Why I Saw It: I keep wanting one of these comedies to be brilliant.
Cast: I'll say this much. Everyone committed to his/her role. Steve Carell is a complete asshole for 3/4 of the movie to the point that I couldn't root for him by the end. Despite the previews, no one else is all that prominent. Jim Carrey was extremely underused. He basically showed up to be a jerk for a few minutes, use some of his Ace Ventura faces, and serve as contrast to Burt. Olivia Wilde is the Marilyn of this world but gets a couple chances to be the world's hottest magician, which she's fine at, but I always have trouble buying her as a regular Joe or someone ignored by the world. Steve Buscemi and Alan Arkin play pretty familiar roles for them, specifically Arkin reprising his Dodgeball demeanor. I was pretty surprised how prominent and funny James Gandolfini was although I wouldn't call the character a big departure for him. I'm also giving prop to Jay Mohr who has a very small, but (in my opinion) very effective role.
Plot: This is a textbook redemption story and, as a comedy of this ilk, I can't fault it for not trying anything new. I'm still trying to figure out if I think this movie went too far or not far enough. This is meant to be a batshit insane story. The decadence and ridiculous nature of the world of famous magicians seems to be as ripe with material as anything that Will Ferrell has been in. Like, I could see some Anchorman fight level chaos going on, but it never did. Simply put, everything looked funny or seemed like it would be funny, but very little of it was.
Elephant in the Room: What about the magic? Here's the thing. I don't believe any magicians supervised the development of this script. What little I know is that magicians tend to call trick illusions instead of magic, which is never acknowledged in the film. There's also the fact that everyone in the movie keeps saying that what Carrey's character is doing isn't magic, or at least not good magic. The problem is that most of it is pretty good magic. In fact, it's better than most of Burt's tricks. The message the movie is trying to get at is that magic shouldn't scare people: It should fill them with wonder. But, that is not how they approach it most of the time. What I'm getting at is that, as satire, this is sorely lacking.
To Sum Things Up:
I didn't like this at all. Am I allowed to be that blunt? I don't like being defamatory, but that's the only thing I can say about this. There was potential and little else. The characters were not well rounded or cleverly established. The jokes were either humorlessly broad or not very clever. The acting was fine but not enough to save this. The mistake of this entire sub-genre of comedies seems to forget sometimes that a funny character like Burt Wonderstone is only funny if he is put into a funny movie.
...I should've seen The Call instead.
Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend
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