Oz The Great and Powerful (2013) - Sam Raimi

In 2010, Disney released a Tim Burton remake of the 1951 classic, Alice in Wonderland. The film was a big special effects spectacle with Johnny Depp and actually turned out to be a sequel instead of a remake. The film grossed $1,024,299,904 during its run and became the 13th highest grossing film of all time (in between Star Wars Episode 1 and The Dark Knight). Disney executives were scratching their heads… what EXACTLY went so right with this film that it made a billion dollars off of a $150-$200 million budget? To give you an idea of how surprising this was… the original Alice in Wonderland made $3 million (although it was 1951). Was it the special effects? The built-in audience from the original classic? The Johnny Depp-Tim Burton-Helena Bonham Carter trio? Regardless, Disney got started on a similar production to take one of the most classic films of all time and turn it into a special effects-packed box-office sensation.

I’ll admit I haven’t seen The Wizard of Oz (1939) in a LONG time. But the magic of one of the most beloved children’s book adaption films of all time is very much a part of my childhood. I had big expectations and Disney had ginormous ruby-red shoes to fill. This wasn’t like their remake of Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz was an MGM film. Although the books are in the public domain, Disney STILL could not purchase the rights to the ruby-red slippers and the design of the Emerald City, both MGM’s copyrighted property. They had to keep lawyers on the set to make sure nothing was going to cause problems, which made for a very timid approach to the idea of praising and reviving a classic film.

So the story follows Oscar (known as Oz, played by James Franco) as he leaves Kansas forever and becomes the man behind the curtain we know him as from our childhoods. And James was very… James Franco about his role. Sam Raimi, the director (who also did the Spiderman trilogy and a terrible movie called Drag Me To Hell) wanted Robert Downey Jr. as Oz, and then Johnny Depp, and got neither. Franco approached him and convinced him that he could pull off the role of the Wizard.

He did alright. Obviously I wasn’t going in expecting Johnny Depp. I was going in expecting James Franco, the laid-back, “whatever” attitude with an obsession towards gay culture and earning masters degrees. Oz starts out as a failing magician in a traveling circus in Kansas. He is a stereotypical con-man, and woos ladies through deception and egoism. His performance felt a lot like this.

But James Franco is not the reason to see this film, so it shouldn’t be a deterrent either. The film has AMAZING special effects, on par with Alice in Wonderland as well as Avatar. My one problem was that I saw it in IMAX, so whenever the camera panned it felt like the world was spinning, and my eyes got pretty tired. But the still-shots are beautiful, and the CGI is impressive. Here’s a river fairy, a random creature that has no significance to the film.

The film made a nice nod to the “dream” aspect of The Wizard of Oz, where people from Dorothy’s life are transported into Oz as magical forms of their real life counterparts. Joey King (New Girl, Ramona and Beezus) plays a handicapped girl who gets upset when Oz’s magic can’t heal her, and then in the land of Oz she is a girl made of china whose legs are cracked until Franco heals them with some glue. It’s a nice little reference and I promise it’s less corny than it sounds.

Also Zach Braff plays Oz’s right hand man in Kansas, and then he is a loyal flying-monkey-friend in the land of Oz. 

Now down to the stuff I didn’t like. Okay. So the film seemed like it had an amazing cast. I could get past seeing Franco on screen for 100 out of the 130 minutes, because the leading ladies were Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn, Shutter Island), Mila Kunis (Family Guy, Friends With Benefits, Black Swan, Ted) and Rachel Weisz (The Mummy). I was really excited to see them in this huge film. But they all sort of felt miscast in this movie. Michelle Williams is an amazing actress in My Week With Marilyn, but her acting falls flat on the 1-Dimensional, All-Good, Bubble-Traveling character of Glinda The Good Witch. 

Mila is talented as well, but as a comedic actress. This film challenged her to be a lot more emotional, and it did not pay off. She looks awkward and nervous in most of her scenes.

I just felt like yelling to her:

But the fact that they all felt awkward in their roles I could tell was not their fault entirely. It was most definitely the script’s. Every single scene, the dialogue was like something out of a student written high school play. I am not kidding, these exchanges happened.

Franco: How bad is this wicked witch?
Kunis: She poisoned her dad so that she could take the throne.

Franco: (dead serious) That is pretty bad.

Franco: (during the tornado in the hot air balloon) I’m not ready to die! I promise if I survive this, I’ll change, I’ll be a better person! (two minutes later, survives) Thank you! I won’t let you down.

Actually the only good lines in the movie were given to Joey King, because her China Girl character was so rambunctious and innocent.

But, looking back, everything about The Wizard of Oz was corny, and we still love it today. Perhaps it is just the tired dialogue that made it feel like so little effort was given to the script. Did ALL of the money really go to the Casting and Special Effects departments? It was very not Disney of them. 

I’m gonna be honest, the dialogue was bad. But what made up for it was the story and the special effects. Despite some terrible lines, you can get through the whole film being impressed by the originality of the plot. Even though Judy Garland would probably look like this if she saw it:

You should still see it, just for the spectacle.

The Graduate (1967) - Mike Nichols

After seeing an array of serious and emotionally exhausting films, I decided that I wanted a pick-me-up to lift me out of my “end of winter break” misery. “The Graduate” was in the comedy section on Netflix, and it lands at #189 on the IMDb Top 250, so it seemed a logical choice. 

I knew that “The Graduate” was a classic. There are countless references in today’s culture to the plot line of a confused young man sleeping with an older married woman, all of which know they are simply paying homage to this 1967 film. Not to mention that I knew the line “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me” without even having seen the film (my friend will vouch for me). But what I was unprepared for was a fun night of awkwardness, sexual tension, and corny romantic comedy tropes that just don’t get old.

So there’s a saying I’ve seen around the Internet about the cartoon “Tom and Jerry.” It says that being a kid means rooting for Jerry (the mouse) and being an adult means rooting for Tom (the cat).

I’m at that point where I realize that Jerry is a bully. But because the protagonist of “The Graduate” was just one year older than me at the start of the movie, I found him insanely relatable. Dustin Hoffman’s character, Benjamin Braddock, has just graduated from college, and is very conflicted about what to do with his life. The film opens on his graduation party, where Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) asks him to take her back to her house. She starts undressing, and Benjamin immediately freaks out.

So the film presents the audience with the awkward, uncomfortable, strange Dustin Hoffman, who one, has know idea what he is doing with his life, and two, has no control over anything that goes on around him. So naturally I found him painfully relatable. His parents go on and on about grad school, while all of his parents’ friends talk about how proud they are of him, all while excitedly questioning him on what he wants to do with his life. That “lost” mentality leads him to finally taking control and doing something crazy, which is sleeping with a married woman.

Turns out that woman is the deranged Mrs. Robinson. Well, maybe I’m being a little harsh, because she’s actually a really fun and interesting character. She manipulates him into an affair because her marriage is basically nonexistent. She’s the most entertaining character, and possibly the most complex. At one point in the story she even divulges what she wanted to do with her life when she was Benjamin’s age. Between the coming-of-age trauma, the sexual maturation, and the comedic love affair, I can certainly understand why this movie was so popular in its time.

For starters, it explores the disconnect between the past generation of babyboomers and up and coming generation that feels kind of lost in a very post-modern world (look at me throwing around terms like babyboomers and post-modern). The film even uses University of Berkeley, practically the epitome of liberal philosophy for the younger generation at the time, as a setting. The reason I found it relatable is because these inter-generational relations tend to repeat themselves. Today’s parents don’t understand what it’s like growing up in a world where your world is divided between social networks, where our future employers can stalk us on Facebook, or where the media interacts with us in ways never dreamed possible. There are so many complexities in the relationship between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson, and as a viewer I can understand why Benjamin is so often conflicted and flighty in the film. He’s stressing about his future most of the time, as us college students often do, and then the story ties in these complicated relationships with both Mrs. Robinson and her daughter, Elaine. It’s a psychological labyrinth of the complexities of our transition into the adult world!

Anyway, I enjoyed the movie immensely (do I ever not enjoy a movie?), but I also plan to re-watch it when I’m older to see if I side with Mrs. Robinson next time. In addition, I highly recommend this movie for any teenager. In fact, the movie came out the same year as “Bonnie and Clyde,” the peak of teenage movie attendance. That’s when studios realized that there are huge audiences of teenagers waiting to see movies that they can relate to, so you can thank this time period for “Twilight.”

Well… that might be a bit of a stretch…