Nude Memphis Movie Review: Oz and This Is 40

Oz The Great And Powerful

James Franco plays Oscar Diggs, a side-show magician nicknamed 'Oz', who not only relies on his ability to deceive and misdirect the audience members, but also any attractive female who takes an interest in him.

When the carnival strongman comes after him for seducing the strongman's girlfriend, Oscar climbs into a carnival hot air balloon to get away from him. Unfortunately, a tornado is moving onto the carnival just as he leaps into the balloon basket, sending the balloon twisting and flipping into the eye of the storm. The storm carries Oscar crashing down into a colorful world where he lands in a stream. The film transforms from small-screen black and white to wide-screen cgi color when Oscar crashes into Oz. The edges of the screen actually roll back, widening the picture.

As Oscar climbs out of the stream a beautiful dark-haired girl in red appears at the edge of the water, asking him if he is the wizard that was prophesied about by her sister, who said a wizard would fall from the sky and rescue Oz. Her name is Theodora, played by Mila Kunis, and she says she's a witch. She says she's a bad witch, though, because her sister told her so. Nothing she does or says gives the impression that she is anything but kind and loving, though, and her insistence that she is bad confuses Oscar. He doesn't believe her that she is a witch, and says 'witches are ugly and old and scary looking.'

As they spend a night in the forest a monster comes looking for Oscar. Theodora and Oscar are forced to hide from the monster, which Theodora says must have been sent by the evil witch who murdered the king of Oz. While they are camping out, Oscar gives Theodora a music box and teachers her to dance. She indicates that no one has ever given her a present before and that she has never danced. She quickly begins to fall for Oscar, like most women do, believing everything he tells her.

Theodora takes Oscar to Oz where she introduces him to her sister, Evanora, played by Rachel Weisz. Evanora tells him that if he is the wizard who fell from the sky then his must be the new king of Oz. The last king was murdered and she says it was the witch Glinda, played by Michelle Williams, who killed him. After showing Oscar a room filled with gold, Evanora tells him that he will be king of Oz, but only after he kills Glinda and takes her wand. Oscar, a rather greedy and self-centered man, is scared to death of the quest to kill an actual witch, but the desire for the gold motivates him to attempt it even so.

Oscar comes upon Glinda outside a cemetery in the middle of the night. He nearly gets her wand without her noticing, but fails out of fear. Glinda turns and catches Oscar. It quickly becomes apparent that she doesn't seem particularly evil. In fact, she's only at the cemetery to visit the grave of the murdered king. Meanwhile, Evanora is screwing with Theodora's head. She pulls out a music box identical to the one Oscar gave to Theodora and begins listening to it play. She tells Theodora that Oscar gave it to her after he arrived in Oz and that he danced with her for hours. None of this is true, but it makes Theodora cry. Her own tears burn her as they roll down her cheeks. Evanora convinces Theodora that all her feelings for Oscar are the cause of her pain and that if she would just become like her, she wouldn't feel pain ever again, and she would be powerful. She offers Theodora a green apple which she says will melt away her heart and give her infinite knowledge. Bitterly, and still crying, Theodora takes the apple and eats it. The poison causes her intense pain, as her heart dies inside her, and turns her green and ugly. Even her sister, Evanora, is shocked by the transformation. But when she offers to fix Theodora's appearance to be attractive again, Theodora says 'no' and insists she wants to look like the kind of witch that Oscar thought a witch looks like - ugly and scary.

While Oscar is with Glinda, she takes him to a city where she has been protecting the people living inside by encasing it inside a giant bubble. She says nothing that isn't pure of heart can penetrate the bubble. But while they are outside talking, Theodora and Evanora appear along with flying monkeys and attack the bubble, breaking through and destroying it. Evanora focuses her attack on Glinda, whom she accuses of having murdered the king of Oz, while Theodora only cares about showing Oscar what she has become, believing him to be the cause of it by betraying him with her sister.

I'm not going to tell you the rest of the film. You should go and see it. It is a good movie. It does an excellent job of explaining how this 'wizard' arrived in Oz, why he and Theodora have such a hostile relationship with each other, why he appears as a giant floating head with fire and smoke, and more.

I rate this movie 4 stars out of 5. Go see it. It's good.

This Is 40

Judd Apatow wrote and directed this film. He's known for his comedy films, as is his beautiful wife, Leslie Mann, who plays the lead female character in what may be her best and most memorable role of her career. This is a follow-up to the film "Knocked Up," taking place several years later.

Pete and Debbie, played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann, are a couple married 14 years, with 2 daughters, one of whom is turning into a hormonal monster that makes the bad witches in Oz look friendly and fun. Interestingly, the 2 daughters, Sadie and Charlotte, are played by Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann's real-life daughters, Maude and Iris Apatow.  This is actually the third film in which her real-life daughters have played her on-screen daughters. Pete runs a music production business that is failing, but he tries to keep the financial crisis from Debbie. Debbie runs a clothing store catering to women and has an employee that has stolen $12,000 from the store, but she doesn't know which one is stealing. It is either Megan Fox, playing Desi, or Charlyne Yi, from "House", playing Jodi. Desi has a side-job as a professional escort. Jodi has an addiction to Oxycontin.

Their various crises come straight out of actual marital problems of the sort that only a married man like Judd Apatow, married to Leslie Mann since 1997 and with 2 actual daughters who play her daughters in the film, could understand and write. Debbie's very distant relationship with her biological father, who she barely knows at all, comes from Leslie Mann's actual relationship with her biological father, about which she has said she has "zero relationship."

I'm not going to go into the story because you really have to watch it to get it. It's not a mystery or an adventure film where the story is easy to summarize. It's a marriage and a family with various problems associated with all of that. And it's funny. It's funny as hell. And Leslie Mann is briefly topless in the film, which is quite impressive and I hope she does a lot more of that because she is beautiful.

I rate this film 4.5 stars out of 5. I was really impressed. Go see this movie if you haven't already.

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