The Wiz (1978)

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Such a low score for one the latest great musical movies... I confess that it makes me a little painful. Because it impacted me when I was a kid but now, more than thirty years later, I continue loving it and my two sons enjoyed its magic and heart, maybe not so much as me but sufficiently if we consider what the kids expect now. Please, please... We have Diana Ross and Michael Jackson! The soundtrack is excellent and the FX are good for its time. Some of the choreographies are outstanding and the idea of transferring the world of Oz to the suburbs of New York is absolutely brilliant from any point of view. The atmosphere is great, I love the dark elements! But, above all, this is a fairy tale about friendship, love, learning from life, overcoming your fears and knowing yourself. About what it seems and what it is. It is a vital lesson made with love and passion, and full of talent.

What a supreme act of hubris this idea turned out to be. A modern day Black Wizard of Oz shot in the hood ( mostly warehouses and mall parking lots ) with a Dorothy ( Diana Ross) in her mid 30s and with distinguished Gotham director Sidney Lumet at the helm the concept had an edge but the follow through is a complete swing and a miss. Shy and withdrawn Harlem denizen Dorothy rushes out into a snowstorm looking for her dog and soon finds herself disoriented and no longer in The Big Apple or Kansas but a series of drab caverness warehouses and parking lots paralleling the Judy Garland scenario played out every year on television, making new friends and heading for the Emerald City in search of The Wiz. It is one bad trip. With its superstar line-up of Ross, Richard Pryor and Michael Jackson one might think it impossible a musical comedy would be totally drained of any entertainment value but The Wiz surely is. Ross puts the final nail in her movie career (the first being Mahogony) as she screeches and squeals through her performance of an adult playing an adult as a child. Pryor brings nothing special to the dithering role of The Wiz while Jackson on the verge of super stardom is only allowed brief glimpses to display it. Lumet for his part seems content to haphazardly film huge chorus scenes under bad lighting to unmemorable music while putting the flying monkeys on motorcycles to harass Dorothy and pals in empty parking garages. His attention to keeping it real simply zaps the film of its joy and replaces it with an unrelenting shrillness from end to end. The Wiz is an unmitigated disaster. Considering the talent behind it, as failed a musical as you could ask for.

I understand that Sidney Lumet's Motown-themed adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz" is one of those movies that people usually either love or hate. I suspect that a lot of people found it odd that he went from "Network" to a musical. As for me, I found "The Wiz" an OK movie. It's a fun movie, more than anything. I should say that it's a little harder to like the movie once you learn that it basically espouses Werner Erhard's shadowy EST movement by talking about understanding one's true self. On its own "The Wiz" is a good time. Diana Ross (as Dorothy) and Michael Jackson (as the scarecrow) get top billing, but I liked Richard Pryor's performance as the wizard the most.So that's it. I liked the movie. It does exactly what it intends to do.

An overstuffed movie musical and a major blunder by the great Sidney Lumet. This urbanized version of THE WIZARD OF OZ stars a far too old Diana Ross as Dorothy, an inner city school teacher whisked off to a very late 1970s fantasy land (which looks like a disco-fied Manhattan)...she encounters a scarecrow (Michael Jackson), a lion (Ted Ross) and a tin man (Nipsey Russell). There's very little fantasy in this monstrosity and what should have been an enjoyable experience is in fact a lumbering bore. Ross, who proved her acting mettle with LADY SINGS THE BLUES is miscast to the point of distraction. This pretty much ended her movie career. The usually enjoyable Richard Pryor plays "the Wiz" as a bumbling fool. Nevertheless, the film is not without merit. A big plus is a couple of the musical numbers. Michael Jackson is dynamite as the scarecrow and as "Evillene", Mabel King performs the show-stopping "Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News." The stunning cinematography by Oswald Morris earned an Oscar nomination.