The Wiz

 I remember as a child my Mom and I going to the theater to see the film The Wiz. So I attach a bit of nostalgia to it. But there are a few fun facts about it. Such as: It cost $24 million to make, but it earned $13 million at the box office. So, it was a commercial failure. As such, it probably set back the making of all-black casted films a decade or so.

It was a critical failure as well. The casting of Diana Ross as Dorothy was widely panned, as, for example, "cold, neurotic and oddly unattractive;" and bear in mind, this was a role she went over Berry Gordy's head to get (original casting would have been Stephanie Mills, who played Dorothy in the Broadway production). It was called "Joel Schumacher's cockamamy screenplay," and "one of the decade's biggest failures", and, "the year's biggest musical flop." Referencing the film's budget, it was called "expensive crud." It was deemed "too scary for children, and too silly for adults." Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow from 1939's The Wizard of Oz, called it "overblown" and said that it "will never have the universal appeal" of the original.

So, when Dad and I were looking for a movie suggestion tonight, what fell out of my stupid mouth?

"How about The Wiz?"

You can't win them all.