The Wonderful Land of Oz

This film is dreadfully painful to try and sit through. I watched it with the Rifftrax guys and even that didn't help too much. Burn this film.

Viewing this film left me utterly dumbfounded. I was truly shocked that anybody, at any strata of the movie business, could have produced it and managed to have it released. The plot is described hilariously in meticulous detail in the "External Reviews" section here, so I won't recount it all. Suffice it to say that I've never seen so brazen a display of non-talented "talent" as that on display in this alleged entertainment. It was a joy! Definitely bad in the good way, if you're inclined to watch cinematic dreck for its camp appeal.

The juvenile hero of the piece was Channy Mahon, the son of its producer/director, Barry Mahon. On hearing his first line delivery, my jaw dropped in disbelief. Imagine the sort of monotonous, comatose recitation any average schoolchild will deliver when forced to read aloud in class. Now administer half a bottle of Nyquil to that same child, wait an hour, demand another reading, and you'll get some idea of what young Channy Mahon's line delivery was like. Priceless. He did look cute in that Eddie Munster outfit, though.

The adult cast ranged from merely competent to embarrassingly awful. The sets were apparently made of painted cardboard and plywood. The costumes were, on the whole, surprisingly decent. The songs – oh the songs! You'll want to travel back in time, in "Back to the Future" fashion, just to prevent their conception – and Channy's as well (sorry Channy, I know it wasn't really your fault).

This is an epicurean treat for afficionados of bad cinema. To those looking for actual entertainment in the conventional sense, steer well clear!

This film looks like someone filmed a bad amateur theater production put on in the '60s. There are about three sets in the entire film, all look like theatrical sets and are dreadfully ugly. Everything is harshly lit with heavy shadows. The acting and singing is awful. How this could ever be taken as a serious film is beyond me.

This mess was actually advertised as having "So Many Thrills You'll Be OZIFIED." Stupefied is more like it. Made by slumming soft-porn schlockmeister Barry Mahon, and starring his talent-free son Channy, it's like watching Ed Wood's idea of a children's film. And even THAT'S too high a praise. Based on one of the later OZ books, it throws in several pathetic songs which would have stopped the 'narrative' cold--had there been one to begin with. Even the supporting cast hasn't the heart to liven things up by mugging shamelessly--all they do is recite their lines off cue cards, all the time looking as if they'd rather be anywhere else. And so will you, after about five minutes. This film was exhumed for DVD a couple of years ago, paired with (believe it or not) an even worse co-feature, Mahon's poverty-row rendition of "Jack And The Beanstalk." Filmed at a now-defunct Florida amusement park, called 'Pirate's World', it can't honestly be said that "Jack", awful as it is, makes "OZ" look good by comparison, but it IS even funnier. Watch both at your own risk!

I have seen better high school productions. No artistic value. Do not watch this. Ever.