Movie Reviews

Oz the Great and Powerful

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  • Title: Oz the Great and Powerful
  • IMDB: link

Oz the Great and PowerfulThere’s no Scarecrow, Tin Man, or Cowardly Lion, but by the end of Oz the Great and Powerful the stage will be set for a young girl from Kansas to make her own journey to Frank L. Baum’s magical land of Oz. This completely original script by screenwriters Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire offers us the origins of the great and powerful Wizard of Oz (James Franco), who, as the film opens (in black and white), is nothing more than a traveling carnival magician and con man on the dusty plains of Kansas.

The first quarter of our story is centered around presenting Oz in his own world before whisking him away to the magical land of Oz via the most likely transport: a tornado. Franco is well cast as the smarmy, selfish, womanizing, con man wishing for greatness (but too lazy to work for it), with an unquestionable greed for fame and fortune and an uncomfortable relationship with the truth. Oz’s myriad of failings leads to a hasty escape from the carnival that traps the magician’s hot air balloon in the middle of a Kansas twister leading to a journey somewhere over the rainbow.

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John Dies at the End

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  • Title: John Dies at the End
  • IMDb: link

john-dies-at-the-end-poster

Based on the comic-horror novel of the same name by Cracked editor David Wong and brought to the screen by writer/director Don Coscarelli, John Dies at the End is a bizarre dark comedic horror film about a powerful hallucinogenic drug known as Soy Sauce, parallel universes, time travel, the heroic nature of dogs, and an alien invasion that threatens all life on the planet Earth.

We’re introduced to our main character, David Wong (Chase Williamson), as he tells his unbelievable story to reporter Arnie Bloodstone (Paul Giamatti). Through long flashbacks we see the events that have led David to a Chinese restaurant to unburden his soul. Of course by the time we meet David he’s already addicted and high on Soy Sauce, which makes him the definition of an unreliable narrator whose words (and, at times, admitted lies) can only be taken at face value.

The story really begins with David’s best friend John (Rob Mayes) who scores some Soy Sauce off a fake magical Jamaican (Tai Bennett) one night at a party and changes both their lives forever.

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Jack the Giant Slayer

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  • Title: Jack the Giant Slayer
  • IMDb: link

Jack the Giant Slayer

Turning fairy tales into big budget live-action CGI extravaganzas seems to be all the rage in Hollywood right now. Director Bryan Singer‘s Jack the Giant Slayer, the retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk, is an inarguably flawed film, but it’s certainly a step up from similar recent films such as Snow White and the Huntsman, Mirror Mirror, and even Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.

Singer’s modest success comes from casting two likable young stars (Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson), clever work in the editing room, some (mostly) good special effects, and fun supporting performances from the likes of Ewan McGregor, Ian McShane, and Stanley Tucci as the film’s dastardly villain Roderick who plans to use the giants to seize power in the kingdom and beyond.

The plot to Jack the Giant Slayer is relatively straight-forward. We’re given a hero’s journey as Jack (Hoult) sets out to prove his worth by helping to rescue Princess Isabelle (Tomlinson), whom he secretly loves, from an army of human-eating giants at the top of Jack’s beanstalk.

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Snitch

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  • Title: Snitch
  • IMDB: link

snitch-movie-posterSnitch is perplexing. Despite the promise of Dwayne “It’s Okay to Call Me The Rock Again” Johnson, plenty of action, and a poster that’s oddly similar to the The Rock’s last action flick, what writer/director Ric Roman Waugh and co-writer Justin Haythe deliver is a character study that’s short on action and a treatise whose true purpose is to lecture the audience on the the evils of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug-related crimes.

Despite being the most physically intimidating figure in the entire film, The Rock’s role is written as a upper-middle class suburban dad with little to no experience with violence. The Rock’s part seems obviously written for a schlub (Paul Giamatti would have made for far more natural casting). Choosing The Rock for a heavily dramatic role that doesn’t acknowledge, let alone make use of, his natural assets as an action star may allow the wrestler turned actor to broaden his breadth of work, but it’s just one of many odd choices Snitch makes during it’s nearly two-hour running time (which is about half-an-hour too long).

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Amour

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  • Title: Amour
  • IMDB: link

amour-posterIf you have any personal experience with watching a loved one suffer a stroke or face the slow and debilitating end-of-life process writer/director Michael Haneke‘s Amour is likely to hit closer to home than you may like. Haneke’s tale is as simple as it is heartfelt, showcasing the strain of a stroke on the lives and the marriage of an elderly couple in their final months together.

Although there are cameo roles which include the couple’s daughter (Isabelle Huppert) and a former piano student (Alexandre Tharaud), Amour is really centered around the performances of Jean-Louis Trintignant as George and Emmanuelle Riva as his wife Anne. The entire film never leaves the walls in which the pair have made their home together which slowly becomes a prison for both of them when Anne suffers a second stroke.

Despite its success overseas, and several awards to its credit on this side of the Atlantic, Amour is only now slowly being released in the United States. You may have to search to find it, but despite its difficult subject matter it’s worth the wait.

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