The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

This is a great return of the hilarious Jim Carrey everyone has missed.

Roger Ebert described in his review, “In "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone," a predictable but often terrific absurdist comedy, Carrey plays Steve Gray, a long-haired, tattoo-spangled, masochistic performance artist/illusionist from the Criss Angel/David Blaine school. Forget about walking on hot coals; this guy sleeps overnight on hot coals and asks for a wake-up call.”

Ebert continued, “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" is a Will Ferrell sports comedy without Will Ferrell and without the sports. In plot and tone, in a screenplay recipe that's two parts lunatic comedy and one part shameless sentimentality with a dash of romance thrown in, this magic-themed buddy movie isn't so different from "Blades of Glory" or "Kicking and Screaming" or "Semi-Pro" or "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." (And gosh, Will Ferrell's made a lot of sports comedies, hasn't he?)”

Ebert went on, “Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) is a pompous, clueless, sexist blowhard who somehow comes across as at least somewhat sympathetic, perhaps because we've seen the abuse and the hard knocks he endured as a child. It's as if Michael Scott from "The Office" had actually pursued his lifelong love of magic and had managed to become a successful albeit old-fashioned and cheesy act headlining his own theater at Bally's in Las Vegas.”

Anton, played by Steve Buscemi, Burt’s childhood friend, bravely joins his friend onstage each night to the sounds of Steve Miller’s Abracadabra, starting off yet another night of magic that hasn’t changed once in the last 10 years. Ebert noted, “Their routines are so dated they look as if they've been lifted from a 1950s TV extravaganza.”

Here is the problem with their so-called magical friendship. The late James Gandolfini’s stormy casino owner, the not-so-subtly named Doug Munny, tells the boys their time has passed and it’s time to make way for the new generation of magicians, as shown by the viral video, cable-TV sensation Steve Gray, a man not afraid to injure himself, hammer a nail into a table with his forehead or go a week without urinating – all shown from multiple camera angles.

As Steve Gray grows to the height of stardom, Burt struggles to find work in supermarkets and retirement homes. It’s the latter job that brings him face-to-face with the legendary magician Rance Holloway, played by Alan Arkin, Burt’s childhood hero.

Could a comeback for Burt Wonderstone be happening? Can he pull off his greatest trick of all – making himself relevant again?

Ebert noted, “A movie satirizing magicians — even rock 'n' roll hipster magicians — is only slightly more cutting edge than a movie mocking mimes or carnies. At times "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" seems as creaky as old Rance Holloway.”

However, this is also one dark and teasingly funny comedy. When Anton pays a visit to a very poor village in Africa and hands out magic kits instead of the usual foot and clean water, there’s a great visual punch line. Steve Gray’s tricks are so horrible, that audience members switch between applause and projectile vomit. Ebert said, “Even Rance Holloway has a bit of the sadist in him, as we learn when he explains how he pulled off one nifty little trick.”

As the old, slightly insane veteran with a few tricks up his sleeve, Arkin is a genius. Olivia Wilde does fine as the necessary love interest we always see standing on the sidelines in movies such as this, hovering over the silly lead because she believes he’s capable of being a better man. Ebert admitted, “Gandolfini, always interesting on the screen, is a bit miscast as a Steve Wynn-like mogul building a self-named casino. (One can picture a Brad Pitt or a George Clooney adding extra layers of charm and oil to the role.)”

Then we have Carrey, going deep into the trick bag that turned him into a star over 20 years prior. Ebert admitted, “He's physical, he's intense, he's ridiculous — and he made me laugh more than any comedic character in recent memory.”

It’s a performance of inspiring stupidity.

This 2013 comedy is not as bad as people made it out to be. I found myself enjoying it while I watched it a few years back. Don’t listen to the critics and check this out. It’s a nice return to form for Carrey, and Carrell and Buscemi really make a believable buddy duo of magicians who have strained their friendship and try to make amends. You should see this movie and judge for yourself. I think if people see this, they will find a lot of enjoyment and laughter that will make them at least happy they saw this.

Thank you for joining in on “Steve Carell Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed this month and has seen the films I recommended. I apologize for posting this really late as I was really tired from work today. Look out next month for a very busy month of film reviews that I will end the year off with.

Horton Hears a Who!

The third time’s a charm for Dr. Seuss after the outrageous live-action adaptations of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Cat in the Hat.”

The 2008 computer-animated film based on Dr. Seuss’s “Horton Hears a Who!” from Blue Sky – the company that released the “Ice Age” films – is frequently charming, beautifully drawn, and far more faithful to the source material than the horrifying Ron Howard-Brian Grazer productions.

Jim Carrey, who arrogantly played the Grinch, is in reasonably controlled form as Horton, a friendly elephant who lives in the jungle of Nool with his mouse friend Morton, voiced by Seth Rogen.

One day, Horton finds a speck of dust on a clover that’s a small planet – where little residents live in a town called Who-ville.

Horton is somehow able to hear the much-disrespected mayor of Who-ville, voiced by a terrific Steve Carrell, but nobody else can. Especially not the overbearing Kangaroo, voiced by Carol Burnett (very good), who thinks Horton has a delusion that causes a danger to the social order of Nool. Lou Lumenick noted in his review, “By some accounts, Seuss (aka Theodor Geisel) intended “Horton,” published in 1954, at least in part as a political commentary on the times, with Kangaroo a surrogate for Communist witchhunter Sen. Joseph McCarthy.”

Lumenick continued, “While that political subtext will still resonate for boomer parents, this cartoon is also a delight for their kids, with beautifully rendered images of Nool and Who-ville, and the book’s original beguiling rhymes recited as narration by the perfectly chosen Charles Osgood.”

The simple story has Horton trying to save Who-ville from extinction by predators and from Kangaroo, arguing more than once that “a person’s a person, no matter how small.” (Lumenick noted, “Geisel, adamantly pro-choice, once sued a pro-life group that appropriated his slogan”).

Meanwhile, in Who-ville, the mayor is having a hard time convincing the doubtful public that Horton even exists, much less that they’re in danger unless they come together in a community effort.

Seuss’ short books barely were enough story for half-hour TV specials (an animated “Horton” aired in 1970), so makers of films always have to extend things out with action sequences, and in this case, some clever visual gags.

Screenwriters Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio have added lines for characters voiced by Will Arnett, Dan Fogler, Isla Fisher, Jonah Hill, and Amy Poehler.

However, they and directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino thankfully never stray far from the creator’s gentle quirkiness in “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!”

The only Seuss film I never saw is “The Cat in the Hat,” which I don’t plan to after seeing Nostalgia Critic’s review of it. However, I decided to check this film out, and I loved it. I know that people have criticisms about this, like the anime fight sequences, but I didn’t mind it at all. It was still an enjoyable Seuss film. This and “The Lorax” are the only good ones, in my opinion, even though I know “The Lorax” adds more to the ending that may not have been needed, but I still like those two. Check this film out on Max and I promise you will love this, especially if you’re a Dr. Seuss fan.

Look out next week when I review my yearly “Thanksgiving Movie Reviews.”

Over the Hedge

“Over the Hedge” is one of the few comic strips where you will see discussions about the Theory of Relativity, population control, and global warming. None of those issues are talked about in the 2006 animated film inspired by the strip, but there is a large amount about suburban stretch, junk food, and the popularity of the SUV (“How many people does it hold?” “Usually one.”)

The movie starts with the arrival of spring and the awakening from the hibernation of many forest animals, including some that do not hibernate, but never mind. Vincent the bear, voiced by Nick Nolte, wakes up to find that his entire amount of stolen food has been – stolen! He catches the master thief RJ the raccoon, voiced by Bruce Willis, and gives him a deadline to return the food, or else. RJ smartly calls the entire population of the forest to help him on this task (where he does not explain the bear and the deadline). Together they confront a great development: During the winter, half of their forest has been replaced by a suburb, and they are separated from it by a large hedge.

Roger Ebert described in his review, “That's the setup for a feature cartoon that is not at the level of "Finding Nemo" or "Shrek," but is a lot of fun, awfully nice to look at, and filled with energy and smiles. It's not a movie adults would probably want to attend on their own, but those taking the kids are likely to be amused, and the kids, I think, will like it just fine.”

Once again, we get an animal population where all the species work together instead of eating each other, and there is even the possibility of other species mating when a human’s house cat falls in love with Stella the skunk, voiced by Wanda Sykes. There are also the usual animals. Mammals and reptiles are the top of the line, but when a dragonfly gets caught by an insect zapper, no one feels sad.

These animals once ate leaves and roots and stuff, but everything changed when Hammy the squirrel, voiced by Steve Carell, found nacho chips. Ebert said, “The animals find these so delicious, they are the forest equivalent of manna, and RJ, who usurps leadership of the bunch from Verne the turtle (Garry Shandling), is happy to lead them to the promised land of nachos and other junk foods, in the garbage cans and kitchens of humans.”

Like every human who likes to live with a look of beautiful forests, the humans in “Over the Hedge” are personally offended that they are occupied by animals. Gladys (Allison Janney), the head of the homeowners’ association, is personally insulted that RJ and his clique might violate her garbage can and brings in Dwayne (Thomas Haden Church), a pest control expert known worryingly as The Verminator. “I want them exterminated as inhumanely as possible,” she tells him. She’s all heart.

Ebert said, “The encroachment of the forest animals and the efforts of the Verminator in "Over the Hedge" don't approach the wit and genius of a similar situation in the Academy Award-winning "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (2005), but then how could they? This movie is pitched at a different level. But the action scenes are fun, the characters are well-drawn and voiced, and I thought the film's visual look was sort of lovely.” If the animals lack the disdainful thinking of their originals on the comics page, they are nevertheless a notch or two above the I.Q. levels of many an animated creature.

They have to be. It’s a hard life for a hunter currently when you’re caught between an angry bear on one side of the hedge and a street hockey game on the other.

I saw this with my sister and cousin and we enjoyed it. I understand that this film may not be liked by people, but I can see why. However, I think it was enjoyable and it was a harmless kids film that everyone could see. Check it out and see for yourself.

Next week I will look at another animated movie in “Steve Carrell Month.”

Bewitched

Once again, I had a hard time trying to figure out what to review this month. When trying to find an actor whose films I felt could fill out this entire month, I found out that I saw enough Steve Carrell movies to fill out this month with. Let’s get started with the 2005 adaptation of “Bewitched.”

This is not the usual redoing of a classic show. It’s a smart reimagining of the show’s original story, updated and reworked for a time that already knows all about Samantha and Darrin. Mick LaSalle said in his review, “If anything, it's even more lightweight than the TV series, though that may be hard to imagine. But it's funny, easily the funniest and least self-conscious movie that director Nora Ephron has made.”

Comedy doesn’t happen unintentionally. LaSalle described, “The sheer skill involved in making "Bewitched" is worth standing back to appreciate, not in the way we might appreciate a Michelangelo sculpture, but in the way we might an exceptionally functional and sturdy dining room table. It's just pleasant to sit at.” Screenwriters Ephron and her sister Delia can get laughs and make character points even at the times of laying out a very involved exposition, and that’s nothing simple. That requires some serious skill.

One change that was established from the beginning of “Bewitched:” There is no Samantha. Then again, there couldn’t be, because there’s no Elizabeth Montgomery.

Instead, Nicole Kidman plays Isabel, a witch who wants to experience life as the usual human beings experience it. Unlike Samantha, she had been sheltered and doesn’t know how mortals live. Isabel is completely innocent. LaSalle noted, “That's a shrewd innovation in that it makes use of Kidman's comic gifts and doubles the number of funny characters in the movie.”

Darrin is not here either. Will Ferrell plays Jack Wyatt, who’s stupider than Darrin and not as nice of a person. A self-centered outdate whose film career has sunk, Jack agrees to star in a TV remake of “Bewitched,” but only if an unknown is cast as his co-star. He finds Isabel and insists that the network hire her, figuring he can walk all over her. However, you can’t walk all over a witch every time.

LaSalle said, “The Ephrons have no interest in what might be called the more serious themes of the "Bewitched" sitcom. Samantha's sacrifice of immortality for love has no analogue in the movie. Nor is there any equivalent of Samantha's considered decision to give up magic for a life of suburban domesticity. On two occasions, the movie indulges in something that would have been considered cheap by the standards of the TV show: It has Isabel turning back time. Perhaps they did it on the sitcom, too -- I'm no expert -- but it's a dangerous element to introduce, because it means nothing is unsolvable, and therefore nothing matters.”

Instead, the Ephrons’ take a smaller and not particularly determined approach to the film, turning “Bewitched” into an event for showbiz satire. However, they make the majority of their decisions, and they give the film speed and a feeling of fun. Jack, feeling insecure, overreacts to demanding tasks on the set: “Make me 20 cappuccinos and bring me the best one!” Scenes of Jack playing Darrin allow Ferrell to get laughs by doing bad comic acting. He’s hilarious.

Meanwhile, Isabel, having her first encounter with people, becomes disappointed by people. She doesn’t realize that she’s seeing examples of people that would disappoint anybody. TV actors. Kidman’s talent as a dramatic actress is beyond question, but it’s only in her comedies that we see her differently. Here, playing an innocent released in the human world, Kidman creates a well-meaning character who never stops watching and guessing. LaSalle said, “The spectacle of Isabel's half-formed thoughts and false conclusions as they register on Kidman's face is often priceless and so are the moments when Isabel abandons herself to some notion of normal human behavior, which turns out to be ridiculously off.”

There’s something pure, specific, and full about Kidman’s comedy. In one scene, Isabel puts a love spell on Jack, goes on a date with him, and becomes charmed by his attentions, even though she knows it’s only a spell. Without Kidman’s ability to portray innocence and without the clarity of her moment-to-moment being on screen, that scene wouldn’t have been funny. It might have been pointless and confusing.

Ephron spreads out the comedy, giving good moments and personalities to the supporting characters, not just to Michael Caine as Isabel’s dad and Shirley MacLaine as the actress who plays Endora, but to Heather Burns as a bitter TV staff person with a massive contempt for Jack. The film does drop a little near the finish, particularly when the character of Uncle Arthur, played by Steve Carrell, formerly played by Paul Lynde, makes an extended appearance. However, that’s the only point in “Bewitched” that feels uncertain, and the movie recovers.

I saw this when I was browsing for free movies On Demand and I decided to check it out. I didn’t mind it. I can understand if someone doesn’t like it probably because they didn’t like the reimagining, which I can get. However, as someone who didn’t grow up watching “Bewitched” (I only saw one episode, but it was in color), I guess that’s why I didn’t mind it so much. Check it out if you want, but if you don’t like it, I understand.

Look out next week when I look at a DreamWorks film in “Steve Carrell Month.”