Review of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) by Guido S — 18 Aug 2013

Such a great cast: Carell, Buscemi, Carrey, Gandolfini. The writer had previously done Horrible Bosses which was great. This got panned immediately when it came out and was on the fast track to home video.

My expectations were low. It follows the story of how Burt Wonderstone and his friend Anton become a great vegas act. They were bullied as kids, but that was only used to set up their friendship. Fast forward to them being successful, and it is pretty obvious their act has gone stale, but the seats are still full.

It's not until Carrey comes on as a Cris Angel type magician, but a much douchier and low brow version. I hated his character, it was so out of place and felt like it was added into the script last minute and wanted to skip ahead anytime he was on screen.

Anyways, Burt and Anton's act starts losing fans and they split up. Typical buddy movie so you know where things go. I half expected it to be a bit about Gandolfini as the evil boss, but they didn't really go that way.

Alan Arkin is great a former magician, but by the time he comes in, the story just lost me. Eventually a competition is set and the winner headlines a new casino. Carrey's trick again is so juvenile and Jackass-esque it was just unneeded.

Anton and Burt have a great 'trick' but when they show you how it worked, I don't see how someone can find lugging around unconscious people funny. Speaking of which, how is it a movie about magic tricks has the same types of tricks any budding magician would do.

Like they took 'Magic for Dummies' and used that to base what Vegas type acts would be like. The far better magic movie is Prestige, even if that uses a bit more sci-fi for the 'tricks'.

This movie should have been good to great, instead it's a huge missed opportunity.