User reviews

This is a review of the close to 3 hour miniseries and not the considerably shorter theatrical release. The Witches of Oz is written and directed by Leigh Scott, a man who cut his teeth working at The Asylum, and if you're familiar with their work then alarm bells should already be ringing. It sees an older Dorothy realising that the stories she writes of Oz are actually all true, and now the wicked witch is in our world to try and take over. AAAHHHH! This film is both ambitious and terrible for the most part. The first episode deals with painfully unfunny slapstick and cartoon caricatures. The second episode turned into an all out battle and tried to be a lot darker. The film has its ups and downs. The likes of Lloyd and Henriksen give great performances as they usually do, especially Hendrcksen who has a lot of experience in no budget territory. But we also have two Lord Of The Rings alumni trying hard not to die of embarrassment on screen. It's hard to tell with Astin and Boyd whether they are simply giving bad performances on purpose or if Jackson was just a much better director when dealing with actors. No doubt these two looked around the set and couldn't believe what their (I'm guessing by now, former) agents had gotten them into. Still, it's hard not to admire Scott's ambition and vision. He uses practical and computer effects well, and some of the designs are pretty cool, especially the Tin-Man. It obviously has designs on being a big epic fantasy, but it's impossible to take it seriously. I hear the hour shorter director's cut has better effects and is better concerning the pacing. There's certainly enough to make a child friendly kids TV special, maybe at the 70-80 minute mark, but I wouldn't sit through the whole thing again.

To start things off, I was not expecting any kind of adaptation or even a re-imagining. Just something decent. I was also dubious though, considering The Witches of Oz was airing on the SyFy Channel, save a few exceptions, a lot of stuff on there is not bothering with in my view.

Thanks to costume and set design that is a notch above to most projects on the SyFy Channel and the appearance of Lance Henrikssen, The Witches of Oz could have been much worse. But in all honesty, is that saying much? Not for me.

Apparently there were over 1,400 visual effects. Okay, that is a sort of impressive number though I don't think The Witches of Oz needed that many. It wasn't the quantity of the effects I was looking to, it was the quality of them. While not as crude as some effects I seen compared to some of the other output that airs on the channel, the quality of the effects I don't think are that good, they are often lacking in clarity and sharpness.

The lighting doesn't help much either. Some scenes are dimly lit and make some of the production values seem flat. As for the story, I liked the idea and I admit I was kind of looking forward to what they were going to do with it, however it didn't engage me, I found The Witches of Oz rather sluggishly paced and also that some scenes dragged on for too long. The characters are not written very well at all, and I cared for very few of them, even Toto.

The writing is also stilted, often in a horrendous sense, the direction is perhaps too relaxed that it becomes rather dull and the acting ranges from overplayed to wooden. The worst offenders in both these categories in my opinion are Sean Astin, trying to give his material and bad material some life but ending up overdoing it quite wildly, and the girl who plays Dorothy, who is incredibly unanimated and wooden. Christopher Lloyd is also criminally underused.

Overall, didn't entirely hate it but it didn't do anything for me, sorry. 3/10 Bethany Cox

The Witches of Oz should had been an interesting and quirky reimagining of The Wizard of Oz story.

It is let down by some muddled storytelling, campy acting and not very good special effects.

Dorothy Gale is a children's author from Kansas. She gets an opportunity from an agent to travel to New York to develop her Oz stories for a movie.

However Dorothy finds out that the stories are based on truth. The events had happened and she and some of her companions had forgotten about their origins when they ended up in the real world.

So one of her friend is the strawman, the other is a lion and even a man of metal later turns up.

A wizard hid a magical word in a book. The word that unleashes huge powers. The book is locked and can only be opened with a very special key.

The wicked witch and Princess Langwidere are after a key that only Dorothy may know about.

This should had been an enjoyable reworking of the Oz books. Two actors from the Lord of the Rings films turn up to add to its fantasy credentials. However it was too long and too uneven. The bad outweighs the good.

Apparently, a review has to be a minimum of ten lines. This precludes the fully descriptive, yet terse, review I had in mind. For this TV limited series, a full review would be, "Garbage!"

Personally, I enjoy the re-imagining of classic stories. In fact, I give a very wide artistic license. In this case, there were some specific problems which I could not overcome. These included:

1. Horrible, stilted, inexcusable writing! Someone took the seed of an idea, crushed it under their heel and then applied Agent Orange to assure its death.

2. Wooden acting! I am usually not that hard to please but in this case, I was truly unsure at many points whether the actress who played Dorothy was being replaced by a wax figure.

3. Cruelty to a dog's career! As I watched, I noted that the dog playing Toto was immobile throughout the series. Perhaps this was done on purpose, to act as a foil to the face frozen lead actress. Still, this is a low point in the career of what may be a talented dog.

4. Horrid effects! This is 2011. The effects in this movie could easily be exceeded by an 8 year old playing on their parents' computer.

I rarely write reviews of television or movies. But this show inspired me to warn you, the potential viewer to avoid it. Do not waste any precious moments of your life on this steaming pile of munchkin excrement.

Once upon a time there was a movie with witches and wizards who didn't walk on their knees and pretend to be a ugly and terrible actors, this was in the days of large movie studios who knew how to draft a plot, unfortunately the studio who made this had neither talent or money and was probably a Saturday drunken barbecue idea and just got together some leftover makeup, a couple of cameras and some funny hats from the fancy dress shop.

It had no consistent theme kept drifting about and throwing out ideas as to why things would happen, it was as bad as any east European drama from the deep dark days of the old communist regimes. I have tried to be constructive about this but it was so appalling as to be beyond all recovery. it is a waste of everyones time to have made it and anyone who would be as unfortunate as me to watch it, nothing to really discuss at all.

When I finished watching this, I said aloud, "That was, like, the worst thing I have ever watched in my life." There wasn't even anyone in the room to hear my words, I just needed to audibly vent my disappointment. The script! The acting! The one liners!

All awful. I only bought this on a whim (yes, I spent my hard earned money on it) because I trust Christopher Lloyd. Never again, Lloyd, never again. Back To The Future will not give you immunity forever.

My least favourite element, and there are plenty to chose from, are the exchanges made between Dorothy and Uncle Henry. Geez, could she look any more meek and demure! Even in the parts when Dorothy was attempting to convey bravery, I still felt the burning urge to punch her in her stupid, pathetic face.

Don't watch this drivel. It is a trap.

Especially if you love The Wizard Of Oz.

I was surprised at how bad this movie was. Choose your criteria and they will all come up bad. Really poor acting consistent with the junky TV series, shorts and D-level movies that fill out the actors other film credits. Disjointed, jump around editing and directing producing a story that seemed like a bunch of half hour TV series patched together. Writing and script of a modern day Dorothy showing up at a farm house with a magical key to save Oz from the bad witches was a boring and too frequently copied plot line found in many fantasy movies. Dialogue was written by the students in a high school drama class. A couple of cheap CGI effects of swirling air to represent Dorothy escaping Oz and of a tornado and some '60s era zapping effect from the witch's wand - that's it.

Unlike most of the reviews, I actually enjoyed the series. I do think it could be cut to two hours and be more enjoyable - three was a tad too long. My main complaint was the acting. Christopher Lloyd was excellent and you expect that from him, but the big surprise for me was Glinda, the good witch. I had not seen her before and was very impressed with her work. I think Glinda (Noel Thurman) should have played Dorothy and vice versa. Hope to see more of Noel in the future. The other actors were sub-par at best. On the whole, I think the film is good for all ages. The visual effects could have been better as well as the directing.

Utter garbage, bad writers trashed the story of Oz. Bad actors made it even worse. This show might work with MST3K... It would be in the worse of the worse collection. Why would any actor agree to do this show? It's like a bad porn with out the porn!

I am a huge fan of the "Wizard of Oz" movie, and this retelling with a twist, is an incredible film. I was just in London on vacation and riveted to the set for the entire film! First I have to apologize for my generation, I am 20 something, and I have been reading the top film reviews today, and almost all of them are negative. If you have never been a part of anything, worked hard to create entertainment, or to create anything that makes someone smile or laugh, or be transported to a magical place, you do not have the right to criticize the work, the talent, the passion and dedication it takes to create something wonderful. And this film is wonderful! The visuals are fun, the story is phenomenal, and the acting is top notch in every single character!!!! I truly know this movie will be a classic, and is exciting for everyone, my young brothers loved it, and the kids did too!!!! Dorothy is a great actress, with such a stunning face, range of emotion, and a unique innocence, portrayed perfectly. And omg, the Wicked Witch, in her evil and good forms, is sexy, (I have a girl crush) actually gorgeous, and truly the best actor in the film. Of course the names are great, but the characters are some of the best actors I have seen. Christopher, Billy, Sean, Ethan, all fantastic, but the scarecrow, and the lion, they rock, how do I get them for best friends? Actually I would like a stuffed Bryan the Lion to cuddle:), he is just cute, and a bad ass. Overall, this film is an A, and I can't wait for the theatrical in the states!!!!!! Word is on the net, it is a jazzed up different 2 hour version, I am soooo excited:) Thank you Leigh Scott!!!!

Dorothy Gale (Paulie Rojas) discovers that her best selling novels are actually based on suppressed childhood memories of her time in Oz, and that she may be in danger of experiencing it all over again.

This film follows in the footsteps of "Alice", the 2-episode miniseries on SyFy that put "Alice in Wonderland" in a modern setting. Despite my strong dislike of almost all Alice adaptations, I enjoyed that. I feel much less about this one.

There are some strong points here: a generally likable story, an excellent cast (with Christopher Lloyd, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Ethan Embry, his holiness Jeffrey Combs and more) and a nice blend of elements from the original stories (I appreciate making the slippers silver rather than ruby).

But the down side is its 1400 visual effects. The film was stronger when it was not using poor computer animation and had less makeup. The Wicked Witch could have looked human the whole time -- there was no purpose in having her transform. None. And it does not need to be three hours. Trimming this down to two would make it a much stronger film, especially in scenes with an excess of conversation.

There is rumored to be a director's cut with footage removed, the effects redone and more. I strongly suspect if this film exists that it is the better version.

OK the plot line had excellent potential and started out very strong despite the horrible excuse for an actress who played dorthy ...I mean really I wanted the witch to win so she would just die. But really after part one I was really into the story line and wanted to see part two....I should have stopped at part one because the acting goes down hill and the effects lets face it my 12 year old sister does better with her YouTube videos on an allowance budget. You got to love the part when scarecrow was on fire and she looks like she is just bating him to death...no where near the flames I may add . ..the ending looked a little better but bad acting shitty effects and dialog that made me want to shoot my self in the face made sure that hope was squashed ...I had high hopes for this too there was a lot of really good actors in it to bad the lead actress never took any acting classes

A grown-up Dorothy Gale is a successful children's book author from Kansas. She travels to New York to develop her Oz books and she soon discovers that Oz is a real place. She and several of the Oz characters have been deposited into the real world and forgotten their origins. The Witches and Princess Langwidere are after the key to the Book of Bini Aru which holds the Changing Word that created Oz.

This is almost three hours of a modern revision of the Wizard of Oz. The premise could be interesting but this is an utter mess. There is the confused exposition to lay down the groundwork at the beginning. The main actors are bland. There are a few bigger actors slumming it here. It's a grind of confusing characters, unnecessary turns, and second-rate CGI. The ambition simply outstrips the abilities.

i believe this movie had some decent elements but overall i didn't feel it hit its potential peak ever in any scene in the movie. The acting was bad... Dorothy was god awful... they couldn't have picked a more experienced and better actress among the big names? Beside the big headliners i believe The two main witches Glinda and the wicked witch stole the show entirely, they had grace yet power in different ways. I hope to see them in more films. Noel is both beautiful and talented and i look forward to seeing her on the big screen in many more to come because as we all know that woman has a very bright and shining future ahead of her.

May well be the worst thing that has ever been on TV. Not a soul got the message that in this sort of fantasy everybody has to play it completely straight. They all pancake and smirk knowingly at the camera. They all overact like they were on some crappy Disney kids show. The effects are mostly non existent. When the witches are supposedly fighting the effects are mainly off screen while the actresses wave their arms about with no exertion or effort apparent. There is an awful moment where munchkins are sword fighting and three year olds in a playground would have been more convincing. Dorothy? Well she is so bad that you realise that the only thing that might save this is if she died a horrible death. Direction is appalling. And what dolt's idea was it to have the Lion and Scarecrow play their parts as a bad impression of the actors in the 1939 movie? And the pauses. You keep getting bits where some exposition that you spotted ten minutes ago has to be explained but instead of just getting to the point the scene drags on and on and on and.... You end up screaming at the TV 'Shut up, shut up. I was bored five minutes ago now I just want to die.' The only vaguely good idea is right at the end and they even manage to screw that up. I am only writing this review in the vain hope that it will have some sort of cathartic effect and wipe the memory of this dreadful waste of everyone's time from my mind. If you missed this then thank whatever God you have and take that as a sign that there truly is a merciful God. If not then avoid it like the plague.

Rarely am I moved to write a review here, but this film is simply so execrable that I feel compelled to - especially as the star rating won't appear unless five more reviews are posted, and I feel a duty to my fellow film viewer to save them from this dross.

I am usually open to re-imaginings of classics, e.g. various versions of Alice In Wonderland and A Christmas Carol spring to mind, some more successful than others. I've even seen another re-imagining of Oz that was very different but still pretty good - Tin Man.

This? Awful. Acting either wooden or completely over the top, plot ludicrous and deathly dull. I am surprised and saddened that so many good actors agreed to stake part in this waste of celluloid. A couple of hours of my life that I'll never get back.

Was very surprised with how great the movie turned out and there were a couple of promising actresses in the movie. Thought Noel Thurman (sp?) had a great role. She is obviously talented and imagine she'll be snatched up very soon by larger production companies.

I admire new retakes on older movies and thought it was refreshing and unique. I'd like to see more of these type of remakes by this director. He obviously can pick a great cast. I was a bit surprised by some of the poor reviews. This was an entertaining movie.

Does anyone have recommendations for other remakes like this? It will be interesting to see where this director goes from here and whether any of his cast develop. I think there's a lot of potential. Will be following this cast.