The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
MPAA Rating: PG-13In Theaters: March 15th, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes (100 minutes)
Rated PG-13 for sexual content, dangerous stunts, a drug-related incident and language.
Genre: Comedy
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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Review
- What's Good:
- Some sweet moments; slew of laughs.
- What's Bad:
- A story out of thin air.
- Verdict:
- Occasionally amusing but instantly forgettable.
- Watch or Not:
- Watch it if you like movies based on magic, light humour.
Audience Ratings for The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Plot Summary
Superstar magicians Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) have ruled the Las Vegas strip for years, raking in millions with illusions as big as Burt’s growing ego. But lately the duo’s greatest deception is their public friendship, while secretly they’ve grown to loathe each other. Facing cutthroat competition from guerilla street magician Steve Gray (Jim Carrey), whose cult followingsurges with each outrageous stunt, even their show looks stale. But there’s still a chance Burt and Anton can save the act—both onstage and off—if Burt can get back in touch with what made him love magic in the first place.
Critics Reviews for The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
24 Critics like this movie.
Reviews Counted: 34 | Positive Review: 8 | Negative Review: 26 | Average Rating: 2.5/5This comedy about a magician who must hit bottom before rising again to the wonder of his beloved craft pulls plenty of sweet moments and a slew of laughs out of a story that might have been thin air.
Critic Score: 3/4
This may be the kind of semi-bad, semi-inspired comedy that could not only stand repeated viewings but perhaps improve with them.
A generic, fitfully funny mainstream comedy that doesn't nearly get the best from its name-brand players but doesn't qualify as a desecration, either.
Critic Score: 2/4
A veritable festival of bad toupees and repeated gags that just lie there, "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone'' runs a bit more than an hour and a half but seems much longer - like it had been edited down at the last minute.
Critic Score: 1.5/4
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone isn't.
Critic Score: 2/4
"The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" isn't incredible, but it's a nicely performed bit of programmed Hollywood hilarity.
Critic Score: B-
... has its share of engaging-to-great bits, including, truth to tell, one gag performed by Carrey that made me laugh louder and longer ... but it falls kind of flat as a complete moviegoing experience.
Critic Score: 2.5
It's as if Carrey has been waiting, through a series of bland and corny showcases, to find a role that doesn't derail or divert his intensity, but embraces it.
Critic Score: 3/4
Burt Wonderstone is a lazy, underwritten imitation Will Ferrell movie.
Critic Score: 2/4
It's a long, limping slog from the halfway point to the finish line, even if the actors have built up enough goodwill by then that it's bearable to coast the movie out.
No amount of smoke and mirrors can hide the burst seams, frayed wires and bad-hearted humour of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.
Critic Score: 1.5/4
Perhaps it's a magical disappearing humor act that afflicts this throwaway.
Critic Score: 2/4
"The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" can't transcend the fundamental problem built into movies and television shows about magic. It isn't really magic if you're watching it second hand.
Critic Score: 2/5
Did the producers appeal to a denominator even lower than common by making their film as dumb as possible, or did it just turn out that way?
There are some funny bits and characters around the edges of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, but its core is empty of humor.
Calling it "The Mildly Diverting Burt Wonderstone" would have been more accurate, but how many tickets is that going to sell?
Critic Score: 2.5/5
[It] fumbles so badly that you can almost make out the flop-sweat on its brow.
Critic Score: 2/4
Magicians have been pulling rabbits out of hats for ages. And yet, with all this talent, no one can make a decent script materialize.
Critic Score: 1.5/4
After 100 minutes of "Burt Wonderstone's" scant laughs and missed opportunities, you wish it would just vanish down a trapdoor.
Occasionally amusing but instantly forgettable.
Like a creaky Vegas act desperate to please, "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" is so eager you can't help wanting to like it. But you also can't help wondering if something better is playing in the theater next-door.
Critic Score: 2/5
The material isn't sufficiently funny to allow me to forgive the film's feeble storyline and two-dimensional inhabitants.
Critic Score: 2/4
You watch it thinking that it should be smarter and funnier, but you have a pretty good time anyway.
Critic Score: 2.5/4
The typical gags involve burnt flesh and the sight of someone pretending to crush a puppy to death. It's not a comedy; it's a wince-edy.
Critic Score: 1.5/4
Welcome back, Hilarious Jim Carrey. We've missed you.
Critic Score: 3/4
Is this really what the audience wants? A deliriously unhinged setup and larger-than-life characters, abruptly devolving into a mind-numbingly familiar story with a totalitarian happy ending?
There's no question that you will laugh at times throughout "Burt Wonderstone." But if you are looking for something truly magical, you will come away disappointed.
Critic Score: 2/4
Carell doesn't give us enough to root for. Burt is a jerk, pure and simple, with the charm missing. Sure, in the predictable story he slouches toward redemption, but at a certain point, it's too late to care.
Critic Score: 2.5/5
Too cautious and unimaginative to bring off what a great magic trick - or comedy - should do: make us laugh out loud with surprise.
Critic Score: B-
After it's over, poof! You'll forget you ever watched it in the first place.
Critic Score: 1.5/4
Carell again plays oblivious in the fitfully inspired magician comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, but he doesn't play human.
Some laughter but little magic in by-the-book Las Vegas comeback tale.
Carell is at the top of his form as the self-absorbed Burt struggles to maintain his haughty sangfroid while trying to convince himself, and everyone else, that's he's still a superstar.
One-off gags and throwaway lines muffle the creaks of a well-worn plot.
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©2013 Warner Bros. Pictures
