Parents' Guide to The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Carell has always made offbeat or embarrassing characters likable by imbuing them with an underlying sense of decency (or at least charm) that made audiences root for them. He made the cringe-worthy Michael Scott one of sitcom history's most hilarious characters on The Office. But there's little -- if anything -- to like about THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE. He's an arrogant jerk who goes through the motions -- with his devoted best friend, with the countless women he woos with his fame, with the clever new assistant whose name he can't bother to remember. Burt is so deeply unlikable that when he finally wins over Olivia Wilde, audiences will want to close their eyes or look away.

But it's not Carell's fault that this movie is a waste of his -- and Carrey's and Buscemi's and everyone else's -- talents. Carrey manages to elicit most of the few laughs in the movie with his ridiculous Jackass-meets-Criss Angel (instead of Mindfreak, Steve Gray's show is even more abhorrently named Brain Rapist) "performances." Gray's stunts are both nauseating and the main reason to laugh in the movie. The funniest line, in fact, is courtesy of a physician who deadpans about one of Gray's stunts (he holds in his pee for an insane amount of days): "He should be dead -- he's got more urine than blood!" Which sums up the sort of comedy this is -- a scatologically broad comedy that teen boys may appreciate but grownups will feel sorry for laughing at even a handful of times.