OZ Continues Great and Powerful Position at Box Office

Disney's "Oz the Great and Powerful" prequel, about how the Wizard became the Wizard of Oz, came in number one at the box office for the 2nd Friday in a row, handily besting its nearest competitor, Halle Berry's R-rated thriller, 'The Call' (reviewed here).

'Oz' took $11.4 million on Friday (domestic) from 3,912 theaters, more than 3,000 of which are 3D. The worldwide total so far is $183 million, up from $150 million last week.

It's a rarity when Mrs. Locomotivebreath and myself venture out to a theatre, particularly with the vapid, verbose and vulgar fare frequently offered up out of the Hollywood sewer.  However, with the recent buzz by others, along with my own interest about this movie, we took a chance on Disney's Oz,  in 3-D!

Is it a great movie? No. But as PTC stated last week, 'its positive story themes, magical sense of adventure, and magnificent production values' make this movie a wondrous thrill for kids, and delightful entertainment for adults. It's an enjoyable family movie. We highly recommend it.

I posted several movie critics' brief reviews and a synopsis about this film last week.

Update: this weekend's box office total (domestic) estimated at $42.2 million, puts Disney in the black for this $215 million big screen production - proving once again, that family fare always scores big with the audience. Yet, oddly enough, Hollywood always turns again - like a dog to vomit - toward nasty R rated flops. 

'Oz The Great and Powerful' Opens to $150.2 Million Worldwide

Disney’s “Oz the Great and Powerful” (rated PG) is magic with theatre goers despite some critics less than wonderful reviews. Starring: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff; directed by Sam Raimi ('Spider-Man,' 'Drag Me to Hell').  I highly recommend it.

From Coming Soon:

"Walt Disney Pictures' Oz The Great and Powerful brought new life to a slow 2013 box office so far, earning an estimated $80.3 million domestically and $69.9 million internationally for a worldwide total of $150.2 million. The Sam Raimi-directed film marks the third-biggest domestic March release ever, trailing only the debuts of The Hunger Games ($152.5 million) and Alice in Wonderland ($116.1 million)."

Disney jumps into the 'Oz' genre with this prequel, inspired by L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's novel 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.' The prequel imagines the origins of the famous wizard character - a man named Oscar Zoroaster Diggs (actor James Franco), a 2nd rate circus magician with few scruples, and his abrupt entrance into the vibrant, yet troubled land of Oz. He soon encounters 3 witches (played by Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams) dubious of his mysterious 'great and powerful' status.

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Gina Goes to the Movies: 'BEAUTIFUL CREATURES'

"The new movie "Beautiful Creatures," a teen paranormal romance, does what I never thought any movie could do. It makes the "Twilight" movies look halfway decent."

I've never heard of this movie, nor am I familiar with the series of books which spawned the movie, but Gina Dalfonzo at Break Point has read all the books and reviewed the movie. To be blunt, it's not beautiful. She proclaims, "... the books at least managed to tell a fairly entertaining story. The movie strips out most of the interest and nearly all of the coherence from that story. It's such a jumbled mess that it's depressing to see stars of the caliber of Jeremy Irons and Viola Davis wasting their time on it" (It also casts Emma Thompson as a 'Mrs. Lincoln' - the town's prominent hate monger Christian busy body).

Later in her review, Gina cuts straight to heart: "But most of the scenes dealing with religion are so over the top as to be cringeworthy."

Hollyweird. Go figure.

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Jack Goes to the Movies: 'DIE HARD 5'

There are no 'metamucil' product placements in the fifth installment of this perennial Bruce Willis franchise. Jack Poessiger says it does serve up non-stop action, but little else, despite the father-son headbutt sub-plot.

Like most franchises, the 1st installment is usually the best. IE: rooted in a common reality and shared humanity to make the audience care, yet twisted enough with the extra ordinary to give all a white knuckle thrill of satisfaction about the price of admission. Sequels are, more often than naught, simply a lame, over-produced excuse for the studio and actors to laugh all the way back to the bank.


I haven't seen 'Die Hard 5,' but this strikes me as bloody violent Tarantino wanna-bee - except in place of 'N' words, horses, 6 shooters, and a gratuitously gory pogrom against whitey, there are 'F' bombs, airports, machine guns and snappy repartee - amid a gratuitously gory pogrom against Muscovites.

Other than that, it might be OK. 

And, most assuredly, the next time a metro cop goes all full-auto machine gun on some suspect, Columbia University Professor Marc Lamont Hill will praise him/her as a hero - like 'John McClane' in a 'Die Hard' movie. 'Cause, apparently, proglodytes love that gun justice stuff.

Chic Flicks

I avoid 'em like, well, chic flicks. The last happenstance I enjoyed was "Out of Africa", but that's only because Redford's character roamed the veldt & killed big game. Plus, there was colonialism. And war. You know, man stuff.

The females liked it 'cause it had Limoge, foreign accents, and a steamy jungle romance between romanticized white people.

Anyways....

So Sunday I get roped into this chic flick on the tube; Mrs. Locomotivebreath, that curvaceous, raven-haired beauty whom I'd marry all over again, simply asked for my company. How could I resist?

Soft lights, popcorn, cool drink, and thee. Perfect.

What's on? "Picture Perfect."

A ten-years-younger Jennifer Aniston? In heels. And skirt. Curvaceous. I'll watch.

 But not long into this chic flick, the ringing sound of some good advice (for any young man), I received years ago from a Bro, pops into my head. "No matter how cute she is someone, somewhere, is tired of her crap."


The Cliffs Notes plot runs like this: Single gal wants man (for whatever reason); single gal deceives man (for whatever reason); single gal does nasty with another man(for whatever reason - but tis ok cause she really wanted 1st man); single gal cries; 1st man she really wanted falls for her (for whatever reason). It's true love! The end.

Now, I'm no social scientist, but methinks this explains why daytime television is such a wasteland: How to jerk people around, lie to their face, monkey stomp their emotions and look good doing it because these horn dogs love abuse. Or something.

It's almost better than chocolate, these fuster cluck emote-athons & two hanky maudlin blabber fests. And far too many dooods suffering from teh ghey. Hey. That's entertainment!

Seriously? That's what holds chics' attention? Hollyweird & TV suits bank on it.

So tell me again why the nineteenth amendment was a good idea??  

Just kidding, honey.

Fortunately, Mrs. Locomotivebreath is a low maintenance woman with only an occasional ride on the female emotional roller coaster. So, I indulged her. And I love to indulge that woman.

It's all good, though. Blazing Saddles is on next Sunday. And no chic flicks.

Jaws: Behind-the-Scenes Photos from the Hectic Shoot

"A new book by Matt Taylor, published on the 36th anniversary of the release of Jaws, shares hundreds of rare photographs taken by participants and bystanders on Martha's Vineyard."

TIME Magazine has a slide show of some photos from Taylor's new book.

But what I really wanna know is when does "JAWS: the Bin Laden Snack" hit the theaters?