afraid of the boy-brat ghost because it was small, innocent-looking and benign--'just a pesky little brat, though! It wasn't a Poltergeist ( too young for that stage ) like the one in which I encountered the Mother, Father and Son trio of white ghosts for "pay-back time." A Poltergeist would prove hard to handle for ghost hunters, even for myself ( I just got lucky that time ).
But most other ghosts don't worry me at all. To me, encountering them is almost the same as encountering strangers on the street.
The sexy blonde girl ghost awakened me from my sleep last year, on May 26th, 2012. Strangely, it was warm to the touch and had "substance"! I didn't blog about it then because the encounter didn't happen on a day that I went to see a movie. It happened the day after I saw MEN IN BLACK III and exactly a week before I saw SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN on the day when I saw The Blue Star of Shiva for the first time. There is one other reason why I don't want to talk about my encounter with the sexy blonde girl ghost: I'm still trying to figure-out what this particular ghost is to me since I still don't know whether or not it is a "Yin Yang" Spiritual Consort or a Disembodied Lover of some kind.
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After the movie ended, a female security guard asked me what I thought of the movie. I said that it doesn't have the same sweet innocence and charm of the 1939 original. And that it has a darker theme to it.
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