The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Steve Carrell and Jim Carrey come together for a long overdue film about competing Vegas magicians in a world where sleight of hand and catchy musical routines isn't what draws the crowd anymore. Audiences want danger and pain. Jack-ass and David Blaine. It has all of the lights and magic of Vegas without much substance to the story.

Carrell plays Burt Wonderstone, a man infatuated with parlor tricks and classic magic. He's a relic, and the Teller to his Penn, Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) is his only friend in the lonely and fake glitz of Las Vegas. His show takes on a redundancy that leaves the audiences less than thrilled, and the hotel and casino owner begins to lose his faith in the iconic illusionist.

Olivia Wilde goes along for the ride, as the unbelievably hot magic-nerd-at-heart who inspires Burt to get his mojo back. A great supporting cast of Alan Arkin, James Gandolfini, Jay Mohr (as Rick the Implausible), and the master of magic himself, David Copperfield round out the film, but the true star is the resurgence of 1990's comic icon Jim Carrey.

Carrey (Steve Gray) channels the edgy, Hollywood street magician with his guerrilla street performances dubbed "brain rape". It is funnier than you would think. Carrey is the high point of an otherwise mediocre film with lots of predictable gags, and Carrell simply going through the motions. He didn't even truly appear to be enjoying himself like he usually does. That's part of the fun of Carrell movies is that he is having fun being his character. This role felt more like a paycheck.

Jim Carrey hasn't done a quality role since 2004's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and it appears that he might be back. Maybe it was the Jenny McCarthy years that put him into a funk, but if the previews of Kick-Ass 2 show us anything, his role of Colonel Stars and Stripes might be the highlight of the movie. 2014 will be a big year for him as well with Dumb and Dumber To, and Loomis Fargo - a comedy about an armored car heist from the director of Napoleon Dynamite. Very intriguing.

Director Don Scardino is a longtime TV director, but it's his first feature film. It's not a tv to film transition that makes stars, but the direction isn't the problem. The premise is great, but the problem is that Vegas comedies are becoming overdone, or maybe it's just me. Writer John Francis Daley on the other hand, is a star in the making. I had a nice conversation with his girlfriend and her mom at the Horrible Bosses premier, and he's been busting out scripts like crazy over the last couple of years. He wrote Horrible Bosses 2, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, and the upcoming Vacation remake (I know what you're thinking, but it's Ed Helms and Christina Applegate, so it will work).

The film fails with too much character depth. We get a glimpse into the past of Burt and Anton, and are shown why they became magicians. It's cliche, and is admittedly funny, but also stale. As the story progresses, Olivia Wilde's character just doesn't fit. She is pretty funny in her own right, and does comedy much better than drama (Deadfall = awful), but it might be more of a vehicle to preview her chops and set her up as one of the comedy leading ladies. Her relationship with Jason Sudeikis can't hurt things in that arena.

Fortunately, for a very average film, the last few minutes are hilarious. It's not quite a blooper reel as much as the behind the scenes glimpse at their big magic act. All in all, it's not as good as you would think based on the cast, and there are definitely some funny moments, but Carrell seems uninspired. 6/10.