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

Cross to bear

Like many, I had trepidations about the continuation of the Bourne franchise without Matt Damon as the amnesiatic assassin or Paul Greengrass as director. But to the studio's credit, The Bourne Legacy is not simply a lazy or spiteful reboot like Sony did with Spider-Man. Instead they created an expansion of the universe created by Robert Ludlum's spy novels and attempted to look at the story from a different perspective.

That perspective comes from Aaron Cross, (Jeremy Renner) an agent of Operation Outcome, a separate group from Treadstone, which Bourne belonged too. A key difference between the two groups is that Outcome agents have been put on a pill regimen to medically enhance their abilities. The film opens during the timeline of the last Bourne film. We see from new footage different government officials reacting to Bourne's efforts to expose Treadstone. Realizing that the operation is blown, the CIA decides to pull the plug on all their operations. A team led by a retired Air Force colonel (played by Edward Norton) is tasked with eliminating all of their agents. Cross is fortunate enough to escape and begins his quest for determining why the government is now trying to kill him.

All of this set-up is terrific. The film nicely weaves the events of the previous film into this story and justifiably establishes a reason why there would now be someone else wanting to exact revenge on our government. The scenes establishing Renner's character are also well done. He's currently training in Alaska, so we get several instances of him battling the elements before dealing with the government, including a fight with wolves that was on par with the action scene earlier this year in The Grey

Unfortunately, the movie loses steam in the second half. Cross' character seems more intent on getting a fresh supply of the pills that give him his abilities than he is about exacting revenge. We get a lot of scenes with him talking about the pills, showing the effects of withdrawl, and looking for the pills and none of it is particularly engaging. Helping him in his quest is a doctor played by Rachel Weisz who originally gave him the drugs. She's being hunted by the government as well after she managed to escape an attack on her lab. Weisz is fine here, but I never saw any chemistry between her and Renner in the same way that I did between Damon and Marie (Franke Potente) or Nikki (Julia Stiles).

Pacing also becomes problematic as the movie progresses. After a series of conversations bog down the middle of the film, we get an overly long action sequence at the very end of the film. Not only should there have been a better balance between the action and dialogue, but the film's final action sequence comes off as anti-climatic. I expected more to come and yet shortly after the chase sequence finishes, the credits begin to roll.

Though frustrating, the film's abrupt ending left many doors open to be explored down the line in yet more Bourne films. I know I am interested in seeing more. Although admittedly, it's more of an interest in seeing the characters established in the first three films, rather than anyone new in Legacy That not only goes for Damon, but also people like Joan Allen and David Straithairn, who have little more than cameos in Legacy As for the new characters, Renner was fine when it came to the action, but he still strikes me as a better sidekick than leader (see The Avengers and Ghost Protocol). Edward Norton is always an excellent actor, but we didn't learn enough about his character here to care whether or not he returns.

The Bourne Legacy is a difficult film to rate because a lot hinges on whether or not anymore films in the franchise will be made. If this is it, then the film feels like an underwhelming and unnecessary capper. If this is a jump start to a new trilogy, then you can appreciate what it was trying to set up. For now I'm giving the film I mild recommendation for its ability to nicely integrate the storyline of the original trilogy and for whetting fans' appetites for the possibility of more adventures with Treadstone, Outcome, Blackbriar and the rest of the shady CIA operations. If fans of the franchise come in with lowered expectations, they'll likely enjoy this latest spy thriller. Grade: B

Don't Treadstone on me

I've been on the fence about extending the Bourne franchise without Matt Damon, but this latest trailer for The Bourne Legacy has me completely sold. From the looks of things they've found a way of successfully integrating the existing storyline while also creating something unique as well. They appear to have enough actors from the previous films couples with some excellent new additions to make this a must see come this August. Have a look for yourself.

RBR: Dream House

This is another example of talented actors somehow getting bamboozled into staring in terrible, cheesy thrillers. Daniel Craig should know better after the disasterous The Invasion, but I guess he got desperate when Bond went on hiatus. And I also doubt that he regrets this film too much since he got married to his costar (Rachel Weisz) after working with her on the film. If you had seen the trailers for this film about a family man who comes to realize he's just moved his family into a new house where a family was previously murdered, then you may have thought that the film's twist was revealed. In the preview, it appears as if Craig's character was responsible for the murders and has since psychologically blocked the incident from his mind. On the plus side, there's more to the story than what the trailers reveal. On the negative side, the twists that do follow in the film are increasingly stupid and cause the film to crash and burn. Very little makes sense here and the actors aren't even given enough to try and salvage this thing. Both Weisz and Naomi Watts, playing a neighbor with some insight on what actually happened, are not given enough development. Instead, we get scene after scene of misdirection until the underwhelming truth gets revealed. The actors here deserve better. But the only way we can prevent them from making these duds if we avoid seeing them. This is certainly one you can avoid. Rating: * 1/2