What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in Time

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BanksIsDaFuture
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by BanksIsDaFuture »

Rapture-Palooza - B

Lowered expectations are this film's best friend. It's dumb but it knows it, but I'm surprised Anna Kendrick signed on for this as she's given little to do but stand around being oogled by the Anti-Christ.

Oz: The Great And Powerful - C+

There's nothing exceptionally wrong with it, but there's nothing terribly right either. Zach Braff's Finley and Mila Kunis/Rachel Weisz were worth my time though.

Minor gripe: what's with all the jump scares? I thought this was supposed to be a kids movie? I know Raimi got his start in horror, but dammit Disney, I'm sure glad I didn't take my 6 year old niece to see this in 3D like I'd planned. I imagine there were a bunch of crying kids as murderous plants leaped at them with snapping teeth in three dimensions and the like.
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by silversurfer19 »

I'm guessing you've never seen the original Wizard of Oz. Terrifying movie for a 6 year old, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. Those flying monkeys, oh my!

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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by Chienfantome »

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I loved Wizard of Oz when I was a kid, it really was scary, with the flying monkeys and the wicked witch.
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by Buscemi »

I think the main problem with Oz (besides it being a clear attempt to ape the unnecessary Alice in Wonderland and James Franco playing James Franco) was how it felt more like a TV pilot than a movie. It seems as if the board room at Disney greenlighted the film solely on the success of Once Upon a Time and decided to make a film as cut-rate as possible but still make money based on the cast and director (I found it unusual that a film directed by Sam Raimi was written by a pair of little-known writers).

And adding to the whole feeling of a TV movie, it explains very little in the 135 minute run time (though of course, there wasn't much to show anyway since not many people who saw The Wizard of Oz wondered how The Wizard got to Oz). And yet they are planning sequels despite concluding what little plot there was at the end of the first film (do we really need to so how there came to be two wicked witches when it was a given in The Wizard of Oz?).

Also since Oz is more or less a trilogy now (Oz: The Great and Powerful, The Wizard of Oz, Return to Oz), Oz: The Great and Powerful 2 would simply create a convoluted chronology as you would have two prequels and a lot of unnecessary information.
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by W »

I don't know about Oz: TGAP being the same as Wizard and Return to Oz. they're from different studios, vastly different points in time, and different actors. Like saying ASM and Raimi's trilogy are the same, or Manhunter and the Hannibal series, or Burton and Nolan's and Adam West's Batmans all follow the same timeline.

It feels like a reboot and they could have whatever they want next.
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by BanksIsDaFuture »

silversurfer19 wrote:I'm guessing you've never seen the original Wizard of Oz. Terrifying movie for a 6 year old, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. Those flying monkeys, oh my!
Yeah, I've never seen it, but hopefully I'll check it out when it's released in September.
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by Buscemi »

W wrote:I don't know about Oz: TGAP being the same as Wizard and Return to Oz. they're from different studios, vastly different points in time, and different actors. Like saying ASM and Raimi's trilogy are the same, or Manhunter and the Hannibal series, or Burton and Nolan's and Adam West's Batmans all follow the same timeline.

It feels like a reboot and they could have whatever they want next.
The Great and Powerful takes place before The Wizard of Oz (about 20-30 years before) and I believe Disney intended it as a prequel. They don't mention Dorothy but they clearly show the foundation of how Oz came to be (how the Wizard got his power, why there are two Wicked Witches, how the Lion became the cowardly, etc.).
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by W »

Aren't both based on the same source material just as the Hannibal films and Red Dragon? If they wanted to, they could make a straight remake of Wizard. It's just weird that people can pick and choose what's canon. The Wiz isn't, the first Wizard of Oz isn't (before 1939's), but these three that all feel different are considered so.
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by Buscemi »

Return to Oz is based on the book's sequels and was filmed as an unofficial sequel (many fans have gone on to adopt it as the sequel). Oz: The Great and Powerful is an original story but ties in with the events of The Wizard of Oz. It's not a remake and clearly makes reference to the events of The Wizard of Oz (as I pointed out in the last post, there are a number of hints to The Wizard of Oz and how they happened).

The Wiz meanwhile is based on a play that was based on the original story and was always meant to be a separate entity (especially due to the alternate interpretations of the characters and the modern day setting).
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by transformers2 »

21 and Over 4/10
Handful of funny moments and some heart at times, but it's mostly unfunny and lazy material. The actors give it their best effort, there's just a lot of jokes that fell flat and couldn't be saved. Would've been even lower, but the last 15 minutes was pretty enjoyable and contains about 95% of the good material for the entire film.

Snitch 8/10
Surprisingly really enjoyable. Dwayne Johnson has really gone out of his comfort zone this year with this and Pain & Gain and proven he has some really solid acting chops outside of his action wheelhouse. The scenes between him and his son in prison were wonderfully acted and Johnson give his character a considerable amount of emotional depth. The drug smuggling sequences could've been better, but the emotional power, storyline and performances (Michael K. Williams and Jon Bernthal are also great. Curious to see how Bernthal does in The Wolf of Wall Street.) more than make up for those scenes shortcomings.

Side Effects 7.5/10
A little too complicated for it's own good at times, but this is a pretty solid thriller. The film takes a complete 180 in the second half becoming a tense thriller opposed to the first half which is almost like an oddball artsy drama. Rooney Mara and Jude Law are both excellent in their roles and I did not see the ending coming at all (although the setup is a bit messy.) A fitting swan song (for now at least) for Steven Soderbergh.
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by transformers2 »

Killing Them Softly 3/10
Self-indulgent, preachy, boring garbage. Beats you over the head with "the government is terrible/America sucks" message and when it's not preaching, it's just a half-baked crime drama that gets far less interesting by the minute. The only thing that saved this from being even worse was a few good lines from Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelshon and James Gandolfini. Wastes a talented cast on an unnecessary film that fails both as an allegory and a crime drama.
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by Buscemi »

How is it that people see Killing Them Softly as anti-American? The government references only serve as a backdrop (it's set before the 2008 election, so it's unavoidable to mention it), not as the plot. Also, do you think the film would have been allowed to shoot in the US (and with Louisiana tax credits, no less) had the film had such themes?
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by numbersix »

er, it is totally a criticism of the current situation of American politics, and both accuses Bush and Obama as those responsible for the utter immorality of the country. While it's not anti-America by definition, it is certainly very critical of the people in government. And the film is very much an allegory for that.

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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by Buscemi »

But the film spends very little time on that aspect (mostly the very beginning and the very end). The rest of the film is focused on the characters and how they got in their situations.

Also, the film is based on a story written in the 1970's. You could use the same argument for the Nixon administration but in the end, it's still more or less a story about crime instead of politics.
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Re: What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in

Post by Geezer »

transformers2 wrote:Killing Them Softly 3/10
Self-indulgent, preachy, boring garbage. Beats you over the head with "the government is terrible/America sucks" message and when it's not preaching, it's just a half-baked crime drama that gets far less interesting by the minute. The only thing that saved this from being even worse was a few good lines from Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelshon and James Gandolfini. Wastes a talented cast on an unnecessary film that fails both as an allegory and a crime drama.
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