Oz the Great and Powerful

 Released Year: 2013

Directed by Sam Raimi

Casted by:

James Franco as Oscar Diggs / Wizard of Oz

 Michelle Williams as Glinda the Good Witch / Annie
Mila Kunis as Theodora / The Wicked Witch of the West
Rachel Weisz as Evanora / The Wicked Witch of the East

 Story:

Oscar Diggs (nicknamed Oz) is a small-time circus magician and con artist in a traveling circus. He is early revealed to be a womanizer who tricks women by giving them a music box which he claims to have belonged to his dead grandmother, though in reality he has plenty of them. With his assistant Frank, Oscar runs a magic show where he mesmerizes the audience, but he is revealed to be a fraud when he is unable to heal a young girl who is unable to walk. Annie, a woman he is revealed to genuinely be in love with, visits Oscar at the circus to tell him another man proposed to her. Oscar, caring for her and realizing he is a bad man, tells her she should accept. As a storm approaches the circus, the circus strongman attacks Oscar after finding one of his music boxes he had given to his girlfriend. Oscar escapes in a hot air balloon with his top hat and a sack of supplies but is sucked into a tornado. As the balloon breaks apart, Oscar promises God that if he survives this he will become a good man.

Oscar finds himself in the land of Oz. The witch Theodora finds him and explains she believes he is the focus of a prophecy after seeing him perform a few simple magic tricks, which she believes are real magic. The wicked witch Glinda, Theodora's sister, killed their father, the wizard and king of Oz, but it was predicted a great and powerful wizard by the name of Oz would descend from the sky, save the land, and become their new king. The duo follow the Yellow Brick Road to the capital, the Emerald City. Along the way, Oscar follows his womanizing ways and gives Theodora a music box; she clearly falls in love with him whereas he rebuffs such commitment. The duo encounter Finley (a reference to Frank, who he called his monkey), a flying monkey, and Oscar saves him from the cowardly lion with magical illusion. Finley pledges a life debt to Oscar.

In the Emerald City, the good witch Evanora guards the throne until the prophecy wizard arrives. She is skeptical of Oscar being the wizard, but claims he can have all the power and wealth of the king if he kills Glinda by stealing and destroying her wand, the source of her power. Oscar and Finley travel to the Forbidden Forest, but along the way, they see smoke coming from "China Town", where the inhabitants are all made of porcelain. Everyone is dead except for a young, un-named girl whose legs are broken (a reference to the handicapped girl). He fixes her legs with glue. She explains that the bad witch destroyed the city with her flying baboons because they celebrated Oscar's arrival to the land of Oz.

The trio travel to the Forbidden Forest and find Glinda, who resembles Annie in appearance and actions. However, she reveals that she is the good witch and that Evanora is the one who killed the previous king. Evanora sees this with her crystal ball. Theodora enters the room, and Evanora explains that Oscar had given her a precious music box and she fell in love with him (this is implied to be a lie), and she reveals that Oscar is now consorting with Glinda. Theodora's heart broken, Evanora offers to remove all feelings from her heart to stop the pain, to which Theodora agrees. In doing so, she turns into a wicked witch, turning her green. She realizes that Evanora is the wicked witch, but Evanora's spell is irreversible. The witches attack Glinda, Oscar, Finley, and the China Girl with the army of the Emerald City and their flying baboons. Glinda's magic allows the team to escape, first hiding them in a fog, then having them fly to Munchkinland, with a barrier strong enough to prevent Evanora from reaching it.

In Munchkinland, Glinda reveals she knows that Oscar isn't truly a wizard but tells him he might be what they need. He tells the land he is the wizard here to save them, and he meets his "army": tinkers who can build anything, farmers who can grow anything, and munchkins that can create any clothing, all of whom are forbidden to kill. Theodora breaks the barrier and attacks the town, telling Oscar she did this to him. Glinda fights her off, but she says that she'll come back with the armies of the Emerald City. Oscar realizes he can't win against such an army with what is available and decides to leave, but he has a change of heart when the China Girl tells him that the old king used to grant wishes; she wishes to have her family back, but Oscar sadly realizes he can't help with this. He tells Glinda while they can't win in a straight-out battle against the Emerald City, they might be able to win through illusion. The town creates various objects for the upcoming battle.

Oscar and a few others sneak into the Emerald City in a magician's wagon with the help of the Emerald City's grumpy herald, a secret ally of Glinda. While sneaking in, Munchkinland "attacks" the Emerald city under Glinda's fog. The wicked witches send their army of flying baboons to attack, but the "army" turns out to be straw men moving through a field of poppies. As the baboons enter the field, they are put to sleep by its effects. However, two remaining baboons manage to snatch Glinda. China Girl recovers her wand. Glinda is placed in the central region of the Emerald City to be tortured and executed by the wicked witches. By this point, the citizens of the Emerald City know the truth but are afraid to challenge the wicked witch sisters.

While this goes on, Oscar steals a large amount of gold from the Emerald City vaults and flies away with it in a hot air balloon. Theodora shows this to the town and then destroys the balloon to destroy the city's hopes. This is simply an illusion by Oscar to make the town think he was dead so that he can be reincarnated as the Great and Powerful Oz, a wizard with no human form, which is really just a face projected onto smoke in the center of the city thanks to the wagon sneaked into the city earlier. The guards and witches attack, which of course has no effect. As the witches grow fearful, Oscar "attacks" them and the city with fireworks, which they have never seen. In the confusion, Evanora runs in fear and China Girl brings Glinda her wand, allowing her to escape. Evanora and Glinda face off, with Glinda winning, and the two wicked witches run from the Emerald City. As Theodora runs away, Oscar apologizes to Theodora for what she has become and says she can come back if she ever regains her former self, but she simply laughs at the idea.

The movie concludes with Oscar creating a miniature version of his projection system, as he needs to make the citizens believe "Oscar" died but that Oz lives on in order to keep them united against the wicked witches. In keeping with the previous king, but unable to grant wishes, he gives the main characters of the story gifts. He offers the Master Tinker a type of Swiss army knife Oscar himself used in the film. The herald is given a mask with a smiley face. Finley is given something Oscar never gave anyone, his friendship (and hat). He gives the China Girl a new family in the form of her friends. He gives Glinda some sort of unspecified romantic relationship.

 L² Scored: 6/10

L² Comment:

Well, i never watch the old/original The Wizard of Oz before. But i remember there's this small girl, a tin man, scarecrow along the journey, but why is this different? Well, i love James Franco & Rachel Weisz, so i chose to watch it at the big screen... The storyline is ok, like the flying monkey & the talking china doll~ Beside this, the best surprise will be Mila Kunis when she transform into a witch~

The Whistleblower 2010

 Released Year: 2010 & 2011

Directed by Larysa Kondracki

Casted by:

Rachel Weisz as Kathryn Bolkovac
Vanessa Redgrave as Madeleine Rees
Benedict Cumberbatch as Nick Kaufman
David Strathairn as Peter Ward
Roxana Condurache as Raya Kochan
Monica Bellucci as Laura Leviani
Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Jan
Liam Cunningham as Bill Haynes

 Story:

 Kathryn Bolkovac is a police officer from Lincoln, Nebraska who accepts an offer to work with the U.N. International Police in post-war Bosnia at a U.K. company called Democra Security. Upon fighting for the trial for a Muslim woman suffering from domestic abuse and succeeding, Kathryn is made head of the department of gender affairs. She becomes involved in the case of a young Ukrainian woman named Raya, who had recently been sold by her uncle to a sex trafficking ring. She escapes and Kathryn sends her to a women's shelter specifically set up for the victims of sexual slavery. Through Raya's case, Kathryn is able to uncover a wide-scale sexual slavery and human-trafficking ring that various international personnel, including that of the U.S., have participated in. Furthermore, when she brings the scandal to the attention of the U.N., she discovers that they have covered it up in order to protect lucrative defense and security contracts. Kathryn finds allies in Madeleine Rees and Peter Ward, authority figures who support her investigation.

Kathryn is soon fired from her job due to her knowing too much about the scandal and her reluctance to stop the investigation. Meanwhile, Raya had been captured again and is later found dead, only pushing Kathryn even more to bring the scandal to light. She and Ward eventually capture evidence of an official admitting to the scandal, and she brings it to the BBC. It is said in the ending credits that following Kathryn's departure, a number of peacekeepers were sent home, though none faced criminal charges because of immunity laws. It is also noted that the U.S. continues to do business with private contractors like Democra Security, including ones worth billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

L² Scored: 6.5/10

L² Comment:

This film received a lots of positive critics and even won Best film in some small  movie awards. For me this is not bad, but the storywise is a bit slow and dry for me. I know Weisz is trying so hard for this, but her sweet look is just not convincing enough for me to make me think that she's strong and able to defeat the mobster like how she did in the movie.

Agora

Released Year: 2009
Directed by Alejandro Amenabar

Casted by:
Rachel Weisz as Hypatia
Max Minghella as Davus
Oscar Isaac as Orestes
Story:

In the 4th century city of Alexandria, in the Roman Empire, Greek philosopher Hypatia is a female teacher at the Platonic school, where future leaders are educated. Hypatia is the daughter of Theon, the director of the Musaeum of Alexandria. Hypatia, her slave Davus, and her pupils, Orestes and Synesius, are immersed in the changing political and social landscape. She rejects her student Orestes's love, because she prefers to stay an independent scientist. Davus assists Hypatia in her classes and is interested in science, and is also secretly in love with her.

Meanwhile, social unrest begins challenging the Roman rule of the city as pagans and Christians come into conflict. The pagans, including Orestes and Hypatia's father, ambush the Christians to quash their rising influence, but find themselves unexpectedly outnumbered. Hypatia's father is gravely injured and Hypatia and the pagans take refuge in the Library of the Serapeum. The Christian siege of the library ends when an envoy of the Roman Emperor declares that the Christians shall be allowed to enter the library. Hypatia and the pagans flee, trying to save the most important scrolls, before the Christians overtake the library and destroy its contents. Davus, torn between his love for Hypatia and the possibility of gaining his freedom by joining the rising tide of Christianity, and annoyed by Hypatia calling him an idiot for not being present when he is needed most to help saving the scrolls, chooses to join the Christian forces. He returns with a sword and starts sexually assaulting her, but quickly regrets this and offers his sword to her to kill him. However, she removes the slave collar around his neck and tells him he is free now.

Several years later, Orestes, now converted to Christianity, is prefect of Alexandria. Hypatia continues to investigate the motions of the Sun, the Moon, the five known "wanderers" (planets) and the stars. Some ridicule Hypatia for thinking that the Earth is a sphere, by arguing that people far from the top would fall off the Earth. When they ask Davus his opinion he avoids conflict by saying that only God knows these things.

Hypatia also investigates the heliocentric model of the solar system proposed by Aristarchus of Samos; by having an object dropped from the mast of a moving ship she demonstrates to Orestes that a possible motion of the Earth would not affect the motion, relative to Earth, of a falling object on Earth. However, due to religious objections against heliocentrism, the Christians have now forbidden Hypatia from teaching at the school. The Christians and the Jews come into conflict, committing violent acts against each other, with the Christians ultimately wresting power from the only other religious group remaining. Davus, remembering how Hypatia forgave him, suggests that perhaps the Christians should forgive the Jews, like Jesus did, but the Christians respond by rebuking him for comparing himself with Jesus.

The leader of the Christians, Cyril, views Hypatia as having too much influence over Orestes and stages a public ceremony intended to force Orestes to subjugate her. Hypatia's former pupil, Synesius, now the Bishop of Cyrene, comes to her rescue as a religious authority counterweight, but says he cannot help her unless she accepts Christianity; she refuses. Hypatia makes a great discovery, finding that the Earth orbits around the Sun in an elliptic, not circular, orbit with the Sun at one of the foci. Cyril convinces a mob of Christians that Hypatia is a witch and they vow to kill her. Davus tries to run ahead to warn Hypatia, but she is captured by the mob. To give her a milder death than by stoning, and with her consent, Davus secretly suffocates Hypatia while the mob gathers rocks.

L² Scored: 6.5/10

L² Comment:

Wow, this movie is really really heavy but i love it. A Spanish film directed by a Chile director, casted by 2 lead UK actress and actor and accompany with a Guatemalan actor Oscar Isaac. Its like a union movie, hahaha...

Max Minghella is cute and 40 years old Rachel Weisz is naked but not showing her booties in the movie, but he flawless skin makes her really really delicious, haha. But the cons about this film is, the way Rachel Weisz talks is a bit too modern feel, kinda spoil the film.

The Mummy Returns

Released Year: 2001
Directed by Stephen Sommers

Casted by:
Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell
Rachel Weisz as Evelyn Canarhan / Princess Nefertiri
Freddie Boath as Alex O'Connell
Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep
Patricia Velasquez as Meela Nais / Anck-su-Namun
Dwyane Johnson as The Scorpion King
Story:

The Scorpion King is losing his war and one by one the army died on the desert of Ahm Shere. To survive, The Scorpion King swore an oath to the God of the underworld, Anubis, in exchanging his soul for the power to defeat his enemies. Anubis granted the wish and created an oasis to hide the Scorpion King pyramid and provided the army of Anubis to exact his revenge. But when the war is won, Anubis claimed the Scorpion King's soul.

5000 years later in 1933, the O'Connell family is exploring the pyramid and found the bracelet of Anubis. When they went back to London, Alex put on the bracelet and provided him the direction to oasis of Ahm Shere. Alex has only 7 days to reach the oasis before the sun rise on the 8th day, or else he will be burn to death. But Alex was caught by Imhotep, the high priest who knows black magic with Meela Nais, his reincarnation lover, Anck-su-namun. Rick and Evelyn together with Ardeth Bay, Jonathan and Izzy came to rescue by a gas-balloon.

Cleverly, Alex has been leaving clues for his parents where the bad guys are bringing him. During the journey, Evelyn has been having a lot of vision and found out her past life. Evelyn was the daughter of Pharoah Seti I, Princess Nefertiri and the protector of the bracelet while Rick is a Medjai who protect the princess. While Imhotep is the high priest who has an affair with Anck-su-namun, the woman of the pharoah. When the affair was found, Imhotep killed the pharoah with spears of Osiris. Princess Nefertiri has always been fighting with Anck-su-namun to get the attention of pharoah, she was sad about the death of his father. In the meanwhile, Imhotep has summon and brought back Anck-su-namun's soul back into Meela's body.

While they are in oasis, mummified pygmies attacked and Rick managed to get Alex away from the bad guys. While rushing before the sunrise, Rick managed to bring Alex into the pyramid just in time and get rid off the bracelet. But Meela appeared and stab Evelyn to death. Rick race after Imhotep and Meela into the pyramid leaving Alex and Jonathan with Evelyn's death body. Alex discover that Meela has the death book which can summons the dead to alive again, so both Jonathan and Alex race into the pyramid as well.

Imhotep loss his magic power when he enter the pyramid and has to fought like mortal. The Scorpion King was called to alive and his army of Anubis appeared in the dessert again, fighting with Ardeth's armies. In the meanwhile, Alex managed to get the death book and summons Evelyn back to life. Evelyn faught against Meela and won this time. A half human-scorpion Scorpion King appeared and fought with Rick but was killed by Rick with the spear of Osiris which has been carrying along by Jonathan.

The Scorpion King was killed, and the pyramid is about to collapsed. Both Rick and Imhotep hold on the edge of the hell crack. Evelyn risked her life to safe Rick while Anck-su-namun ran away leaving Imhotep alone. Feeling sad and dissapointed, Imhotep let go of himself to drop into the hell. While running out, Meela accidentally drop into the pool of scorpion and was swallow alife. The pyramid has been sucking everything in from the oasis. The gang climb out and reach the top of the pyramid and luckily get hop onto the gas balloon and ran away.

Finally, everything on the oasis is gone and remain as desert again.

L² Scored: 7/10

L² Comment:

Watched this few years ago, was amaze by how great the movie is. But you know, some movies might make the big hoo-haa during the cinema time, but after a few years when u watch it again, its kinda like so so only... and i found it quite stupid in some of the scene.

Rachel Weisz was so dumb and acted badly back then, just a pretty face and that's all. And i don't understand why i fancy so much about Brendan Fraser at those time, he looks so silly~ lolz... The whole movie is quite ok, i should not say its bad, but definitely not as good as the first movie and the mummy 3.

The Lovely Bones

Released Year: 2009
Directed by Peter Jackson

Casted by:
Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon
Mark Wahlberg as Jack Salmon
Rachel Weisz as Abigail Salmon
Stanley Tucci as George Harvey
Susan Sarandon as Grandma Lynn
Reece Ritchi as Ray Singh
Story:

Susie Salmon, a 14 years old girl who live in a happy family on 1973 who dreams of becoming a famous photographer. She has a crush on an indian boy, Ray Singh and so does he towards Susie. Ray sliped a not for Susie for a date on the next day. As Susie walking happily back home after Ruth Conners, she bumped into her neighbour, George Harvey.

George coaxes her into seeing an underground den that he says he has built for the neighbourhood children. While in the den, Geroge raped Susie and killed her. But Susie's spirit cannot accept the facts and ran away and passed through Ruth on her way. In the meanwhile, her family was so worried and make report to the police. Susie's spirit ran home and found out the whole house was empty. She then saw Harvey soaking in the bathtub on the upstair bathroom. Her charm bracelet hanging on the sink faucet near a bloody shaving razor. Susie realize she never escaped from the den and she was dead now. Susie screams in horror and was pulled into a world-between that she can watched over her loved one. At there, she met a chinese girl, Holly who was dead too.

In the meanwhile, police investigate in the neighbourhood and found Susie's hat with blood stain. Susie's mother, Abigail broke down into total stress and move away from the sad place. She try to live on a different life and told others she only has 2 children, Lindsey & Buckley, refused to remember the death of Susie. Susie's father, Jack suspected George and followed him into the corn field but accidentally bump into a young couple which beat Jack to unconsious. Grandma Lynn then move into the house to take care of Lindsey and Buckley. Ray found out Susie's death from Ruth and was in deep sadness.

Holly urged Susie to move on to her life but Susie claimed that something has not been done yet. One day, Lindsey sneaked into George's house and discover a notebook underneath the bedroom floorboard containing a sketch of the clubhouse and Susie's hair. George was back and chased after lindsey but Lindsey escaped and went home. She was happy to see Abigail is finally back home and passed the notebook to Lynn.

George was horror and plan to runaway. He put Susie's dead body into a safe and wanna throw into a big hole which will be burried soon. Ruth and Ray were nearby and Ruth sense it. Susie's spirit entered Ruth' body and Ruth collapsed, Ray went for rescue and discover she has become Susie. Ray finally kiss Susie which completing Susie's last wish, Susie returns to heaven.

Few years later, George wanna coaxes another young girl into a car but accidentally fall backward when a large icicle knocked his head. George fall over the cliff and dead in broken pieces. Susie's spirit is still around her family and saw Lindsey happily married to a guy and Abigail finally able to step into Susie's room again. Everybody is healed.

L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment:

Woah, this is really a nice film i must say :) Story is from Alice Sebold's novel in 2002 which created a blast :) Specially love the sentence which Susie Salmon said:

These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections - sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent - that happened after i was gone. And i began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it. The events my death brought were merely the bones of a body that would become whole at some unpredictable tome in the future. The price of what i came to see as this miraculous lifeless body has been my life.

Saoirse Ronan is seriously a beauty which in a few year times she definitely can be the next Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johanson. Even the pretty Rachel Weisz lost all her shiny beauty to this young actress.

About A Boy

Released Year: 2002
Directed by Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz

Casted by:
Hugh Grant as Will Freeman
Nicholas Hoult as Marcus Brewer
Rachel Weisz as Rachel
Toni Collette as Fiona Brewer

Story:

Will's father is a famous composer of a christmas song, earning a lot and left enough properties and money for Will to spend his life. Will always believe that "Everyman is an island", he wanna live his own life in his own way. Being jobless and irresponsible, he has been wasting his life for more than 30++ years.

Until he met a single mum who he enjoy to have sex with, Will start to attend the SPAT gathering, which is a gathering for a single parent. By knowing a beautiful single mum, indirectly he knew a boy who name Marcus. Marcus came from a single parent family too. His mum, Fiona suicide which make Marcus always look for Will when he was alone. They become buddy and always stick together. Until Will met Rachel.

Rachel is his dreamgirl. The girl that he always wanted. To pretend Marcus as his son, Will approach Rachel who is also a single mum too. Things get funny and complicated until Will secret was discover. Being a supportive dude, Will help Marcus out in a school pop concert to cheer Fiona. Rachel was touched by Will's action and decided to be with him.

L² Scored: 5/10

L² Comment:

Basically, this is a very simple story. Kinda easy to understand. But there's some part which is kinda boring and you might fall asleep if you don't have a coffee with you :) Hugh's acting is so so, nothing much different from his usual perfomance. While this kid, Nicholas really gave a surprise to me. I mean, his acting is not really a superb like Halley or Dakota, but not a bad one too...