The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
By Sandie Angulo Chen,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Not enough magic to mostly unfunny Carell-Carrey comedy.

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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
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Based on 3 parent reviews
NO!!!!! Not fit for adults! 21++ Sex and Drugs and implied RAPE
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Overlooked drug message.
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What's the Story?
Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) and his stage partner, Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi), bill their Vegas act as a "magical friendship," and it is -- they've been best friends since they were middle-school nerds who discovered the joy of Burt's first magic kit together. But a couple of decades later, their gig on the strip has become dated and has a dwindling following. When street magician Steve Gray (Jim Carrey) and his Brain Rapist TV show's stunts (usually involving some form of self mutilation) prove popular among teens and twentysomethings, Burt and Anton's casino impresario boss, Doug Money (James Gandolfini), demands that the duo modernize their act. Instead, the best friends part ways, and Burt is fired and winds up performing at an elderly home for retired Vegas acts, where he meets his hero, magician Rance Holloway (Alan Arkin).
Is It Any Good?
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.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why the dueling-magicians premise of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is funny. Have wild stunts taken away from the entertainment value of old-school magic?
Why do you think there aren't too many female magicians? Is Burt right that women aren't cut out to be magicians? Is Jane intended to be a role model? What about the male characters?
What does the difference between Burt's and Steve's styles say about the nature of entertainment? Is it inevitable that humor and magic are generational and not universal? Kids: Do you think things are funny that your parents don't like, and vice-versa?
Movie Details
- In theaters: March 15, 2013
- On DVD or streaming: June 25, 2013
- Cast: Jim Carrey, Olivia Wilde, Steve Buscemi, Steve Carell
- Director: Don Scardino
- Studio: Warner Bros.
- Genre: Comedy
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy
- Run time: 101 minutes
- MPAA rating: PG-13
- MPAA explanation: sexual content, dangerous stunts, a drug-related incident and language
- Last updated: December 2, 2022
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