The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

 After a previous year of deflated and unfunny comedies, the genre is becoming as notoriously difficult as the horror genre, proving challenging to capture the universal funny bone. Being already witnessed this year with the gigantic flop of ‘Movie 43’, (putting a burden on the carers of what seems to be the majority of actors in Hollywood) the failsafe of comedy has yet to be cracked, with The Incredible Burt Wonderstone the next participant to ‘step up to the plate’; showing ultimate failure with sporadic humour and a clichéd comedy mould.

Beginning with the predictable ‘troubled childhood’ that is usually immaturely humorous but is instead oddly bland, we are introduced to our young protagonist Burt Wonderstone on his birthday as he escapes the poorly casted bully (Diary of a wimpy kid’s Zachary Gordon). Receiving a magic set that he brings into school the following day paves the way for the plot as he meets his only friend, Anton Marvelton, to share his magic with. Soon enough after a nifty montage of young adult friendship and magic we have our plot, however dull and linear it may be. Much like the generic comedy, Burt Wonderstone occasionally dazzles the audience with quick witted humour one minute only to leave us in silence with puerile ‘ass’ jokes the next. Never leaving the confines of its own comedy comfort, the humour proves to be predictable and boring never differentiating itself from the vast crowd of recent genre failures.

Once however Jim Carrey’s eccentric character Steve Gray, playing the daring modern street magician, is introduced the film picks up and moments of comedy ensue. The most notable moment of witticism is when Carey and Carell hold a magic trick stand -off at a children’s birthday party, allowing each other to bounce their natural comedy timing and prowess off each other, outside of the tightly scheduled script that contains them for the majority.  For the most part this provides for an entertaining hour a

nd a half despite the frustrating lack of screenwriting effort especially considering the promising plot and quality talent involved. As for the seemingly invisible Steve Buscemi (Anton Marvelton) he is clearly outside his comfort zone, with a large majority of his jokes falling flat to the comedy veterans Carell and Carrey, never letting his prestigious acting guard down however giving a realistic and quality performance throughout. Frequently making poor and selfish decisions the characters are deeply unlikeable and when the film attempts to insert a dose of sentimentality the tone is totally lost as it falls into a state of disillusion believing it’s a relatable engrossing comedy when in fact it’s simply another manufactured product of Hollywood.

With a plot which had the consistency of fluid water, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is bland and totally predictable only tossing in some flavour in the dying minutes showing to be a mildly entertaining ‘tv-movie’ instead of the film all but destined for the bargain bin.

5/10- Sporadically entertaining with a cumbersome story and lethargic humour.

Calum Russell