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Sound Off: Don Scardino's 'Incredible Burt Wonderstone' - Thoughts?

by Alex Billington
March 15, 2013

Now that you've seen it, what did you think? Make some magic. Now playing in theaters everywhere is The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, directed by Don Scardino ("30 Rock", "2 Broke Girls"), starring Steve Carell & Jim Carrey as dueling magicians in Las Vegas. The comedy also features Steve Buscemi and Olivia Wilde as Wonderstone's assistants, with Alan Arkin, Jay Mohr and James Gandolfini, too. But is it actually magical? And entertaining? How are Carell & Carrey as competing illusionists? Is it even worth watching? If you've seen it, post a comment with your thoughts on The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.

To blow your mind with my magical review (not really), I finally caught The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and really enjoyed it. First, I have a soft spot for magic, growing up with a love for David Copperfield (nice cameo!) and a bag of cheap tricks, so I connected with this in many ways. Beyond that, what I found was a charming, occasionally amusing but still heartfelt film about following and staying true to your passions, but never letting them and your own stubbornness be your downfall. It made fun of some hilarious egotistical missteps and kept a solid focus on its characters, but still had some cheesy moments and amateur directing (like the ending). Plus, I wanted some better, more exciting magic than we saw, especially from Alan Arkin.

What did you think of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone? A hilarious comedy, or total bore? We will remove any comments that indicate you have not seen the movie, as this area is meant to discuss the film only once you have seen it and can talk about your thoughts. Please keep the comments civilized!

Filed under Discuss, Hype, Sound Off

From around the web:

gplonwood

I went in with low expectations, but found myself laughing more than I thought I would. By no means is this new, unique or original, but it's a heartfelt, happy ending, check-your-brain-at-the-door entertainment. Olivia Wilde was really good and I hope she does more roles like this. Jim Carrey did a great job playing the Chris Angel/David Blaine type shock artest and wished he could have had a larger role with less of the over the top in your face bad guy stuff. All in all, it's fun.
- gplongwood
  
  Sorry about the typos.
hi hello

Way better than I thought it would be. More light-hearted comedy, than dumb slapstick, Has a few funny moments, overall enjoyable film and worth seeing. Wish they would of had a few more magic acts though. 7/10
- gplongwood
  
  I agree, I wish they would of had more Magiacian cameos as well (Penn & Teller, Lance Burton, etc...).
  - mike
    
    i hate tim burton movies
MMAustralia

Film was good fun, however...was the end credits sequence meant to be funny? Bodies being gassed and then thrown into trucks - I guess I didn't check my brain at the door completely.
AJ

Just got back from it. I had medium expectations for this, and this met them, it is an average comedy. Carell was essentially Michael Scott as a magician, his jokes were hit and miss. Carrey was great, with more screen time (and more magician cameos like a poster mentioned) this probably could have been great, instead of just good. It's a rental for me. 7/10
http://www.facebook.com/Tyban Tyler Bannock

It was ok. Had some funny parts.
Nathan Holden

I really liked what I've seen of Carrell's filmography so far, so I was hoping for a repeat of all those enjoyable times, and I wasn't entirely disappointed by his performance. The script plays to his (and sidekick Buscemi's) strengths, and Wilde played well as usual, but her role required little in the way of heavy lifting. Carrey did what could be done with a role that was not particularly good or enjoyable, being an odd mixture of Criss Angel's look and TV show, and David Blaine's endurance performances which lack much in the way of magic. They turn it up to 11 and very quickly it becomes gross to watch. I'm not sure what the other posters mean by 'over the top villain' parts, because I wish they'd had fewer over-the-top gross-outs (the finale was especially egregious), but I know what I'm getting with Jim Carrey and hammy acting is part of that. Overall, I'd say that I agree with the scores below. About a 7.