I love watching series and movies and/or reading literature. They inspire me and when that happens I love to write and/or talk about it. That's what you will find in this blog, connected to my life or the lessons I get from them.
FYI: The quote is from Buffy Summers. It's about her not being ready ('done baking') whoever she is going to turn out to be. I figured it fits.
Time for some more quotes. And the show I'm highlighting today is a strange one. Because I don't really love this sitcom the way I do TBBT or HIMYM... Why use this show then? Well, there's a simple reason. I think Kat Dennings rocks it! Her storyline is just completely crazy, but the writers of this show know how to keep it funny. A lot of these quotes are probably R-rated or something, seeing how there's not a subject that doesn't get mentioned. Like body parts, or actions... Well you know. Kat Denning's character, Max, is also very blunt and rude, but for some reason, I don't really care and I can laugh about most of it. I hope this was introduction enough if you don't know the show yet and if you already know it, you probably didn't need the intro, but here it is: This month's awesomeness of quotes of 2 Broke Girls.
Season 1
1x01 - Pilot Max: [notices Caroline sleeping on the subway] "Hey." Caroline: "I have a taser! [wakes up suddenly and tasers Max, who falls unconscious to the ground] Oh, my God. I am so sorry. I didn't think it would hurt so much. It's pink." Max: "It didn't feel pink." Caroline: "I didn't know it was you. I thought I was being raped." Max: "That's not what rape feels like." 1x02 - And the Break-Up Scene Caroline: "When I went to the cute coffee place, I spoke to the counter girl, Nabulangi—" Max: "If someone named Nabulangi is making an appearance in the first sentence, I have to sit down." 1x03 - And the Strokes of Goodwill Caroline: "Um, didn't you see me crying?" Max: "Lots of people cry at Goodwill. You go to France, you eat snails. You come here, you cry." Caroline: "That's odd, you didn't even react. You need to react when people cry." Max: "I did, I rolled my eyes. Look, eventually, you'll learn to do that on the inside." Caroline: "Okay, well, just FYI, when I used to cry in front
of my other girlfriends, they'd be like, "What you cryin' about, C-line?
Look at you, girl, you're fierce, you got your glam on!"" Max: "Are your girlfriends black drag queens?" 1x04 And the Rich People Problems Max: "What?! No way! No way! Is this Narnia?
I'm about to say something I swore I'd never say. OMG!... Again, OMG! It's
lame, but nothing else really nails it. This is the room that OMG was
born for." 1x06 - And the Disappearing Bed Max: "Call him right now! He can't come over here. Look around! I have his napkins hanging up everywhere. He'll think I'm Dexter. [intercom buzzes] Don't answer that. Don't you..." Caroline: [answering intercom] "Come on in, Johnny. [to Max] Yes, I did it. I need a bed." Max: "You are so selfish!" Caroline: "Yes, I'm selfish, and you're Dexter. So, quick...
help me take down the napkins. Oh, God, there are so many! How come I
never noticed how many there were before?" Max: "I don't know. Same reason you didn't notice your father stealing everybody's money?" Caroline: "Really? Really? Now when I'm helping you?" Max: "You're right. We'll trash you later." 1x08 - And Hoarder Culture Oleg: "Pick up. Table 10, table 12, table 69." Caroline: "Oleg, there is no table 69." Oleg: "There could be." Caroline: "Oleg just sixty-nined me, and now I don't remember any of the table numbers." Max: "Look, he's never gonna stop sixty-nining us. Forget the
table numbers. Here's how you remember your orders. You just give people
nicknames. Look, I got Thin Cee Lo, Fat Rihanna, Jon Beret Ramsey, and Kristen Bad Wig." Caroline: "Oh, okay. I got Seth Rogaine, Child Molester Moustache, and Lesbian Justin Bieber." 1x10 - And the Very Christmas Thanksgiving Max: "It'll be a miracle on 34th Street if we make it out of the bottom of this slave ship without elf scurvy." Mary: "Hi. I couldn't help but overhear you mention Miracle on 34th Street. That's my absolute favorite Christmas movie." Caroline: "Mine too!" Mary: "My second favorite is It's a Wonderful Life." Caroline: "Mine too!" Max: "I've got Schindler's List on Blu-ray." Mary: "Hi. I'm Mary." Caroline: "I'm Caroline." Mary: [turns to Max] "Hi. I'm Mary." Max: "It's cool, we don't need to talk." 1x12 - And the Pop-Up Sale Han: "Don't forget to pick up customer comment card. Customers very important. It's all about the fans." Max: "Yeah, I'm not a fan of hearing what people have to say. For instance, what's happening right now—not a fan." Han: "Max, feedback from customers is very important business tool. Perhaps we'll pump the brakes on sour waitress attitude." Max: "There's only one tool that can change my 'tude, but I'm gonna need two AA batteries and a 20-minute break." 1x13 - And the Secret Ingredient Caroline: "I thought the cupcakes were homemade." Max: "They are, I make them in my home." Caroline: "You've been using a boxed cake mix?" Max: "Relax, I only use it when I'm tired. And I add a secret ingredient of my own to the mix that makes them irresistible." Caroline: "So you have no shame using the store-bought mix?" Max: "I've no shame about anything. Shame is overrated like Ke$ha. In fact, they should rename shame "keshame." "I just bought a Ke$ha album, I'm so keshamed."" 1x15 - And the Blind Spot Oleg: [comes out of the kitchen after learning Sophie was at the diner] "Kitchen was closed... But can now be open again for such a beautiful woman. Hello. I am the chef." Max: "Oh, here we go. Ukraine's gonna try to invade Poland. It's double D-Day." Caroline: "Oleg, this is our neighbor, Sophie." Sophie: "I would like to have a plate with sausage on it while I look over the menu." Oleg: "Yowza. You are like someone super-sized Victoria's Secret angel. I'd like to Gisele on your Bündchens." Sophie: [hits Oleg in the crotch with a magazine] "You're gonna act like a dog, I'll treat you like a dog." 1x18 - And the One-Night Stands Max: "Dude, you and the webmaster have been talking "business"
every day for a week. Is something going on there? Shouldn't the web be
mastered by now?" Caroline: "It's strictly business." Max: "All right, but it's costing us $200. Might as well get
something out of it. Maybe let him browse your Yahoo? Looks like he
might have a big ol' hard drive with a lot of RAM." Caroline: "Yeah, he's cute, but I don't want a relationship right now. And I don't do one-night stands." Max: "All right, so don't stand. Lay down." Caroline: "That's not me—the next morning, doing the walk of
shame. I always see those girls with their messed-up sex hair, carrying
their heels, clutching their coats to hide last night's outfit." Max: "Going into Kinko's to use Google Maps so you can figure out where you are." Caroline: "You really put the "ho" in "Kinko."" 1x19 - And the Spring Break Max: [to Steve and Michael, a gay couple] "I'll go grab some menus for you girls." Caroline: "Max!" Max: "Sorry. I'll go grab some menus for you ladies." [walks away] Michael: "Love her... So Madeleine Stowe in Revenge." Steve: "Oh, she is." Caroline: "I don't watch that." Michael: "We love it. It's all about a young blonde woman who's out to seek revenge on everyone for destroying her family." Caroline: "Yeah, too close to home." 1x21 - And the Messy Purse Smackdown Max: [searching her purse] "Let's see. Phone, chapstick. A pill! Could be birth control, could be ecstasy. Waiting for a day off to find out. Why wait? [takes pill] If I start touching your hair in an hour, don't let me have sex with anyone." 1x23 & 1x24 - And Martha Stewart Have a Ball Caroline: [after Sophie finds an invitation to the Metropolitan Museum's annual gala in Caroline's hate mail]
"This is my favorite social event in all of New York. I've gone every
year since I was 18. It's a fashion ball at the Museum of Art— " Max: "Yeah, I know what it is. I catered it last year." Caroline: "Max, how weird. We were probably right in the very same room." Max: T"hen there's a good chance I spit in your drink. Not really, unless you were acting all prissy and demanding." Max and Caroline: "There's a good chance I/you spit in your/my drink."
Season 2 2x01 - And the Hidden Stash Caroline: [while on the phone] "My father wants to know if you'll come out to the prison and finally meet him." Max: "Sure." Caroline: "Great. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye." [hangs up] Max: "I'm not going." Caroline: "What? Why'd you say yes?" Max: "'Cause you never tell a man in prison "no," he could hang himself with his belt." 2x02 - And the Pearl Necklace Caroline: "Max, have you seen my phone? I wanna take a picture
of this bad tip and put it on Instagram. Getting loose change used to
be so depressing, but now I can share it with strangers." Max: "Let me sum it up: Twitter is stupid, and Instagram is Twitter for people who can't read." 2x04 - And the Cupcake War Janis: "Bring your own brand, just like you did on your home tape. [to Max] You're edgy with big boobs, [to Caroline] you're the try-hard." Caroline: "I'm sorry, I'm the what?" Janis: "That's your brand. The muscle and the hustle. The double-D's and the ditz." [leaves] Caroline: "I went to Wharton, I'm not a ditz." Max: "Well, you ain't the double-D's. Can you believe she openly commented on m'goods?" 2x05 - And the Pre-Approved Credit Card Caroline: [going through the mail] "Max, you will not believe what just came addressed to you." Max: "Let me explain: I'm not a Scientologist, I just went there one time because I heard some rich guy was looking for a wife." 2x06 - And the Candy Manwich Max: "You should totally go for the hot guy." Caroline: "Or you can go for him. Let's think about this. He's clean and not a drug addict, so he's more my type." Max: "Well, he's got a store full of candy and a penis, so he's more my type." 2x08 - And the Egg Special Caroline: [seeing the blood spatter on the walls of the soup kitchen] Oh, my God! Andy: Oh, that's really gross! Max: That's the greatest thing I've ever seen! Take a picture
of me over here. I finally have a reason to join Instagram! People are
gonna be like, "Food, food, cat, food, nails, nails, murder?!" 2x09 - And the New Boss [Max walks in on Caroline and Andy having sex after hearing Caroline shrieking] Caroline: "What are you doing?!" Max: "I forgot Andy was here! And your sex voice is the same as your murder voice!" Caroline: "So are you just gonna stand there?" Max: "Are you offering me a threeway? [Intercom buzzes]Well, it looks like we're about to be a full-blown orgy." 2x10 - And the Big Opening Caroline: "You're using our launch party to get back at ex-boyfriends?" Max: "Uh, yeah! That's what success is for, to say "suck it"
to people who dumped you. "See my blown-out hair? Suck it! See my cool
cupcake shop? Suck it! See these in this blouse? You wish you could suck it."" Robbie: "I'm an alcoholic now, and I did a lot of stuff that
wasn't cool, and I came here because the program says that I have to
make almonds." Max: ""Almonds"? You mean "amends"?" Robbie: "Cool. So, look, I cheated on you behind your back, like, every day." Max: "Well, um, we don't have to go into all this now, it's kind of a big night for me." Robbie: "And I stole money from you too, like, every time we had sex." Max: "But we had a lot of sex." Robbie: [chuckles] "I know. Well, I stole a lot of money." Max: "Well, this just went from "suck it" to "it sucks," so lift up your shirt. I gotta get something out of tonight [Robbie lifts up his shirt and Max inhales sharply] Money well spent. [walks outside to talk to Caroline] Just found out I paid for more sex than an Arab businessman." 2x11 - And the Silent Partner Max: [about Andy] "He was about to tell you he loves you." Caroline: "What?" Max: "Just now, in the hall, and ice rink. He's been trying to tell you all week." Caroline: "But I've been too preoccupied with work, like Sandra Bullock in The Proposal. So he was gonna tell me at the ice rink? The one in Central Park?" Max: "Yes, while having cocoa and splitting a hot dog." Caroline: "Oh, my God! That's, like, my dream "I love you" scenario! Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Max: "Because when it comes to other people's creepy love
stuff, that's when I'm a silent partner. And you need to stop with this
creepy rom-com stuff, life isn't like a movie. Sometimes you're not a
success right away. Sometimes you have to just eat it and be a cupcake.
And sometimes you have to take your "I love you" whichever way it comes." Caroline: "You are so right. I don't have to wait for the moment to be perfect, like it was for Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama. My life's not a romantic comedy, I can do it my own way. Like Julia Roberts in My Best Friend's Wedding." 2x12 - And the High Holidays Caroline: "Andy offered to pay our rent, but I said no." Max: "That is the whitest thing I've ever heard." Caroline: "It was really sweet of him, but I didn't wanna take money from a man I'm sleeping with." Max: "Wait, are you telling me there are women who don't take money from men they're sleeping with?"
2x13 - And the Bear Truth Caroline: [brings Andy a birthday cupcake with a candle atop it] "Happy birthday! Now come on, blow." Andy: "I don't really feel like doing that." Max: "Welcome to our world." 2x14 - And Too Little Sleep Caroline: "Oh, God, he's coming back. See what you started with your wave?" Max: "I'm sorry, my hand is friendly. Ask any guy in high school." 2x17 - And the Broken Hip Caroline: "How are we gonna get 1,000 extra dollars by Monday? Wait, Max, we can go to that bar and exploit your special gifts." Max: "If I have to strip, I have to strip." Caroline: "Not that kind of bar, the hipster trivia bar." Max: "Can't I just strip? At least I'd still have my dignity." 2x18 - And Not-So-Sweet Charity Caroline: [about her seagull cup] "You hid it and kept it all these years?" Aunt Charity: "Yep." Caroline: "Why would you wanna hurt me like that?" Max: [sucking on a morphine lollipop] "It's obvious.
She's obsessed with her brother, and she saw your being born as his love
being taken away from her. Damn, this thing makes me smart!" 2x19 - And the Temporary Distraction Max: "You think you're a failure? 'Cause I think we did amazing." Caroline: "The shop closed, Max. Our dream blew up in our face." Max: "Lots of things blow up in your face, it's part of being a woman. You just... towel off and keep going." 2x21 - And the Worst Selfie Ever Caroline: "I'm gonna text Andy for another booty call, and maybe this time we can go out and have a booty breakfast." Max: "As president of the Casual Sex Society, local chapter, I call bull on your booty." Caroline: "What? It's a booty call." Max: "Not with you it isn't. You think that booty breakfast
will maybe lead to a booty dinner then maybe booty engaged and booty
married and have a couple booty kids and a booty retirement home and
then booty die together." 2x24 - And the Window of Opportunity Caroline: "Sorry I'm late, I was having my nails done. It's the first time I stopped moving in two years, and I fell asleep." Max: "You had money to get your nails done? Question: Was prostitution as disgusting as you thought it would be?" Caroline: "Han paid for it." Max: "Oh, so it was worse."
So lately I've been going through some personal stuff and it's not always easy to handle... Most of the time I'm actually having a pretty hard time. I'm really OK some of the time, but at other moments I just wanna scream and shout, hit something or I feel like running around the world in one giant breath. I just need to let it all out, because I feel I can go mad sometimes... At the same time I feel like I can't actually let any of it out, because I could loose control and I don't know where that would lead. So what I do is I listen to music. I blast the volume of my stereo and I sing along (shout along is more like it), it's a way of screaming I guess, without simply screaming. Now, I don't know much about dancing (meaning I'm not good at it :P), but I also dance to the music quite a bit. Just because it's a really nice way to get some of the adreline out. Besides, who doesn't do sports on music, right? You can also hit the air, sort of, anyway... I guess you could say it works therapeutic for me. But the songs have to be right for it. I was just listening to some music on YouTube and there was seriously a list that's called 'Fuck you, I'm better of without you, break up songs'. Lol. That just made me smile, because I think it's kinda funny. It just shows how much music can help in pretty much any situation. So no long blog for me this week, but I just thought I would share some of these songs that I'm listening to lately. My kinda playlist, so to speak. Turns out a lot of songs by Kelly Clarkson and P!nk are good for it as well. Anyway, enjoy them!
When you meet them, you know it right away. There's a feeling, or a jolt of electricity, there's something... Something that tells you, you want this person in your life forever. It won't be like other relationships, it'll be real. Instead of just wanting to be with someone, you actually can't be without them, you have no choice.
Before you might have wondered, or perhaps you've known all along, that you weren't meant to be. Some reason you didn't picture a future, but now, there's nothing else you can see.
It's always and forever, till death do you part, in this life and the next, till the end of the world, you will be in each other's hearts.
It sweeps you up and takes you away. Your whole world has changed and everything seems bright. Every touch is cosmic, Every kiss takes your breath away, and you're finally complete.
That's when you realize, you have come to learn it's true. There is such a thing as one true love... Even for you.
I watch a lot of tv shows (I think that's been established), but it's not all fun and games. I watch everything. From the funny in The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, the musical things in Glee, the the drama in One Tree Hill and Parenthood, the weird and crime solving in Castle and Bones, to the magical in Once Upon a Time and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the sci-fi in Warehouse 13 and Lost Girl. A couple of weeks/months ago there was an episode in Glee where it focused on a high school shooting. For a show, filled with songs, this is a hard thing to do because it's such a serious and fearful issue. I have never been through anything like it, but I remember all the news items. It's important to show these things, because they are happening. But this also puts a lot of pressure in how to show that on television. So for today's blog, I will focus on a couple of episodes from different tv shows that focused on a shooting.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 3x18 Earshot (23/03/1999) Storyline: Buffy gets infected with demon blood which causes her to be able to read minds/hear thoughts. At lunch, when she's in the cafeteria, she 'overhears' someone thinking "This time tomorrow, I'll kill you all!" Buffy and the scoobies set out to find however this person is and stop it before it's too late.
Backstory: The WB had to postpone airing this episode, because the Columbine High School shooting took place a week before the originally scheduled air date. This episode wasn't aired until September, five months after it was supposed to premiere. Initially the season finale (Graduation Day Part Two) wasn't supposed to be aired either, because the students are weilding weapons as well as the fact that they blow up the school in this episode. Due to thousands of letters of fans who demanded that the episode be aired, they aired it. This time it was almost two months after the original air date. Why it's so good: [SPOILERS!!!] Danny Strong (from Gilmore Girls among others, but also the writer of Game Change) plays Jonathan, a student who's feeling ignored and wants to solve his problems with a gun. The fact that he feels ignored is relatable for a lot of teenagers (my thoughts). I can also imagine that a lot of teenagers feel, while they are in high school and can't deal with all the drama, they want it all to stop. They feel they need to do something drastic to change that. Buffy finds him in time and tells Jonathan: "My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it's not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy with their own. The beautifl ones. The popular ones. The guys that pick on you. Everyone. If you could hear what they were feeling. The loneliness. The confusion. It looks quiet down there. It's not. It's deafening..." (you can check my quotes page for the entire dialogue)
My So-Called Life, 1x03 - Guns and Gossip (08/09/1994) Storyline: [SPOILERS!] A gun is heard being fired in the hallway of Angela's high school. Though no one is hurt, numerous rumors begin to circulate about the possible shooter. In the end you find out that the gun belonged to Angela's openly gay friend Rickie. He brought the gun to school for protection. Background: In 1994, when the episode first aired, guns and metal detectors in school were a big topic of discussion. It also shows that even though Rickie might be openly gay, he is still being bullied which affects him greatly. Even though it seems nobody sympathizes with him.
Why it's good: I actually can't really remember this episode all to well... I just remember that I felt for Rickie. So even though I'm totally against guns, I guess I can understand that he felt he needed protection because he didn't feel safe in his high school. And maybe that's why I think it was such a good episode. Even the main character of the show, Angela, kinda looked at him - after he was being bullied - like 'what did you expect?' Guns are NEVER the sollution to any problem, but the real issue that should be adressed in this episode is to stop the bullying of who-ever. Whether they are gay, straight, bi, 'nerds' or geeks, it doesn't matter. We are all equal and should be treated with respect.
One Tree Hill, 3x16 - With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept (01/03/2006) Storyline [SPOILERS!!!]: A bullied student, Jimmy, takes the students of Tree Hill High School hostage after a dark time capsule video from him comes out. Peyton gets shot and is bleeding out, while another group is stuck in a classroom with Jimmy. Eventually Keith, Lucas' uncle and a former father figure of Jimmy, goes into the high school to talk him down. Jimmy lets the hostages go, but he realizes there's only one way out for him and shoots himself.
Background: This episode contains a few 'nods' to Columbine, like the fact that Jimmy was born on the anniversary of the shooting. A large part of the episode also takes place in the library.
Why it's good: The way this episode is filmed is extraordinary. It's thrilling, and deals with many point of views. They show the fear and hate from Jimmy's point of view, the fear and nerves in all the students but also them talking about how to fix all of it, while Mouth can't believe his former best friend was driven to this and tries to understand how it came to this. Others simply see him as the villain. When tragic stuff like this happends - whether it's someone dying, getting ill or anything else happening in your life - it has far reaching effects. This storyline will follow for many episodes and the show really deals with the aftermath. That's part of why it's so good. In a lot of series, when something happends, it's just for one - maybe two - episodes and then they have all moved on. Which is sad, to say the least. Everyone has to work through their emotions, but on television they usually don't get the time to do that. In One Tree Hill they also showed the aftermath: the guilt of Jimmy's former friends, who feel they could have done more, the mother who has lost her son but will get no sympathy from anyone and everything that has changed in the high school since then. The actors are at their best, just as the writers and producers.
Glee, 4x18 - Shooting Star (11/04/2013) Storyline [SPOILERS!!!]: After gunshots are heard during a glee rehearsal, the students and teachers are trapped in the choir room. Some of them decide to film messages to their loved ones. A lockdown followed and they all stay put. But logically every students is worried about the other. Just as shown in the vid from One Tree Hill the emotions are high which leads to fights and screaming matches. At the end of the episode it is cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester who claims responsibility for cleaning her gun and it accidentally going off. Later you find out that the gun belonged to Becky, a teenage student with Down syndrome.
Background: The episode aired four months after the Sand Hook Elementary School shootings. One parent from that school complained that it was still too soon. Glee has done serious issues like these in the past: suicide, texting while driving, transgenders, bullying, coming out and many others. ... But this is just something that can't be fixed with a song.
Why it's good: It was good that in a serious episode such as this one, they didn't have many musical numbers. It was stripped of that. But they still ended up singing it out, which feels wrong. When a gun goes off, life doesn't just go back to normal with a song... The fact that it was actually a false alarm, lessened the effect it had. Because for a lot of people, it is real and it actually happened. So it feels fake. It also feels a bit wrong - even though it shows a lot of character - that the coach takes the fall. Because if Becky felt the need to bring a gun to school, she needs help. It didn't take care of the problems she might have had. Even though I think it's great that they took on this issue, I don't think it was meant for the show. It's a good episode, full of emotions, thrills and fear, but this is one issue they didn't handle correctly.
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I know there's not a lot of interaction on my blog, but if you know any other eps concerning this issue or if you disagree with my oppinion, feel free to let me know ;-)
This was actually a while ago, but I only now found the time to write this blog. In March I won tickets for the Dutch premiere of the movie Oz: The Great and Powerful. It was a contest orgnised by Imagine, the film festival I worked for twice and it was an amazing premiere. It was shown in IMAX 3D, in one of the biggest theater rooms I'd been in and we were asked to come in costume. I went with a friend and our costumes weren't that amazing, but still very festive (I was going for the wizard :P ). There were also some Dutch actors, so it was a pretty big thing. But that's enough about the festivity, let's talk about the movie!!!
The magical story The story takes place in 1905, Kansas, where Oscar Diggs (James Franco) works as a small-time magician in a traveling circus. As a storm approaches Diggs is fleeing from the strongman - whose wife he slept with - and espcapes in a hot air ballon. A tornado sucks him in and takes him to the Land of Oz. At first he can't believe the world is real, but soon he enjoys the wonders of it. He meets three witches: Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams). The first one believes him to be a wizard prophesized to overthrow the Wicked Witch who killed the king of Oz. Theodora also falls in love with him, after a little flirtation. On their travells he also meets the flying monkey Finley (Zach Braff) and China Girl (a young, living china doll - voice by Joey King), who will stand by him to defeat the Wicked Witch. I don't wanna give away to much, so I'm gonna leave it at that. I will say that this is kinda like the prequel to The Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland (1939), so if you've seen that one, you probably already know a lot of what's about to happen in this movie. You'll just get a whole lot more background information. And it's goooooood!
A Wonderous World Simply look at the trailer (below) and you know what a fairytale land it is. It's simply breathtaking. The way colour is used in this movie is truly spectacular. Like the flowers. They look so bright, fresh and sharp. But that really counts for anything in the movie. All the wonder in the Land of Oz is shown beautifully, like all the creatures, and fantastic ways the landscapes are shaped. Skies, buildings... you name it. Who wouldn't wanna travel in that world? I'm not a big fan of 3D, but seeing this movie in IMAX 3D was incredible. Everything is so grotesque and captivating that it allows you to really get lost in this world. I think that in this case it really added to the experience but watching it on 2D screens will be just as wonderous ;-).
What I also loved are all the references/winks to The Wizard of Oz (1939). For instance, that movie starts out in black and white and as Dorothy lands in the Land of Oz, the world is full of (techni)color. Just like this movie does. There's also the ratio. It gradually widens from 4:3 (which is what it was way back when) to 2.35:1 widescreen. I haven't read the books, but I love how much everything reminded me of this movie with Judy Garland. There's things like Glinda traveling in giant bubbles, the iconic look of the Wicked Witch of the West, the Emerald City, and the witches being sisters. There are also references to characters, such as the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion. What I also love about this movie, is that it doesn't end up with Dorothy waking up and it ending up being all a dream. Talk about suspension of disbelief, because after seeing this movie you really want it to remain in tact.
A lotta laughs! Besides the fact that it looks amazing and the story is so great, it's also really funny. Take for instance the China Girl. She's a little girl, kinda like a kid, but she's also tough and won't let the wizard and Finley go without taking her with them. She can kick ass just as much as they can, maybe even more so. I guess a lot of jokes are 'in jokes', because there are a lot of references to the other movie. But most of the comedy goes to James Franco, who plays the wizard. He says the funniest things and in a way he is the audience: just as amazed as we are by the Land of Oz. Then there's the technical stuff that he knows. Inventions from around 1905, like the works of Thomas Edison. I personally loved these things, becauseI studied Film and Television, so that name is very familiar to me as are his inventions. In short: Yes, if you read the books, seen the movies or musicals or tv shows or what have you, you know how it's going to end. But Oz the Great and Powerful will take you along an a great, powerful, magical and wonderous adventure that will really make it worth your while (and it kinda makes you wish you could stay there a while longer).
Just for fun, the trailer of The Wizard of Oz (1939) with Judy Garland.
