Missing magic touch
Any film which tantalises audiences with a superlative in the title needs to deliver on the promise.
It's A Wonderful Life was sublime and Pixar met expectations with the computer- animated antics of The Incredibles.
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Undated Film Still Handout from The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. Pictured (l-r): STEVE BUSCEMI as Anton Marvelton, STEVE CARELL as Burt Wonderstone and OLIVIA WILDE as Jane. See PA Feature FILM Film Reviews. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Ben Glass/Warner Brothers. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FILM Film Reviews.
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STREET SCENE: Jim Carrey as Steve Gray in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.
Now, director Don Scardino promises to astound us with The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, a tale of feuding magicians.
Unfortunately, the only thing that is truly incredible here is that his film dodged the straight-to-DVD bullet.
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Screenwriters John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein fail to conjure any "abracatastic" one-liners for the furious war of words between their lusciously lacquered Las Vegas showmen.
Scardino shuffles his deck of A-list cards, including Steve Carell, Jim Carrey and Alan Arkin, but repeatedly deals us a bum hand.
The film opens with a 1982 prologue, which introduces the young Burt Wonderstone (Mason Cook) as a loner, who suffers at the hands of bullying classmates.
"Nobody likes you. Nobody will ever like you," sneers one teenage thug.
For a birthday present, Burt receives a magic set and he sits in awe at the accompanying video hosted by old-school illusionist Rance Holloway.
"Everyone loves a magician!" promises Rance.
So Burt resolves to gain popularity through mastering sleights of hand, and he joins forces with fellow misfit Anton Marvelton (Luke Vanek) to defy the bullies with magic.
Thirty years later, Burt (Carell) and Anton (Steve Buscemi) are the velvet- suited kings of Las Vegas, playing to packed crowds at the Bally hotel and casino.
On stage, Burt and Anton are the best of friends, but behind the scenes they bitch and bicker, and the duo eventually falls out when a media stunt goes wrong.
Anton abandons showbusiness for charity work while Burt falls on hard times, his overinflated ego bruised by the rise of cocksure street magician, Steve Gray (Carrey).
Unfortunately, the writing is poor and there is only so much polish that Carell and Carrey can apply to mediocre material.
The script spends far too long painting Burt as a selfish, arrogant oaf and leaves scant time to redeem him and earn back our affections.
The Interminable Burt Wonderstone would be more fitting.
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