hacienda-00520

One expects grand entertainment in a production of this nature attempting to adjust a storyline that would compliment the great film, "The Wizard of Oz".

Instead it falls totally flat with characterisations that seem pained rather than acted.

Additionally, and unfortunately, the entire production is tinny. It looks like an high school play on steroids.

I cannot remember when I have seen such poor sets in design and construction. It is actually embarassing.

The sets had little depth, the cheapest of fake greenery was used, and the entire thing seemed just thrown together.

Then there was the music. I waited for a song that had a theme. There was none. I wondered how the singers were able to struggle with such unmelodious tripe.

I love musicals, but this has to be the worst. Another embarassment.

The original Oz had great sets, great actors, and great music. So many decades later one would think the producers could have come up with something better.

There are many Oz stories. Some made into films like TikTok. There is plenty of subject matter far superior to what these writers came up with.

A totally awful film. Don't waste your time on it!

I did not expect it but The Penguin immediately captivated me.

The acting is the best you will find anywhere.

The storyline keeps the viewer wanting more.

This production will have to go down as one of the best fantasy gangster stories ever produced.

Farell does such an amazing handling of the script and penguin character that the viewer puts aside the evil of the character to sympathise with him.

Many challenges, but the Penguin has to come out on top.

Additionally, the dark decrepit nature of Penguin's environment, so well filmed, adds to a feeling of desperation. Gotham city is what total disregard for environment can do to a city.

Along with Casino, The Godfather, and the Sopranos, add this to the list of top gangster films.

This well-acted drama well displays the paucity, depravity, and greed typical of NYC capitalism. It also makes one question, perhaps hate, the long arm of the law equally void of compassion, kindness, and decency.

These people for all their money and power demonstrably live a ho-hum existance of mediocre family life, sexual perversion, licenciousness, and alcohol dependency.

If any or all of this is close to reality, and I expect it is, I for one are thankful that I have escaped needing to live life in a USA big city.

Captivating drama but sad to see so many sell out their lives to live in such ways!