3 Razors

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and the Brain Rapist

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
  • IMDB: link

The Incredible Burt WonderstoneThe Incredible Burt Wonderstone is an odd film about the change in magic from old school tricks and illusion to elaborate and dangerous stunts of endurance during the 1990’s, and the petty jealousies that go on behind the curtain, that feels at least a decade late. Written by Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley (who gave us the equally uneven Horrible Bosses) the script is inconsistent, especially during the movie’s third act, but it delivers a surprising number of laughs when it embraces the sheer absurdity of its premise and characters with a gleeful zeal.

The film stars Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi as a pair of old school Las Vegas magicians Burt Wonderstone and Anton Marvelton (think Siegfried & Roy without the tigers) whose act and decades of friendship have seen better days. The pair’s partnership comes to an end when popular new street magician Steve Gray (Jim Carrey as a mix of David Blaine and Criss Angel) forces the pair into uncharted territory doing dangerous stunts that leave Anton severely injured and Burt out on the street looking for a new job.

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The Intouchables

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Intouchables
  • IMDB: link

the-intouchables-blu-rayBased on the nonfiction book by Abdel Sellou, this French odd couple comedy stars Omar Sy as an ex-con out on the street who is hired as a caregiver for a rich French aristocrat (François Cluzet) with whom he has nothing in common. Most of the humor early on deals specifically with Driss’ (Sy) learning his new responsibilities, his discomfort with various aspects of his new job such as dressing Phillipe and “draining the ass” of a man he doesn’t know, and his fumbling juvenile attempts to woo Philippe’s completely uninterested assistant (Audrey Fleurot) into bed.

From there The Intouchables moves into the inevitable phase of the two finding common ground and becoming friends. Subplots involve Driss’ attempt to be a painter and keep his cousin () from following his same path, the relationship between Philippe’s daughter (Alba Gaïa Kraghede Bellugi) and her boyfriend (Thomas Solivéres), and Driss pushing Philippe to meet the woman (Dorothée Brière) he’s been corresponding with for months.

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Oz the Great and Powerful

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Oz the Great and Powerful
  • IMDB: link

Oz the Great and PowerfulThere’s no Scarecrow, Tin Man, or Cowardly Lion, but by the end of Oz the Great and Powerful the stage will be set for a young girl from Kansas to make her own journey to Frank L. Baum’s magical land of Oz. This completely original script by screenwriters Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire offers us the origins of the great and powerful Wizard of Oz (James Franco), who, as the film opens (in black and white), is nothing more than a traveling carnival magician and con man on the dusty plains of Kansas.

The first quarter of our story is centered around presenting Oz in his own world before whisking him away to the magical land of Oz via the most likely transport: a tornado. Franco is well cast as the smarmy, selfish, womanizing, con man wishing for greatness (but too lazy to work for it), with an unquestionable greed for fame and fortune and an uncomfortable relationship with the truth. Oz’s myriad of failings leads to a hasty escape from the carnival that traps the magician’s hot air balloon in the middle of a Kansas twister leading to a journey somewhere over the rainbow.

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The Lone Ranger #13

/ / Comics

The Lone Ranger #13In another stand alone tale, the Lone Ranger and Tonto’s travels take them to the Northern Colorado Territory where the pair take on Melton Coy who makes his money by selling Chinese women to the discerning buyer, for the right price. After scoping out the operation undercover, the Ranger and Tonto ride into town to take down the entire operation.

Before the day is done the women will be freed and on their way with enough silver to begin their new lives far from the town which allowed such wickedness to continue and is burning to the ground behind them.

The issue works well providing a villain that almost makes the Lone Ranger loose his temper. There’s also a couple of nice scenes where the Lone Ranger earns the womens’ trust first through his badge and later through a single silver bullet. That final piece also ties into the issue’s opening scene at an Antiques Roadshow where a woman with family heirloom and a legendary story about her grandmother’s grandmother adventure with a masked man helps set the stage for what follows. For fans.

[Dynamite, $3.99]

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John Dies at the End

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: John Dies at the End
  • IMDb: link

john-dies-at-the-end-poster

Based on the comic-horror novel of the same name by Cracked editor David Wong and brought to the screen by writer/director Don Coscarelli, John Dies at the End is a bizarre dark comedic horror film about a powerful hallucinogenic drug known as Soy Sauce, parallel universes, time travel, the heroic nature of dogs, and an alien invasion that threatens all life on the planet Earth.

We’re introduced to our main character, David Wong (Chase Williamson), as he tells his unbelievable story to reporter Arnie Bloodstone (Paul Giamatti). Through long flashbacks we see the events that have led David to a Chinese restaurant to unburden his soul. Of course by the time we meet David he’s already addicted and high on Soy Sauce, which makes him the definition of an unreliable narrator whose words (and, at times, admitted lies) can only be taken at face value.

The story really begins with David’s best friend John (Rob Mayes) who scores some Soy Sauce off a fake magical Jamaican (Tai Bennett) one night at a party and changes both their lives forever.

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