The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is one of those movies I really looked forward to seeing. Especially when I saw that it had the comedic talents of Jim Carey and Steve Carell, a movie that takes a comedic look at the world of illusion and magic would definitely be a funny movie. While a lot of the reviews have been fairly harsh, it may be that I am easily amused, but I found myself leaving the theater with a smile on my face. The days of people going to the movies to just simply eat popcorn and enjoy the magic of the cinema, has been replaced with highly critical people looking for every tiny flaw within any movie. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone deals with a very similar subbject, Burt through his years of being a magician has lost his ability to see the wonderment that even an old trick can have on anyone in the audience of a magic show. The movie is a throwback to the innocent times of stage magicians using simple tricks such as a rabbi out of a hat to get the oohs and aahs from any audience member rather then the elaborate and even sometimes cringeworthy tricks that a lot of the magicians do nowadays.
Steve Carell in the role Burt Wonderstone is the funny man onscreen that he has become as an actor. While, I found Carell to be funny throuhgout the movie his character of Burt was in my mind lacking something. Burt is a pompous, arrogant, womanizer, which was something that is out of the normal character's Carell has played and this was the issue. Carrel plays the middle aged ordinary joe role perfectly and so as Burt he was over acting and over played the arrogant, pompous parts which just did not work. Jim Carey in the role of Steve Gre an up and coming street/shock magician reminded me of the Jim Carey of the '90s. Carey's character is really a pretty good parody of Kriss Angel and David Blaine, going even as far as having a show called "Brain Rapist." The way his character speaks is hilarious and really they could have used him speaking more and not having as many exaggerated over the top stunts. yet, it was all of that, that really makes Jim Carey the Jim Carey of old in this movie. While Alan Arkin in his supporting role as the magician that inspired Burt as a kid and later on after Burt lost his way, I felt was a perfect role for Arkin. The rest of the supporting cast of Steve Buscemi and Olivia Wilde as Anton and Jane I felt were grossly under used. Particularly with two such talented members in the cast to not use them to their full potential is such a waste.
The story for The Incredible Burt Wonderstone was I felt truly lackluster. With a comedic movie about magic, I felt like there was a lot more they could have gone with the story and instead they went for a very predictable and weak story. The directing was weak for me because there are a couple of moments where the characters pretty much sit down and explain the arc of where the next act of the story is going to go. The moments of the characters sitting down to discuss where the story is going really brings the movie to a near standstill and then it starts back up, making for the pacing to be very disjinted. Even within the story trying to have a romantic interest was fairly laughable as Olivia Wilde went from hating Burt and his womainzing/chauvanistic ways to fairly quickly ending up falling for him after just a moment instead of the typical slowly starting to change her mind.
The Incredible Burt Wonderston is a movie about magic that could have really done a lot more with it then what they did. while Carell was funny and really was spot on with the comedy part of the role, the pompous and arrogant part of the role just did not fit Carell very well at all. On the other hand I loved that Jim Carey was back to the Jim Carey of the '90s. The story was not where I expected it to be, yet the comedy just worked. When Burt finds his passion again, while I do not want to spoil it the trick they do is not only really cool, but ends up being pretty funny in the end. I am giving The Incredible Burt Wonderstone two and three quarter buckets of popcorn out of five. While in the end I did not feel like this was a waste of a movie ticket, it is one I would say wait until this one comes out on DVD to rent.
-The Movie Man
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