RBR: Oz The Great and Powerful

I can't claim to be any huge devotee to The Wizard of Oz like others can. The Judy Garland original doesn't do a whole lot for me, but I can at least credit for creating movie magic. Through pure ingenuity and filmmaking, the audience feels as if they have been transported to a magical land just as much as Dorothy does. That ability is one of the reasons why it continues to find new fans constantly. I don't believe anyone will be looking as fondly to this prequel, which stars James Franco as the man who would become a wizard. We begin in Kansas where Franco plays Oscar, a Kansas magician who makes a living out of fooling people, especially women who take a shining to him. When one of his cons catching up with him, Oscar tries to flee in a hot air balloon, only to get caught up in a tornado that sends him to Oz. Though the screen pops with bright colors upon arriving in this magical land, everything feels as phony as Oscar's magic act. The computer graphics used to create Oz do it no justice, creating a distance from the audience. Instead of getting caught up in this world, you are preoccupied with watching Franco try to do a bunch of green screen acting. Some actors can pull it off, but Franco isn't one of them. Along the way, we get introduced to a number of character, both new and old, including three witches - Theodora (Mila Kunis) Elenora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams) - one of whom becomes quite "wicked" before the movie concludes. None of these characters are particularly interesting. For most of the film, I just sat waiting just to see how they would connect this with the Garland film. The third act is decent as we see the wizard finally use his magic to its fullest capability. Somewhere buried in this movie is a decent origin story, but it is not expertly explored here. This had the potential to be a new classic but ends up being another soulless adventure that tries to get by on pure visual gimmickry. The curtain gets pulled back for audiences before they even have a chance to be amazed. Rating: ** 1/2

Omen holiday

Nearly five years ago to the day, I made a post on my blog about a viral video featuring Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel dealing with the apocalypse. Fast forward to today and that short clip has mushroomed into a full fledged movie. This is the End features Rogen and Baruchel, as well some of their other famous friends like James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride playing exaggerated versions of themselves as they deal with the end of days.

The film begins with Franco throwing a house party for all of his famous Hollywood friends. This of course leads to several celebrity cameos having fun with their real life personalities. For instance, you'll never be able to look at Michael Cera the same way after having seen this movie. Things turn cataclysmic in a hurry, however, as massive sinkholes develop, sending most of the party guests to their death. The central cast initially survive and barricade themselves in Franco's house unsure of what's happening.

It doesn't take long before the gang goes all Lord of the Flies on each other as they squabble over food rations, sleeping arrangements, and facing their mortality. The amount of humor your derive from these scenes will vary greatly. For me, I found there to be far more misses than hits when it came to the jokes. What was interesting is that most of the scenes weren't unfunny. Rather it's that I found myself sitting there nodding in agreement with what was being said rather than laughing at the anarchy. Because these guys are playing versions of themselves, a lot of the jokes were at the expense of each other. They would mock their personality traits or their bad movies or just their general phoniness. While some will be amused by the self-deprecating nature of the humor, I found myself wondering if these guys shouldn't be taking these comments more seriously and reevaluate their career choices.

Making the film more problematic is the tone that's created surrounding the humor. There are some truly disturbing scenes, especially early on as people meet their untimely death. I realize that the apocalypse isn't exactly a day in the park, but it was hard for me to appreciate the film's humor given the unpleasant setting that it had established. A lot of the horror and craziness of the film felt more like something from Sam Raimi, which is not a genre that I'm particularly fond of.

Despite placing the film within a very specific context, This is the End too often feels disjointed. The film moves from one comedy bit to the next with no sense of progression. Ideas and jokes are introduced but very few get paid off by the end of the film. You'll have things like Emma Watson randomly show up which provides the guys with an opportunity to make a few rape jokes and then she's gone and they move onto the next riff. You begin to see that this has been a project that's been percolating for 5 (or more) years. They have this collection of various ideas that may work individually but really don't add up to anything worthwhile.

I will give credit though for giving the right cast members the appropriate personalities in the film. For instance, Jay Baruchel is intended to serve as the heart and humanity of the film, which works considering he's probably the most likeable and least "Hollywood" of the bunch. Meanwhile, Danny McBride does what he does best by playing the douchy a**hole and Jonah Hill is a disingenuous prick. I probably would have struggled with the film even more than I did had they tried to force unnatural personalities onto any of these guys.

It's interesting that this film comes right off the heels of The Internship. In many ways these films couldn't be more different. While I seem to be in disagreement with a lot of other critics on both of these films, a lot of what my reviews for both pictures come down to is mood. The Internship offered a sunny optimism that infectiously made me enjoy all of the characters in the film. I'd much rather spend two hours with that cast than I would with the dreary, unpleasant narcissism that's on display in This is the End.

After watching this movie, it's become clear that this was an idea that worked as a short viral video and should have stayed at that. As a feature length movie, this is nothing more than a poorly cobbled together collection of bits, some of which are admittedly very funny, that really don't add up to anything more than a crass vanity project for Rogen and co. I actually could do a whole separate post analyzing why the film's final joke doesn't work at all, but given that it features another surprise cameo, I won't discuss it any further here. I have been a fan of a lot of these guys' work in the past, but there have been a lot of misfires by them, Rogen in particular, recently that make me question whether or not I should continue seeing their future films. Unless some drastic changes are made, I'm afraid "this is the end" for me watching this work. Grade: C

Can I be Franco with you?

Between Two Ferns is back! Episode 16 features Zach Galifianakis sitting down with James Franco and a surprise musical guest.

Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis: James Franco from Zach Galifianakis

Chain of Fools

The cast of This is the End decided to get in the holiday spirit and offer up a new "trailer" to promote their movie. Check it out below.

My only friend, the End

There seems no more fitting day than today when the purported apocalypse was supposed to happen to post this trailer for next year's comedy This is the End starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, a whole host of other funny people, and Danny McBride. This 'end of days' seems like it could be a whole lot of manic fun with a bunch of guys who are clearly real life friends and know how to riff off of each other. Warning, trailer is Not Safe For Work.

Ape Fear

As usual, I'm behind the times, but better late than never they say. I had an opportunity to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes a couple weeks ago - a film which has surprised a number of people as it relates to its performance at the box office. Having seen the movie now, I can't say that it's performance has shocked me, but if you would have asked me at the beginning of the summer if I had planned on seeing this, I would have said no.

A large part of what drew me in to see this latest entry in the sci-fi franchise is the visual effects that made these monkeys possible. Using the same people who worked on Avatar, as well as the movements of the underrated Andy Serkis, these creatures come to life on the big screen in impressive fashion. While the focus is on Cesar, the ape who initiates the revolt against the humans, there are several simian characters who get significant screen time. Each of these monkeys is distinct enough for you to know who they are (something that hasn't been said of the Transformers) and the visual effects crew does a nice job of allowing these creatures to be able to express certain emotions without it coming off as being fake or unrealistic.

The other interesting thing about the film that is partially credited to the visual effects team is the way they are able to put these apes into several story archetypes and you instantly recognize what the film is going for. Packed within this film you get a prison story, a family drama, comedy, romance and everything else. Despite being primative beings, I instantly related to what they were experiencing. In many ways, you come to root for the apes success as you watch the film.

This is not to say that there isn't some good acting from the human cast as well. The director smartly brought in a number of terrific character actors who nicely fill out the film. James Franco is the lead as a scientist who is testing the apes in order to develop a new drug aimed at curing Alzheimers. Of course, he has a personal investment in his work since his father (played in an understated manner by John Lithgow) is currently suffering from the disease. Some of the actors in the cast include Freida Pinto, who plays Franco's girlfriend, Tyler Labine as Franco's lab assistant, and the always terrific Brian Cox has a few scenes as the director of an ape sanctuary. I should also mention Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, is more evil here playing a cruel worker at the ape sanctuary than he was in any of the Potter films.

Overall, this is a really solid film, but yet as I watched it there were several things that bothered me. None of them were so severe that made me dislike the film, but so many of them were things that if fixed could have turned this film into something special. One of these things was the attention to detail, or lack there of, when it came to signifying a change over time. The entire film takes place over at least an 8 year span, yet none of the human characters appear different. There is no change of haircuts, wardrobe, or signs of aging in any way. That lack of change frequently takes you out of the moment and causes you to scratch your head in confusion. There are also some pretty blatant moments of editing where a scene would suggest something will happen immediately next, yet that scene never comes. I'm not sure if these quibbles will become more apparent or less apparent upon repeat viewings, but I think they still merit mentioning here. Watching the film, I got the sense that they had shot their budget entirely on making the apes look great, so they had nothing left to put into the rest of the production. Since it appears, based on the film's conclusion and success at the box office, that there will be another Apes film made at some point, I hope they take notice of these small flaws and correct them.

I hate to be so nitpicky about a film that deals with apes taking over the world, but I can't help but dwelling on them. If Joe Moviegoer can pick up on those things, why couldn't anyone who worked on the film? But while they're important to point out, I don't want to dwell on them. I am recommending this film as it serves as some excellent blockbuster entertainment as the summer comes to a close. Even if you've never seen any of the previous Apes films before or feel like you wouldn't enjoy this, I would suggest you reconsider. This is a film that is never slow and offers a number of nice moments. And when it comes to those nitpicks I mentioned, just act like the monkeys in the 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' statue. Grade: B+