Oz the Great and Powerful

3 pipes out of 4

James Franco really needs to make up his mind whether he wants to be a serious actor or simply the stoner guy. The man has magnificent talent but when he chooses more sophisticated roles as he does in Oz the Great and Powerful, he almost seems out of place. You are constantly waiting for him to light up and make stupid comments. Franco Plays Oz, a failing circus magician who breaks women’s hearts and is taken in to a tornado, propelling him to Oz. Zach Braff plays his side kick in both Kansas and Oz except in Oz he takes the form of a flying monkey. I typically do not like the movies that Braff tends to lean towards but he is surprisingly good with his witty humor and self deprecating act. Mila Kunis, who plays Theadora is the first person to meet Franco upon his arrival to Oz and almost instantly falls in love with him. Some critics have stated that Kunis is a poor aspect of the film and I would have to agree, only in that her storyline is far too rushed giving very little time for development. I thought Kunis did a marvelous job with what she had but she didn’t have much. Michelle Williams plays Glinda The Good Witch who tries to convince Oz to fulfill the prophecy laid down by her father in that a great wizard will come to Oz, defeat the evil witch Rachel Weis and become King of Oz. Almost all of the signature characters from the old classic Wizard of Oz are either in the film or referenced but with slight variations in order to maintain some kind of legal agreement. The Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow are explicitly referenced but the tin man is oddly left out. Except for some minor clichés and a few cases of obvious foreshadowing, Oz, the Great and Powerful is a wonderful film and does complete justice to the original it is prequeling. 

The Bourne Legacy

1½ Pipes out of 4

The action remains but the heart is gone. With Matt Damon removed from the Bourne series the logic and investment held by the audience has disappeared as well. Jeremy Renner attempts to continue the franchise made famous by Damon and puts forth a good effort but is not given a whole lot to work with plot wise. Renner is in the difficult part of his career where he has been pigeon holed and type casted as the next action star so was the logical choice for Damon’s replacement. This is a problem when the Bourne films have developed into more than just action films but acting and action films. It also does not help that the audience has built an emotional attachment to Jason Bourne only to have a fourth film that has almost nothing to do with him. There is the occasional reference to Bourne as being in New York with a news clip about his exploits but little more than that. For the most part of the film the audience is following the exploits of Aaron Cross, a bioengineered super soldier who is betrayed by his government. He then must go and rescue a doctor (Rachel Weisz) who has been overseeing his bioengineering who coincidentally has also been betrayed by the government. This then leads to the main plot of the film which actually appeared to be a sub plot but turned into the main which leaves the viewer incredibly disappointed at the end of the film because they were expecting more. The rest of the film follows a government official (Edward Norton) who is never really explained, only that he has top security clearance and he is in charge of the numerous programs spawned from Treadstone and Blackbriar. He is attempting to clean up the mess left by Jason and that means killing both Renner and Wiesz’s characters. The writer and director Tony Gilroy who also wrote the previous 3 Bourne films stated he likes that being the director means he gets to do the film his way but maybe he needed that input to make the movies good because  The Bourne Legacy doesn’t even come close to the other three films.