+ Best Las Vegas Movie of the Year
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| Three big stars, three shades of ridiculous; here on the effervescent poster for Don Scardino's The Incredible Burt Wonderstone |
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is a Las Vegas-set farce comedy that (finally) pulls the finger solidly on the ridiculous world of professional magicians. It is based on Chad Kultgen's script, Burt Dickinson: The Most Powerful Magician on Planet Earth, bought by New Line Cinema in 2006, with rewrites by John Francis Daley (Vacation (2015)) and Jonathan Goldstein (Bones (2011, TV-series)) and story contribution by Tyler Mitchell (Kidnapped (2007, TV-series)).
Burt and Anton are magicians who have been doing the same show, more or less, for 10 years, and their 'magical friendship' is has also lost its magic touch. But making solo acts proves harder than they both had thought, and in returning to their game, they have to fight off the young, hot competition; extreme street magician, Steve Gray.
Wonderstone is a wonderful comedy of the type that don't come around very often: Originally plotted, skilfully executed, and with a stellar, game cast: Steve Carell (Melinda and Melinda (2004)) co-produces and shows off his great comedic and dramatic talent as the bloated ego title character, who in the course of the film has to come back to Earth. He is supported by Steve Buscemi (Time Out of Mind (2014)) as his magical partner Anton Marvelton; an amazingly funny Alan Arkin (Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)) as the magician child idol, Rance Holloway; James Gandolfini (The Mexican (2001)) as the aptly named hotel franchise boss, Doug Munny; and Jim Carrey (The Truman Show (1998)) as the awful present day personification in the guise of guerrilla street magician, Steve Gray. Olivia Wilde (In Time (2011)) tries to navigate in this testosterone-heavy, male-dominated world, and she does well, although she doesn't get a single laugh in herself here.
Arkin on the other hand, continues his string of delightful, comedic roles here; a late career comeback of sorts that seems to have gotten fueled out of his work in the beloved and also Carell-starring Little Miss Sunshine (2006).
The film here is a glitzy, pop-music filled, happy time balanced with dark humor and a real reverence and nostalgia about artistic craftsmanship and better, nobler, past days in show-business. The many magic acts are done with care, and it is a joy to see them; the ones that are explained, and the ones that aren't. David Copperfield acted as magical advisor on the film and also cameos in it. Much of the film was shot in Vegas, and it both shows and feels right.
Wonderstone is a treat that holds many laughs and a well-rounded story. It is even suitable and enjoyable as a wacky family watch. It is directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Don Scardino (Me and Veronica (1992)).
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Cost: 30-34 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 27.4 mil. $
= Huge fop (returned between 0.80-0.91 times its cost)
[The Incredible Burt Wonderstone premiered 8 March (SXSW Festival, Austin, Texas) and runs 100 minutes. After several rewrites and years of development, shooting finally took place from January - March 2012 in California, including Los Angeles, and in Las Vegas, Nevada. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit Oz the Great and Powerful and fellow new release The Call to a 10.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 22.5 mil. $ (82.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 2.6 mil. $ (9.5 %) and the UK with 0.9 mil. $ (3.3 %). Scardino returned with 19 TV credits so far, (TV-series and TV movies), and has left the theatrical feature world alone. Carell returned in The Office (2005-13)) and theatrically in Despicable Me 2 (2013); Buscemi with a voice performance in Monsters University (2013) and physically in Grown Ups 2 (2013); and Wilde in Rush (2013). The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is rotten at 37 % with a 5.16/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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