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Message: [QUOTE="nelsonmuntz, post: 3538143, member: 833"] [B]The Wiz[/B] - It is on Starz this month. It is a strange movie and I would give it a C+ overall. It is an original and energetic take on a classic, which I liked. Most of the music is pretty good, until the end, and Sidney Lumet is a tremendous director so the visuals and energy of the movie are incredible. The group's arrival at the Emerald City is a fantastic scene that must have been incredibly difficult to film before CGI. You can't watch the plot too closely because some of the changes from the original make the movie much rougher and angrier. For example, the second act is basically a contract hit on Evillene/the Wicked Witch of the West. The music is inconsistent, with some great songs and a lot of forgettable ones, including the pre-finale song, which was really bad. Mabel King was excellent as the Evillene, Richard Pryor was fine as the Wiz. Michael Jackson was pretty good as the Scarecrow. Nipsey Russell was one of those professional game show guest stars of the 70's, so he was a very odd choice for Tin Man. He was too old, and didn't have a great singing voice. The Lion was excellent. The biggest problem in the movie was Dorothy. Diana Ross can sing and dance, but her acting was so bad it was distracting the whole movie. Dorothy's costume and hair actually made Diana Ross look unattractive. Lumet must have meant to do it, but why did he think anyone wanted to see a frumpy Diana Ross? Edit: I have been thinking about this movie, and rewatched a couple of scenes on-demand on Starz.com. I will bump the grade up to a B-, maybe a B. The cast other than Nipsey Russell and Diana Ross is really good, and Russell's acting is solid, he just has a nasally singing voice. Diana Ross' acting is so terrible that it is really distracting. I never saw Lady Sings the Blues, but I don't think she sucked in that movie, so I don't get what happened in this one. I may blame this on the director. This movie goes into the Godfather III pantheon of good/great movies totally messed up by one terrible performance. [/QUOTE]

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