The Witches of Oz

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 – oh dear ! This is a Children's FILM. Some great favourite stars of mine in this, Christopher Lloyd, Jeffrey Combs, Noel Thurman, Lans Henriksen, and the gorgeous Eliza Swenson (aka Victoria Mazze) . If you're expecting a film with lots of modern effects as seen for example in "The Season of The Witch" (Nicolas Cage) then prepare to be disappointed. When fights happen, eg: Tin Man and baddie, no teeth are spat out, no bruises seen, no cuts, no grazes, nothing of this nature throughout the entire film. Not even from wand-plasma. The story is tied-in cleverly from the original, and the individual star actors acting is good as usual and expected, but somehow this film just doesn't gel. Doubtless kids will like it, esp girls I think. But I have to say that I observe that many computer games that children have seem to be more blood and gutsy. I enjoyed the modern "Alice in Wonderland" film much more. Not sure if it was an intentional plant but Christopher Lloyd is seen driving a Yellow Cab in this too. Shades of "Taxi" ? In the end what kept me watching was those beautiful big brown Mexican eyes on the pretty face of the lead Paulie Rojas (Dorothy Gale). In short it was a bit painful to sit through this LONG film, and pretty poor overall I would say.

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.

Let me start off by saying i have given this crap heap one more extra star than it should get due to being allowed to be shown on TV. That alone is so laughable that it earns the second star.

Also like the front review shows this is by far thee most brilliant attempt at ruining a classic. It's as though Leigh Scott was paid with the strict intention of crapping on a classic.

The cast must of hated the originals sooooo bad that they just felt it was their job to create "The Witches of Oz" A power rangers special lol.

Effects = Terrible, Acting = A joke, Editing = poor, direction = what direction? Overall if a child is entertained by this filth seek immediate attention as you child may be in need of serious help. No seriously the kids wont even have a fighting chance at life if they are exposed to this.

Put it this way i am not one to usually care for leaving IMDb reviews and i am sad enough to be entertained by the likes of "Smallville" and "Supernatural" Even "Vampire Dairies" So i am very easily pleased :D Please do not give any further funding or projects to this production. It seems as though someone made it their life's work to out do Uwe Boll shame on you hehe Oh and whilst kind of being on the subject, Uwe you need your head checked you sell out slime ballo lol

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.