Oz is Neither Great nor Powerful.

Oz the Great and Powerful (1 1/2 out of 5 Stars)

Directed by Sam Raimi (Spiderman, Drag me to Hell, Evil Dead)

Written by Mitchel Kapner (The Whole Nine Yards, Romeo Must Die), David Lindsey-Abaire (Rabbit  Hole, Rise of the Guardians)

Starring: James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, and Mila Kunis

As a young child The Wizard of Oz was one of my favorite films.  The film is still in fact one of my favorite movies of all time.  There is something about this young girl, named Dorothy singing about a better life 'somewhere over the rainbow.'  The film is timeless.  Over the years there have been several adaptations which provide different interpretations of the L. Frank Baum book, like the films The Wiz, Return to Oz, and of course the musical/book Wicked.  I have seen them all, and never hold the lore against them just love interesting new versions of the story and its characters.

In this version of the land of Oz, Oz or Oscar (James Franco) is a struggling magician trying to make a living on the carnival scene.  As a situation gets worse in Kansas Oz gets sucked into a tornado of all things and transported to the land of his namesake Oz.  Oz soon meets Theodora (Mila Kunis) a witch hoping to help Oz reclaim the throne to fulfill a prophecy.  Theodora's sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) informs Oz that in order to claim the throne and the riches to go along with it he must kill the wicked witch.  Oz embarks on a journey with a flying monkey named Finley (Zach Braff) and China Girl (Joey King), where he soon meets Glinda (Michelle Williams) and explores the land further.

When it comes to one of the stronger elements of the film Sam Raimi's direction and use of the 3-D technology is one of the more effective elements of the film.  Raimi is master of the horror world with films like Evil Dead, and Drag me to Hell.  Within the horror genre Raimi knows how to craft the most intricate yet quirky stories.  Raimi moved toward a more family friendly genre with his comic book adaptation of the original Spider-Man series.  Raimi's direction with the action at the end of film makes things much more entertaining but not enough to save the experience.  Raimi tries his best with the script as written and succeeds in the smallest sense.

Poor Sam Raimi he has one of the most sub par screenplays.  Mitchel Kapner  (Romeo Must Die), David Lindsey-Abaire (Rabbit  Hole) make for interesting combination, and their work never captures the subtle wit and brilliance the world of Oz deserves.    If you look at the work of both of these screenwriters neither of their resumes say anything which would prove the capability of writing something could or should have been an important prequel to one of the most important films of all time.  This script loses the substance leaving the film with only minimal amounts of style namely the the 3-D.

If you are looking for substance, or even great performances you may at a loss with Oz.  The two main standouts within the film are Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz.  These two women made this film more bearable allowing me to have more fun with this experience.  Although Williams may have be channelling her breathy Marilyn Monroe, but who doesn't love a bombshell.  Weisz is sinfully dark, and fantastic; she is one great actress, and sells every element of her role.

While these two leads succeed, Franco and Kunis are beyond miscast in two of the most important roles in this film.  Franco tries to be, and I emphasize tries to be this charming con man who fools people into thinking is something he isn't.  In this beginning in the traditional black and white Kansas he is meant to be a great magician and then he gets to Oz he is supposed to be this great wizard everyone has been waiting for to save them from the wicked witch.  Franco is not believable, nor is he able to make a convincing lead.  Kunis on the other hand has proven her acting abilities with her role in Black Swan, but loses ground, and is miscast as spoiler.... the green witch.  I felt as though Jackie from That 70's Show was yelling at Kelso with green make up, and her cackle was incredibly laughable.

In the land of Oz there is supposed to be a magical experience, and as the viewer you are meant to transported to this colorful/magical world.  Instead you have two sorely miscast actors, with a poorly written script, and ultimately a film that loses the heart of the original Oz experience.  Sorry Oz fans this may be the worst experience I have had walking the yellow brick road.

Did you Know They Played Gay

Today I discovered a couple of fun things, first Queer as Folk the BBC version is on Netflix watch instant, and second there were a few actors in the show who have since become major characters in television.  There are a lot of people who played LGBT characters that people, mostly heterosexual audiences do not know about.  I would say most LGBT folks know these faces, but there may be a few surprises in the mix, which range from screen to stage.

Aiden Gillen played the "Brian Kinney" character in the UK version of Queer as Folk, his characters name was Stuart Jones.  Since Queer as Folk Gillen has since taken two different roles from Stuart one of HBO's The Wire as Councilmen/Mayor Tommy Carcetti; he also plays Petry Baelish in Game of Thrones.

Charlie Hunnam played Nathan the Justin type character in the British version of Queer as Folk.  Watching Hunnam play the naive/innocent Nathan and then grow up to play Lloyd in Undeclared was fun, but watching him transform into Jax on Sons of Anarchy is nothing short of brilliant.

Billy Crystal played a gay character at the beginning of his career of the television sitcom Soap.  While Crystal was never seen as the typical leading man this never stopped him from getting any major roles in fact he is one half of one of the most famous film couples in When Harry Met Sally, and a lot of the time played somewhat of a ladies man.

The first few people on this list are people a lot of LGBT folks may not know, but the rest of the list falls under the surprise realm because of either the roles in small LGBT films or incredibly popular within the LGBT community.

Dean Cain, Zach Braff, Timothy Olyphant, and John Mahoney (The Broken Hearts Club).

After Dean Cain was Superman in Lois and Clark; he move on to play a shallow gay man, based on watching him the reality series where he tries to pick a date, the shallow part may not be far off, but playing gay was an interesting choice for him.

Before Zach Braff was seeing images in his head of what might be in Scrubs as a doctor, or before he wrote, directed, and starred in Garden State, he played a bleach blonde obsessed with "gym bunnies."

Timothy Olyphant may be known as the killer in Scream 2, or two different tough guys one in HBO's wild west drama Deadwood or now the bad ass Raylan Givens on Justified, but before any of these he was the romantic lead in Broken Hearts Club.

John Mahoney played the cranky non cultured dad on Frasier, but took on the complete opposite as the guide to his boys in Broken Hearts Club.

Chris Meloni made all gay men melt when he played Chris Keller in the HBO prison drama Oz.  Keller's character could easily be defined as queer because he slept with both me and women on the show, but it was his relationship with Tobias Beecher that made us swoon, about two men in prison ironically.  He broke that mold playing the bad ass Detective Elliot Stabler, and those without HBO never knew otherwise.

The same can be said for Michael C. Hall and his first major role as the funeral director David Fisher.  David was an insecure man who struggled with his sexual orientation even though he identified as a gay man.  Hall has transformed into an incredibly different character in the Showtime series Dexter where plays a forensic blood spatter expert turned serial killer who enacts vengeance on those commit crimes, these two characters could not be more different and I think many of his Dexter fans would be surprised.