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dangermousieThe One-Star reviews for the Wizard of Oz movie on amazon are a gift that keeps on giving. Come on, people. I don't like the movie either, but a brain while reviewing would help. But some of the other ones are so delighfully snarky.
Here are some masterpieces (whole review and exerpts):
I. Have. No. Words. Except for one: 'Ruuuuuuun!'
The central premise of this movie is that Dorothy falls victim to some sort of trauma, be it a tornado sweeping across the prairie and damaging her house or something more sinister, this is left uncertain as is often the case in real life, most unfortunately.
In any case the victim (Dorothy) then regresses in the form of classic ptsd with psychotic episodes...to the land of Oz. There she assembles her false memories with metaphores for swarms of bombers filling the skies, good and bad witches (possibly representing a schizoid mother figure), and 3 male entities who each must overcome their inate stupidity, anxiety and lack of emotion. These concepts probably originated with comments made by the mother and therefore appear impossible for the real person they refer to to overcome...probably an ineffective and emotionally devoid father. The intense hope that Dorothy has for this coupled with the rational impossibility for the figures to overcome the defects is due to her anguish in competing with her mother and the fact that her father is unable to save her from the mothers' tantrums.
The FMS relates to the desire for the 3 components of the father figure to be erased and become complete in their respective sense. The hope has distorted her thinking and there is absolutely no evidence to procede with the prosecution of this line of storytelling.
However, in the end her mother does believe her and she returns safe and sound to Kansas. So ther is indeed hope. Therefore I gave the film a 1.
This one is my fave:
If you live in a country where they have TV, and have never seen this movie, then you're probably either 2 years old, or you have some phobia of sound or something. Either way, you're not missing much. Obviously, there are a lot of people who really enjoy this movie. But since Amazon.com decided to "recommend" it to me for no good reason, I have decided to say how much I hate this movie, and why.
I hate this movie a whole lot.
I hate this movie because it really isn't all that good. I'll accept the fact that it was revolutionary for its time. I'll even acknowledge that it has a special place in many people's hearts, because they remember watching it as a kid, when their lives weren't so miserable. However, my life is NOT miserable, and I don't have to watch bad movies from my childhood (rather, my parents' childhood) to feel good about myself. If your life is joyless, then perhaps this movie is for you.
There is a certain zen beauty about this one:
There's something about people breaking out into song and dance for every insogniffogant thing that really bugs me.
Heeee. Rock On, but don't forget spaces between your sentences:
Many people will consider giving this movie such a low rating a sacrilege.This is understandable because so many people have grown up watching this film.I too loved this movie at a certain period of my life.The period between my birth and when I turned ten.
Sneak Attack:
Worst remastering in the history of digital technology! Actually, no, it isn't. I've just seen other people whoactually love certain movies give them a bad review just so thatpeople will read them, and I thought I'd use that strategy too. To get to the point, this remastered Wizard of Oz is unlike anything I've ever seen before! It is simply the best film restoration done to date.
I want to be there when she discovers Harry Potter:
I do not like the Wizard of Oz. For one thing, I don't like to watch things with witches in them, especially if one of them is portrayed as a "good witch" - that's an oxymoron I can't reconcile with.
Mr. Bizarre chimes in:
Disregard the rating... I don't own this DVD... but I would if there were just one more extra. Considering that Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" synchs up so well with the movie, it would have been good to have it as an audio track. It just kind of defeats the purpose with that missing (at least for me it does). I've done the VHS version with my DSOTM CD several times... cutting out that step would be ideal.
Somebody forgot both spell-checker and the fact the the movie was originally in color:
the wort movie ive ever seen .I mean they clorized once color tv came out and there special effects are lame ,the costumes are ugly the props are ugly so never buy this film!!!!
But for true beauty on 'colorization,' read this:
Ahh, the sweet memories this film brings to me. Anytime I'm out of my anti-depressant medication and I'm feeling down and out, I think of the old times when I used to sit in the parlor every spring time with my mom and the old guy across the street watching this movie on our big black and white television. We used to sip sour lemonade while enjoying Judy Garland pipe out beautiful songs. It still brings a slight tear to my eye(And I'm not the crying type). Several years back, my mom had to throw out that memorable black and white television set (I think the volume knob fell off) and I haven't had the heart to watch the film since. Well...not until recently. My friend bought me the new DVD version. Even though I swore on my mother's grave that I would never see the movie again, I caved in and saw it on my 55 inch television set at home. Well, push me down a flight of stairs, I couldn't believe what they did to this beautifully made black and white classic. They colorized it! The gall of these people. How could they do this? The funny thing is, they didn't put it through colorization until she landed in Oz. Just keep the whole movie in black and white like it was meant to be. Well I nearly choked on my Pepto Bismo when I saw Dorothy all decked out in her colorized outfit. This takes out all the imagination away from the film. When those munchkins said follow the Yellowbrick Road. Even though the road looked gray to me when I watched it, I used my imagination to pretend it was yellow. Now, the imagination is gone. Isn't that what the whole movie is about..Imagination? Why can't these studios just leave the old movies alone. This film is an easy 5 star movie, but it is only getting a 1 star because I'm taken 4 stars away since they decided to colorized it. Truthfully, I would have given it ZERO stars if they decided to colorize the whole film.
This is from a person who wants to outdo e.e. cummings and thus not only ommits capitalization but any punctuation at all. I feel breathless just from reading:
this film has been known to be a the best clasic movie of all time but in my oppinion its the complete opposit i think it was a horibal film my resons are its completly off the book and also a good part of the acting was bad but i would say garlands acting in this movie was the worst of her career so its hard to understand why people like this in reading some of the othere reviews on this movie i saw one by a peson called LMBbaurfan fan one of my freinds and if you wish to leave comments on my review please do so
Purists are everywhere:
I find this movie to be an abominable mess. Having grown up reading the Oz books I have been waiting for an acceptable film version of my favorite book series. Wizard of Oz is garbage in my opinion. The worst part is how the film makes you think Dorothy dreamt of her trip to Oz!!! If you have read the books you know this isn't true. Also her shoes are supposed to be silver, not ruby. Read the books and trust me, the movie will seem like trash. Or buy Return to Oz, which is a MUCH better book to film translation than the VERY unforgettable Wizard of Oz. L. Frank Baum would not allow this sloppy translation of a movie to be released if he were alive. It's a good thing he can't see what Hollywood did to his beloved Oz. TERRIBLE!!
And so are furries?
THE ONLY THING COOL ABOUT THIS MOVIE IS TOTO
This reviewer probably ordered 'Rome Open City' or one of the other neorealist masterpieces but got this by mistake:
This film is troublesome on too many counts to list here but I will try.
First, the story is implausible. Oz is not the sort of place children dream of, usually they dream of running or flying or getting lost. The "Oz" story was already a tired conventional hackneyed subject and should never have been filmed in the first place.
Also the color -- what is this fixation on color in that period? Tone things down, please.
The characters are argumentative and malicious, bogged down in their own fantasies and "needs". No child is going to relate to a woodsman, let alone a woodsman who has had limbs cut off one by one and replaced by tin. (By the way, I never once believed he was made of tin.)
When singing is employed in film, it should be in the backgroud; the characters should not be lipsyncing to the music unless there is a radio playing in the background.
The concept of a "straw man" refers to a malignant red herring thrown into an argument to confuse the debate. Children are not going to pick up on this, and those that do are too intelligent to be watching movies like this.
The fixation with Judy Garland -- why? Plain, too fat, simpering and controversial. She had -- too put it mildly -- a bawdy life as a teenager, and was held high as a role model until the Troubles began. If children read her life's story, their blood would curdle. Who needs that?
When I see a movie, I do not expect technical perfection -- I can suspend a little disbelief and overlook wires from flying monkeys and such. Too much attention to this was given in building the sets and in the camera work. Money would have been much better spent on better actors. And what was with all those directors?! No wonder this movie looked like it was filmed by a committee.
Making fun of little people? I DON'T THINK SO!
I think I like you, reviewer:
This is not a film for children but, rather, a film for the "child inside every one of us." One might as well subject that inner-child to serial viewings ("Just as good the fifteenth time as it is the first") in a vain attempt to hammer home the Message. No actual child would willingly submit to such torture.
But tell us how you really feel:
What? Classic? Classic,(...). THIS IS ONE OF THE WORST FILMS EVER MADE. I don't ever want to watch it again. The last time I watched part of it was in 3rd grade. Yuck! It's disgusting. It's right down there with "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace", "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones", "Licence to Kill" and the Special Editions of the original "Star Wars" trilogy. Yuck, yuck, yuck. If anyone says, "Hey watch this film," schedule an immediate root canal. If anyone pays you to see it, jump into a live shark's mouth. If anyone holds a gun to your head and forces you to see it, pull the trigger.
Mr. Emphatic with a cootie-full sister:
So you think this is good eh? Well,it stinks! There is'nt much point in watching it. This movie should be a movie only babies watch. For some reason,my sister likes this movie!?! Now tell me,what could be more pointless then watching a little girl and other stupiod characters (tin man,scarecrow,etc) going to a castle where the Wizard turns them back to where they belong. Boring!
Graphics 0/5
The worst graphics in history. Even movies like Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer had cooler graphics. When I'm watching it,I force myself to see once I get to the castle part..... woooosssshhhh I run out of the room so I don't see this totrure.
Sound 1/5
The sound is okay. But difinitly not the best
Overall 0/5
Whatever you do,don't buy this If you do,you are giving me your money and I'm going to buy you the Increbles. You will and I mean WILL be sorry if you by this
Here are some masterpieces (whole review and exerpts):
I. Have. No. Words. Except for one: 'Ruuuuuuun!'
The central premise of this movie is that Dorothy falls victim to some sort of trauma, be it a tornado sweeping across the prairie and damaging her house or something more sinister, this is left uncertain as is often the case in real life, most unfortunately.
In any case the victim (Dorothy) then regresses in the form of classic ptsd with psychotic episodes...to the land of Oz. There she assembles her false memories with metaphores for swarms of bombers filling the skies, good and bad witches (possibly representing a schizoid mother figure), and 3 male entities who each must overcome their inate stupidity, anxiety and lack of emotion. These concepts probably originated with comments made by the mother and therefore appear impossible for the real person they refer to to overcome...probably an ineffective and emotionally devoid father. The intense hope that Dorothy has for this coupled with the rational impossibility for the figures to overcome the defects is due to her anguish in competing with her mother and the fact that her father is unable to save her from the mothers' tantrums.
The FMS relates to the desire for the 3 components of the father figure to be erased and become complete in their respective sense. The hope has distorted her thinking and there is absolutely no evidence to procede with the prosecution of this line of storytelling.
However, in the end her mother does believe her and she returns safe and sound to Kansas. So ther is indeed hope. Therefore I gave the film a 1.
This one is my fave:
If you live in a country where they have TV, and have never seen this movie, then you're probably either 2 years old, or you have some phobia of sound or something. Either way, you're not missing much. Obviously, there are a lot of people who really enjoy this movie. But since Amazon.com decided to "recommend" it to me for no good reason, I have decided to say how much I hate this movie, and why.
I hate this movie a whole lot.
I hate this movie because it really isn't all that good. I'll accept the fact that it was revolutionary for its time. I'll even acknowledge that it has a special place in many people's hearts, because they remember watching it as a kid, when their lives weren't so miserable. However, my life is NOT miserable, and I don't have to watch bad movies from my childhood (rather, my parents' childhood) to feel good about myself. If your life is joyless, then perhaps this movie is for you.
There is a certain zen beauty about this one:
There's something about people breaking out into song and dance for every insogniffogant thing that really bugs me.
Heeee. Rock On, but don't forget spaces between your sentences:
Many people will consider giving this movie such a low rating a sacrilege.This is understandable because so many people have grown up watching this film.I too loved this movie at a certain period of my life.The period between my birth and when I turned ten.
Sneak Attack:
Worst remastering in the history of digital technology! Actually, no, it isn't. I've just seen other people whoactually love certain movies give them a bad review just so thatpeople will read them, and I thought I'd use that strategy too. To get to the point, this remastered Wizard of Oz is unlike anything I've ever seen before! It is simply the best film restoration done to date.
I want to be there when she discovers Harry Potter:
I do not like the Wizard of Oz. For one thing, I don't like to watch things with witches in them, especially if one of them is portrayed as a "good witch" - that's an oxymoron I can't reconcile with.
Mr. Bizarre chimes in:
Disregard the rating... I don't own this DVD... but I would if there were just one more extra. Considering that Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" synchs up so well with the movie, it would have been good to have it as an audio track. It just kind of defeats the purpose with that missing (at least for me it does). I've done the VHS version with my DSOTM CD several times... cutting out that step would be ideal.
Somebody forgot both spell-checker and the fact the the movie was originally in color:
the wort movie ive ever seen .I mean they clorized once color tv came out and there special effects are lame ,the costumes are ugly the props are ugly so never buy this film!!!!
But for true beauty on 'colorization,' read this:
Ahh, the sweet memories this film brings to me. Anytime I'm out of my anti-depressant medication and I'm feeling down and out, I think of the old times when I used to sit in the parlor every spring time with my mom and the old guy across the street watching this movie on our big black and white television. We used to sip sour lemonade while enjoying Judy Garland pipe out beautiful songs. It still brings a slight tear to my eye(And I'm not the crying type). Several years back, my mom had to throw out that memorable black and white television set (I think the volume knob fell off) and I haven't had the heart to watch the film since. Well...not until recently. My friend bought me the new DVD version. Even though I swore on my mother's grave that I would never see the movie again, I caved in and saw it on my 55 inch television set at home. Well, push me down a flight of stairs, I couldn't believe what they did to this beautifully made black and white classic. They colorized it! The gall of these people. How could they do this? The funny thing is, they didn't put it through colorization until she landed in Oz. Just keep the whole movie in black and white like it was meant to be. Well I nearly choked on my Pepto Bismo when I saw Dorothy all decked out in her colorized outfit. This takes out all the imagination away from the film. When those munchkins said follow the Yellowbrick Road. Even though the road looked gray to me when I watched it, I used my imagination to pretend it was yellow. Now, the imagination is gone. Isn't that what the whole movie is about..Imagination? Why can't these studios just leave the old movies alone. This film is an easy 5 star movie, but it is only getting a 1 star because I'm taken 4 stars away since they decided to colorized it. Truthfully, I would have given it ZERO stars if they decided to colorize the whole film.
This is from a person who wants to outdo e.e. cummings and thus not only ommits capitalization but any punctuation at all. I feel breathless just from reading:
this film has been known to be a the best clasic movie of all time but in my oppinion its the complete opposit i think it was a horibal film my resons are its completly off the book and also a good part of the acting was bad but i would say garlands acting in this movie was the worst of her career so its hard to understand why people like this in reading some of the othere reviews on this movie i saw one by a peson called LMBbaurfan fan one of my freinds and if you wish to leave comments on my review please do so
Purists are everywhere:
I find this movie to be an abominable mess. Having grown up reading the Oz books I have been waiting for an acceptable film version of my favorite book series. Wizard of Oz is garbage in my opinion. The worst part is how the film makes you think Dorothy dreamt of her trip to Oz!!! If you have read the books you know this isn't true. Also her shoes are supposed to be silver, not ruby. Read the books and trust me, the movie will seem like trash. Or buy Return to Oz, which is a MUCH better book to film translation than the VERY unforgettable Wizard of Oz. L. Frank Baum would not allow this sloppy translation of a movie to be released if he were alive. It's a good thing he can't see what Hollywood did to his beloved Oz. TERRIBLE!!
And so are furries?
THE ONLY THING COOL ABOUT THIS MOVIE IS TOTO
This reviewer probably ordered 'Rome Open City' or one of the other neorealist masterpieces but got this by mistake:
This film is troublesome on too many counts to list here but I will try.
First, the story is implausible. Oz is not the sort of place children dream of, usually they dream of running or flying or getting lost. The "Oz" story was already a tired conventional hackneyed subject and should never have been filmed in the first place.
Also the color -- what is this fixation on color in that period? Tone things down, please.
The characters are argumentative and malicious, bogged down in their own fantasies and "needs". No child is going to relate to a woodsman, let alone a woodsman who has had limbs cut off one by one and replaced by tin. (By the way, I never once believed he was made of tin.)
When singing is employed in film, it should be in the backgroud; the characters should not be lipsyncing to the music unless there is a radio playing in the background.
The concept of a "straw man" refers to a malignant red herring thrown into an argument to confuse the debate. Children are not going to pick up on this, and those that do are too intelligent to be watching movies like this.
The fixation with Judy Garland -- why? Plain, too fat, simpering and controversial. She had -- too put it mildly -- a bawdy life as a teenager, and was held high as a role model until the Troubles began. If children read her life's story, their blood would curdle. Who needs that?
When I see a movie, I do not expect technical perfection -- I can suspend a little disbelief and overlook wires from flying monkeys and such. Too much attention to this was given in building the sets and in the camera work. Money would have been much better spent on better actors. And what was with all those directors?! No wonder this movie looked like it was filmed by a committee.
Making fun of little people? I DON'T THINK SO!
I think I like you, reviewer:
This is not a film for children but, rather, a film for the "child inside every one of us." One might as well subject that inner-child to serial viewings ("Just as good the fifteenth time as it is the first") in a vain attempt to hammer home the Message. No actual child would willingly submit to such torture.
But tell us how you really feel:
What? Classic? Classic,(...). THIS IS ONE OF THE WORST FILMS EVER MADE. I don't ever want to watch it again. The last time I watched part of it was in 3rd grade. Yuck! It's disgusting. It's right down there with "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace", "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones", "Licence to Kill" and the Special Editions of the original "Star Wars" trilogy. Yuck, yuck, yuck. If anyone says, "Hey watch this film," schedule an immediate root canal. If anyone pays you to see it, jump into a live shark's mouth. If anyone holds a gun to your head and forces you to see it, pull the trigger.
Mr. Emphatic with a cootie-full sister:
So you think this is good eh? Well,it stinks! There is'nt much point in watching it. This movie should be a movie only babies watch. For some reason,my sister likes this movie!?! Now tell me,what could be more pointless then watching a little girl and other stupiod characters (tin man,scarecrow,etc) going to a castle where the Wizard turns them back to where they belong. Boring!
Graphics 0/5
The worst graphics in history. Even movies like Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer had cooler graphics. When I'm watching it,I force myself to see once I get to the castle part..... woooosssshhhh I run out of the room so I don't see this totrure.
Sound 1/5
The sound is okay. But difinitly not the best
Overall 0/5
Whatever you do,don't buy this If you do,you are giving me your money and I'm going to buy you the Increbles. You will and I mean WILL be sorry if you by this
