THE LOSS OF MAGIC

 MOVIE REVIEW:

THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE

By:
G.P. MANALO

Starring:

Steve Carrell

Steve Buscemi

Jim Carrey

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone – tells the story of two boys named Burt and Anton who grew a partnership together as magicians. As they grow older doing the same shtick for the past 10 years of their professional career, a new “magician” came on the scene and he becomes more famous than both of them and with his rise in fame costs Burt’s friendship and ticket sales. And so begins the battle of “magic”.

 

I was not looking forward to seeing this movie, the main reason why I actually got up and see this movie is for the scenes of Jim Carrey (Which I will be more in-depth later on). I was expecting the movie would at least be enjoyable nonetheless and there’d be some things that I can say that the movie is worth seeing somehow. The movie as a whole is a very stale movie to begin with. They had many ideas in this movie but (almost) all of them just fell flat in the ground, though there was one idea/message that did stood out. 

I’ve said this many times when I would review a comedy movie, If the movie did made me laugh until I cry (or altleast laugh out loud in general) despite its flaws I can still say that I was entertained nonetheless but in this case - I barely laughed in this movie. I think it is the writing that made this movie suffer; the primary example is around Burt Wonderstone himself, they did the cliché of his character being an “over-indulged (bratty) and asshole type of person from the start but as the movie goes on he will change his ways and everything will be rainbows and butterflies” cliché. But he never had that charm or wit to him that can make him a likeable person anyways, instead he comes off as an asshole which is (to me) very bearable to watch throughout the first act, though when they did execute his change as a person in the third act I did enjoy the movie more. 

It is rather ironic that you find the antagonist (played by Jim Carrey) to be more likeable along with Alan Arkin’s character, I think Alan Arkin’s character should’ve been written that way for Steve Carell’s character. There were most characters in this movie that are very under-written which results to them having little to do in this movie and it was Steve Buscemi and Olivia Wilde’s character. Olivia Wilde as you watch the movie it felt like she was just a plot device to be a love interest and a conscience but she was very under-written that you ended up thinking that they didn’t really need her to be in this movie in the first place and just focus on Buscemi’s and Carrell’s “magical friendship”. It is fair enough to say that atleast I was entertained by the magic tricks featured in this movie.

The message that I was talking about earlier was “doing what you love”, many reviewers pointed this out that this was one of the saving graces of the movie. The movie’s message gives emphasis on doing what you love the most and how you can share your happiness with others with the thing you love to do for the sake of entertainment. One YouTube movie reviewer Jeremy Jahns (who I idolize) is one of those people who pointed out that you don’t need to turn your passion into a form of business, Though as the movie ends the message was badly executed when it got condescended (when you watch the movie you’ll know why). I relate to that message very much since I like being my own boss (yes, I actually call this a job). Even If I am talking to you in a form of writing I still try to entertain you with talents I have (or at least I think I have). The saving grace of this movie was the scenes of Jim Carrey’s version of modern day magicians/illusionists (David Blaine, Chris Angel), he was very hilarious in this movie; He had the best jokes, lines and scenes in this movie for it is Jim Carrey’s at its finest, every time he’s not in the movie I was begging for him to come back on screen. If he wasn’t in this movie I wouldn’t know how this movie will end up. 

In the end, this movie is worth checking out as a rental, it’s not something to rush to the theaters but It’s fair enough to wait for its release on DVD (don’t even go the extra mile to get it on blu-ray). Like Wonderstone and Anton’s tricks to the movie, they do not really offer anything new for the audience but you will enjoy some of the things in there nonetheless. The only thing worth seeing in this movie is scenes with Alan Arkin and Jim Carrey. The movie as a comedy did have its laugh out loud moments in scenes with Jim Carrey and also some chuckle-worthy scenes here and there though as a whole the movie suffered from the flaw of an under-written story. I enjoyed this movie for the most part though I have no plans of seeing it again. Maybe this movie is not really "Incredible" or "Abracatastic" after all.

THE GOOD:

+SCENES WITH JIM CARREY AND ALAN ARKIN

+THE MESSAGE

+THE THIRD ACT

THE BAD:

-UNDER-WRITTEN CHARACTERS AND STORYTELLING

-MOST OF THE JOKES DIDN’T WORK

MY RATING:

2.5/5 – IT’S GOOD….. FOR A RENTAL