‘Wonderstone’ Not So Wonderful

Hannah Bunting, Features Editor

With the headlining names of two comic geniuses, Jim Carrey and Steve Carrel, viewers naturally expect a laugh-out-loud comedy. However, while ‘The Incredible Burt Wonderstone’ is great for a continuous smile throughout, there is only an occasional hearty laugh.

The story follows the life of Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carrel) as he follows his dream of becoming a magician. With his friend and co-magician Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) they eventually rise to the top and are regulars in a Las Vegas hotel. They meet there first obstacle, though, when new street magician Steve Gray (Jim Carrey) comes on the scene with some unique ‘tricks’.

The overall feeling of the film is more of a funny story rather than a comedy with the normal joke-after-joke. The actors and the story both do not take themselves too seriously.

That said, the movie was extremely well done and with a fairly large budget of around $30,000,000 they spared no expense in costumes, locations, props and cameos.  Lastly, aside from the famous leads, there were also a few real celebrity magicians such as David Copperfield who made an appearance.

Jim Carrey was unfortunately not seen as much as one might expect. When he was onscreen, though, he and Carrel played off each other very well. All of the talented actors worked with a script that perhaps did not compare with their own abilities.

This is one of those movies which will get a lot of views and make a ton of money because of the famous faces in it, but if it weren’t for those big names, it would not be that good of a movie. If you are not a fan of Carrel or Carrey, or are looking for more of a laugh, look elsewhere.