The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Review

Director: Dan Scardino

Writers: Jonathan M. Goldstein, John Francis Daley

Starring: Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Jim Carrey, James Gandolfini, Alan Arkin, Jay Mohr

Synopsis: Burt (Carell) was never a popular boy at school and neither was his best friend, Anton (Buscemi) but together they used magic to find happiness, and worked so hard that they became a hit Vegas act as adults. However, after many years doing the same act friction is developing between the two and hot new magician Steve Gray (Carrey) is jeopardising their hopes of an ongoing career.

Comedy of the last century has been mainly irreverent and extremely adult. The Hangover, Superbad and Bridesmaids are all the polar-opposite of family entertainment. The other lot of hit comedies have been mostly irrelevant; 12A releases like Little Fockers, Grown Ups and Mr. Popper’s Penguins. That’s unfortunately one of only ways to categories successful comedy cinema of late – a collection of cheap or crude clowning around. The cast and premise of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone looked as though it could change things up somewhat but it sadly reiterates everything that’s wrong with contemporary comedy.

Starting off with a clichéd set-up of Burt Wonderstone’s youth (bullies chasing him home, an uncaring mother and a nerdy kid as his only friend) does the film no favours in making it seem fresh. The only stand-out aspect of the opening is a beautifully surreal piece of casting with Alan Arkin as a famous 80s magician introducing his “how-to” magic video on Burt’s TV. Arkin will later settle into his familiar grouch persona but his briefly jubilant and over-the-top acting (perhaps only funny to those aware of Arkin’s persona outside of the film) is amusing.

As cruel as it is to criticism the child actors, these particular two playing young Burt and Anton are beyond awful, hamming it up (maybe under Dan Scardino’s direction) to within-an-inch of the film’s “life”. As the film moves into present day, with Carrel and Buscemi, it’s a slight relief to have the children gone. Nevertheless, despite Carrel and Buscemi as the leads, they are equally terrible. Carrel puts on an incredibly forced deep voice (a characteristic better suited to Will Ferrell) whilst Buscemi quietly reads through his lines, none of which enable him to get a laugh.

With a cast as hilarious as this it’s a profound shock to see everyone doing so badly. Jim Carrey occasionally delivers a quip or performs a comically contorted face, bringing some humour back, but these moments are few and fleeting. Carrel and Carrey back together again after Bruce Almighty was a definite selling point but something about how the characters are written leaves you wanting to see none of them. Burt is a bastard throughout most of the film and so is Grey; the only difference between them is that the former redeems himself (though even then he still appears fairly cold by the film’s joyous end*).

The funniest scene (and it really does get the entire audience howling) is in the last 5 minutes. In most cases this would be a fantastic way to end a comedy – going out on such a high – but instead, it reminds you of just how unfunny the last 95 minutes were.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone brings dangerous attention to the tawdry aspect of performance and showmanship. Burton and Anton's show is funny because it's terrible; captured so well because we are looking at it from within a poorly-constructed presentation (an Inception-esque exercise in criticism). The irony of the title is so well-pronounced - it's a critic's dream tool.
**

*I would have added a spoiler tag but the film is so predictable you know the course of its narrative from the get-go.

By Piers McCarthy. Also posted on LiveForFilms

Hotel Transylvania Review

Directed by: Genndy Tartakovsky

Written by: Peter Baynham, Robert Smigel

Stars (voices of): Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Ceelo Green

Plot: After an angry mob of humans kills his wife, Dracula (Sandler) sets up a place for the world’s monsters to come and enjoy peace and safety - in the castle walls of Hotel Transylvania. It also becomes a sanctuary set up for his daughter (Gomez) whose desire to see the outside world is invigorated all-the-more once a human (Samberg) finds his way into the hotel and shows them all a different side to life.

Director Genndy Tartakovsky has a very recognisable style – pure energy and frantic movement à la the cartoon mayhem of something like Looney Tunes or Tom & Jerry – but for a film like Hotel Transylvania it becomes too disorientating. From the man who has directed episodes of The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack, and the writer of brilliant comedy shows such as The Day Today, Brass Eye, and I’m Alan Partridge, this film should unequivocally work wonders. Nevertheless, perhaps it is a “too many cooks spoil the broth” scenario as Hotel Transylvania is a mess.

The characters are likeable but they never seem to blend together adeptly. Frankenstein (to be pedantic - Frankenstein’s monster, as it should be) is said to be Dracula’s best friend but he spends more time with Wayne the werewolf, Murray the mummy and Griffin the invisible man, to seem in any way connected to the iconic blood-sucker. Chances are the writers were not too concerned about the relationship of Dracula and his friends as it is the plot-point of Dracula’s daughter Mavis and her interest in intruding human Jonathan that warrants the most attention. This story is actually well presented once it finds its legs (Dracula’s initial attempts to get rid or hide Jonathan in the hotel leads to a series of dizzying and mundane visual jokes).

Voices aren’t so imposing that you become more distracted by the “whose voice is that?” mystery and fascination and Sandler, Samberg and Gomez’s voices lend themselves perfectly to their characters (as do the rest of the cast, especially Buscemi’s). The development of this trio gives the film some humanity and one scene involving table-arrangement and racing, and another where Jonathan and Mavis enjoy a sunset, really highlights the quality of some of the animation and writing. These more lengthy scenes are where the better jokes lie; one scene where the hotel guests play bingo is hilarious but was clearly too slow to fit in with the enveloping pace and quickly changes into a montage of monster’s dancing and frolicking around.

The major issue with Hotel Transylvania (and an understandable one) is that it needs to remain energetic for the demographic it’s made for. Kids will inevitably love this film as it’s full of slapstick humour, eclectic examples of monsters and 3D incorporated suitably for the action. The director, in regard to this, has been chosen wisely as his knack for optical dynamics and his clear understanding of cartoon physics gives Hotel Transylvania a plentiful amount of visual vivacity. For the adults, however, it’s just too boisterous and many can expect their children to come out of the film roaring, snarling and hissing, inspired by the guests of the film’s hotel. The final song at the end (irritatingly becoming a staple of contemporary animation – bar Pixar) pounds some extra vigour into the film that children will love and adults will sorely hate.

Through a child’s eyes this film seems chock full of wonderful characters, exciting set-pieces and funny skits but for any person above the age of 10 it is a painful endurance test. When moments of calm come they are greatly welcomed and mostly include some of the funniest gags. Nonetheless, surrounding these short pieces of more serene comedy is a tirade of in-your-face tomfoolery that brings about headaches and exasperation.

**

By Piers McCarthy. Also posted on Blogomatic3000