Yes, we know, we had another week off last week. Gallivanting in that there London, but we're back now and this week we are watching a film that has been on the "to watch" list for quite a while. Sit back, relax, put the cat out, put your feet up, do what you like, while we watch;
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
There we have it and so we hear you ask, what was The Incredible Burt Wonderstone all about? Well it stars Steve Carrell as the eponymous Burt Wonderstone and Steve Buscemi as Anton Marvelton, these are not their real names, they are just stage names. The film kicks off with a flashback to the school days of Burt and Anton, for his birthday Burt receives a Rance Holloway magic kit which transforms his life, no longer will he be bullied, he will use magic to avoid the bullies. Along with Anton they hone their magical skills aided and abetted by the famous Rance Holloway's magic kit. With a puff of magical smoke, fast forward twenty years and the pair are now huge stars in Las Vegas and end up with a residency at Bally's Hotel where they continue wow the audiences for the next ten years, getting through various female assistants in the process. All called Nicole by the way. The last assistant being Jane played by the gorgeous Olivia Wilde (Drinking Buddies, The Change Up), but also called Nicole by the magical stars of the show, who by now are beginning to show signs of friendship fatigue. The over-the-top Burt leads a lavish lifestyle, entertaining many a woman in his oversize bed, while Anton just seems to be content with plodding on with the same old show.
All of this is about to change when the street magician Steve Gray, played by the annoyingly funny Jim Carrey, turns up in LA to film scenes for his TV show; "Brain Rapist". Carrey is totally over the top as Gray, taking street magic to another, very tongue in cheek level. And all of a sudden Steve Gray is the talk of the town and Burt and Anton are the old (top) hat magicians with dwindling audiences. This is not what hotel owner; Doug Munny wants to see and insists that the act is improved with some new tricks.
A few words regarding Doug Munny, played exquisitely well by the late James Gandolfini. In fact this character actually lifts the rather cheesey story to another level, the screenplay may not be that scintillating, but Gandolfini is just superb as Doug Munny. Again very tongue in cheek, but extremely witty.
Moving on, so when their new grand illusion goes horribly and hilariously wrong, the already frayed relationship between Wonderstone and Marvelton hits a new low and the pair separate to go their own ways. Anton heads off to work in under-developed countries, introducing magic to the kids, while Burt continues to bore the audience with the same old illusions until Doug Munny finally lets him go. So, very much down on his luck the once incredible Burt Wonderstone ends up performing his tricks in a nursing home, for the old ladies and gentleman, where luckily for the storyline and for our pleasure he bumps into the great, and now old, Rance Holloway, played brilliantly by the deadpan Alan Arkin. This twist of fate allows Burt to realise again what made magic so magical for him in the first place and with Rance he starts to think about performing magic again.
From here up to the end of the film the laughs increase, but no more synopsis, we don't want to spoil the end of the film for you.
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone was described by Zoo as "outrageously funny", the comment from the sofa tonight was; "it's not a bad little film I suppose" and that coming from someone who actually stayed awake throughout the whole film, is praise indeed!
Steve Carrell is impressive as Wonderstone, but then Carrell generally is pretty darn good in whatever he appears in. Buscemi provides a perfect foil for the extravagant and exuberant Wonderstone, one could almost say the perfect character juxtaposition. Alan Arkin as Rance Holloway is brilliant and has some great scenes, his final disappearing trick being a case in point.
As for Jim Carrey, well he has not been a favourite here at TNiFN, in fact he has been described as obnoxious, creepy and toe curlingly cringe-worthy, but you cannot deny that for all of his rubber faced, often ad-lib'd antics, he can be very funny and he certainly was perfect as the very weird Steve Gray, even if he does steal some of the limelight away from the other cast.
All in all The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is very funny, very tongue in cheek and worthy of a watch. As for the scores, well drum roll please as we pull the rabbit out of the hat and award.........
TNiFN Rating 78%
IMDB Link
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