ENJOYED Sam Raimi's OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL

Funny how patterns emerge in an artist's work, in this case director Sam Raimi. Just saw OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL and the Wicked Witch of the West was TOTAL Green Goblin. They even had a scene in which she flies in among the Munchkins that resembled the Goblin crashing the Unity Parade....

Also the scenes in which Franco/Oscar helps the Munchkins gear up for war against the Witches/Flying Baboons totally echoed Ash in ARMY OF DARKNESS helping the Medieval folk gear up for war against the Army of Darkness.

Anyway, I very much enjoyed OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL. China Girl had me in stitches with her sobbing routine, that crack-up midget from BAD SANTA is in it as Nook/"Sour Puss," Bruce Campbell had a nice little cameo (as always) as the gatekeeper (running joke throughout all three Spider-Man movies) and James Franco was his usual charming self - he conveyed the right mix of boldness and insecurity behind his confident "wizard" facade.

The opening titles and the black/white circus scenes in Kansas were a lot of fun. Excellent finale! Blast the mixed reviews, this may not be Sam Raimi at his best, but it's a charming, broad family film. Sooo much better than horrible, tired pieces of shit like Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND.