Review of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) by Alexander M — 03 Sep 2013

''The Incredible Burt Wonderstone'' is a very enjoyable satirical comedy about the bohemian world of professional magicians. It is satirical because it starts with the premise that magic is all nonsense and that there is no bigger trick on it than the one audiences want to believe. From an exemplary classic magician such as Rance Holloway (Alan Arkin), performing the bunny-out-of-hat type of tricks, to the charming yet tiresome routine from Burt (Steve Carell) and Anton (Steve Buschemi), and then to the totally insane demonic feast from the hand of Steve Gray (Jim Carrey): a shameless, over-the-top parody of Chris Angel.

It's been a while since I've seen such a funny comedy film that didn't rely on explicitly vulgar language or situations to amuse, but instead prefers to entertain us with a good script with solid, hilarious situations involving Burt and Gray's reckless war with each other to prove which magician is more successful. Seeing how all the tricks are thought of and then performed certainly ruins the ''magic'' behind it all, in situations as tragic as doping an entire audience and moving them out of the theatre to a whole new location to make them believe they have been aparated somewhere else. But how can it be offensive, as long as the public loves it? Burt and Anton spend their entire career as magicians performing a silly yet fancy act with 80s style music and props, and some impressive tricks such as them switching positions in stage. But then comes along Gray, a person so crazy and diabolically creative that his most innocent tricks include holding his urine for an entire week, drilling his brain, or plucking a card out of his left cheek. Without a doubt, the best scene in this movie to me has Burt Wonderstone doing his best to perform his duo-act all by himself, resulting in a hilarious ranting scene by the late James Gandolfini.

Surprisingly, this movie has well developed characters. Even Alan Arkin as Rance Holloway, is a good and believable character. By the time Burt and him meet in a hospital, he starts showing him the most ''cherished secrets'' behind magic, such as quickly slipping under the bed after dropping a smoke bomb as a form of disaparition. Olivia Wilde's character was underdeveloped, but still, it felt much more creative than the generic role for secondary female actresses in adult comedies, and all her scenes with Steve Carell in this movie are extremely funny. The only truly disappointing character of the movie was Steve Buschemi's. It starts well and gives some good scenes, but it is ultimately poorly executed. Burt himself, though, is a solid lead. The ending of this movie is so shamelessly satirical I couldn't help myself but laugh all the way to the credits. Burt wins the awful competition by being even more awful than his competitor. Even in terms of professional magic as its main theme, this film is far more successful than the ridiculously wasted ''Now You See Me.''.

Many would say ''The Hangover'' is their preferable type of comedy, but myself, I think ''The Incredible Burt Wonderstone'' is better. First of all, its jokes aren't obvious. If ''Hangover'' wasn't filled with dozens of stupid situations people wouldn't remember it so fondly. ''Burt Wonderstone'''s script is actually quite good. It sets out to exploit and ridicule magic, and it works splendidly. Its jokes are smart, and by design purposely related to what the movie is about. It's hard to watch this movie and not laugh every five minutes. Second, its jokes are not idiotic. Am I to laugh at Zach Galiafnakis forcing a baby to masturbate? I prefer to laugh at Steve Carell pathetically dancing to ''Abracadabra'' or to Jim Carrey doing his best not to blink for 24 hours. Unlike ''Horrible Bossess'', I also found ''Wonderstone'' consistently funny. ''Bridesmaids'', ''Hangover'' and the unbearably idiotic ''21 Jump Street'' and ''Identity Thief'' are funny because of being rude and stupid. ''Wonderstone'' is stupidly funny, and its rudeness is a mere cinematic accident.