Popular reviews

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  Review by alex todd 🧟‍♂️ ★★ 8

  Scavenger Hunt #53

  
  Let’s just be honest James Franco was the villain.

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  Review by Taylor Williams ★★

  Just remembered this movie existed. That color/aspect ratio transition was cool, and that’s about it.

  
  EDIT: It’s worth mentioning that that transition was in the trailer anyway. Perhaps 2 stars is generous.

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  Review by Jamelle Bouie ★½ 3

  Woof, where to begin?

  A boring, inert, CGI mess helmed by a lead who doesn’t want to be there and couldn’t even carry the film if he wanted to. 

  The final “Wizard of Oz” sequence has some real visual juice — as well as being a clever nod to the magic of moviemaking — but then we get an ugly CGI showdown that drags down the conclusion.

  A huge waste of time that’s so bad I’m genuinely interested in knowing the story of how it got made.

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  Review by David Sims ★★ 3

  buh

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  Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★½ 8

  65/100

  "The Wizard of Oz was intended to hit the same audience as Snow White and won't fail for lack of trying. It has dwarfs, music, Technicolor, freak characters and Judy Garland. It can't be expected to have a sense of humor as well—and as for the light touch of fantasy, it weighs like a pound of fruitcake soaking wet." — Otis Ferguson, The New Republic, 1939.

  That's what you all sound like.

  Not that I make any great claims for this sometimes labored prequel, or anticipate that it'll become a beloved classic decades from now. It has major problems, the most significant being that one of the three witches was badly miscast—Kunis just can't pull off a wholly stylized…

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  Review by Matt Singer ★★★ 2

  Liked this a bit less than I did last year when it premiered. One note: we're all falling all over ourselves over Wes Anderson's different aspect ratios in GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. And they are used brilliantly there. But this movie pulled a similar trick last year. When the 4:3 Kansas becomes the 2.35:1 Oz, that is a fabulous moment. Probably deserved more credit than it got.

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★½ 8

  Action!: Three Degrees Of Separation - Sam Raimi & The Slap B Sticks

  The whole time I watched this movie, I couldn’t help thinking how great it would have been if Tim and Sam had switched jobs, and had Burton direct this film, with Raimi directing “Alice In Wonderland” in its place. A part of the reason for this is because the music, and so on, almost seem to fall under the “Beetlejuice” director's wheelhouse.

  However, that is not to suggest that Raimi is playing to be someone else. Totally the opposite. Especially in the final act, when Kunis finally becomes the evil witch, you can see how the director demonstrates his horror skills with Rachel’s final transformation looking like a…

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  Review by ˗ˏˋ Liam ˊˎ˗ ★½ 3

  the first 20 minutes were great but then the rest happened

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  Review by pd187 ★★½ 8

  mostly deserves its rep as ARMY OF DARKNESS remade into nauseating disney shlockbuster but even if raimi did this 20 yrs ago w/ rubber monkeys & bruce as oz it still prob wouldve been a hook-level eyesore & terrible script. this world of needy, simpering witches who have actual superpowers & yearn for yet another smarmy womanizing white guy savior (fuckin.....JAMES FRANCO) cloned from every other late-00s asshole hollywood hero (iron man, chris pine kirk, chris pratt in guardians, depp in pirates, kinda? that weird shift of kids movie protagonist from innocent/likable reeve-superman/luke skywalker type to snarky rogueish han solo cuz uhhh audiences like han solo so why not make everybody han solo all the time even if theyre wrong for the story…

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  Review by anna nomaly ★★½ 1

  The prologue might as well be Raimi’s Hugo, a beautifully-crafted homage to not only MGM’s classic but also to vintage film technique as a whole, and the fact that it all but doubles as a Max Landis “hook pitch” doesn’t hurt. Likewise, the climax pulls out all the stops in a way that should thrill anyone who’s drunk in love with cinema, as inspired by Inglourious Basterds as it is by the director’s own Army of Darkness. The extended middle act remains somewhat interesting by spending more time on fantasy chamber drama than on an abundance of plot, but it never quite overcomes the miscast actors, the locations that don’t even bother trying to look real, and dialogue that can’t stop asking inane questions like, “What does it take to kill a wicked witch?” A hideous makeup job, that’s what!

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  Review by Bryan Espitia ★★ 2

  There’s a point during this where you slowly but surely realize the only reason you’re still watching is because of Michelle Williams. Two stars for her and her only.

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  Review by Simone ★★½ 15

  The latest foray into the land of Oz following the ground-breaking and timeless The Wizard of Oz (and the forgettable sequel Return to Oz) should've been an adaptation of the novel Wicked instead of this limp and clichéd mess of a story. I did my best to put my expectations and wishes to the side and enjoy it as a fun piece of entertainment. It's clearly a cash grab and an attempt at a new franchise, but I can enjoy these types of films if it feels like they put some thought and effort into it. They basically put a throwaway story into a beautiful-looking and well-thought out world.

  Oz: The Great and Powerful boasts some astoundingly beautiful visuals. The…