Parents' Guide to

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Not enough magic to mostly unfunny Carell-Carrey comedy.

Movie PG-13 2013 101 minutes
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 18+

Based on 3 parent reviews

age 18+

NO!!!!! Not fit for adults! 21++ Sex and Drugs and implied RAPE

Sex with numerous women - non consensual - removing undergarments on women as 'magic' - drugging people - This isn't a family show and it isnt entertainment!! A man and a woman kiss for a prolonged time, they hop onto a twin bed where he pulls her bra off through her blouse sleeve and she pulls a wrapped condom from behind his ear (he passes his hand over it and changes it into a large and more expensive brand) and sex is implied. ► A woman and a man kiss while reclined and clothed on a chaise lounge in his hotel suite, they enter the bedroom after she signs a waiver that she is over 18 and can participate in sex acts, and she shouts, "It's huge!" off screen; we then see into the room and note that she is looking at an enormous bed as the man stands across the room, and the scene cuts to her alone, face-down in the bed the next morning (sex overnight is implied), wearing a bra and panties that reveal her bare back, arms, legs and part of the lower buttocks. ► A woman throws a man out of her apartment when he tries to kiss her. A man and a woman embrace in front of a fountain at night, but do not kiss. ► A middle-aged street magician is shown shirtless twice, revealing chain tattoos on his biceps, shoulders, torso and parts of his waist; the words "Escape from what?' are tattooed across his back, both ears are triple-pierced and he calls himself The Brain Rapist. ► Several female magician's assistants and volunteers from the audience wear skimpy outfits such as one-piece swimsuits with fringe and sequins, and micro-mini dresses with deep V-necklines that reveal legs, bare shoulders and arms and significant cleavage and one woman's bosom bounces as she runs. Dressers rip the blouse off a new magician's assistant and we see her bra and a little cleavage briefly; the dressers put a mini dress on her and she ties to pull it down lower on her thighs, to no avail, and we see a little cleavage again, above the scoop neckline. A male magician wears an open-necked jacket that reveals his sternum area. A man is shown lying under a sheet having a massage and we see his bare shoulders, arms and lower legs. A magician suspended in a glass box above a crowd for a week struggles with another man in the box and accidentally pulls down the second man's trousers to reveal plaid shorts, bare knees and lower legs. A man wears a large bathrobe that reveals his lower legs above socks and shoes. ► In Vegas, two men and a woman dance with writhing movements in a close line on a stage and one man says to the audience, "We're here to do magic, not Nicole," implying sex. A woman enters a man's bathroom where he is in a bubble bath and we see his head and arms above the tub rim; she approaches the tub and yells, "Oh my God!" then turns away and the man says that the bubbles must have evaporated. ► A man asks a woman if she is a lesbian and she denies it; he says it's OK if she is, because he has slept with lots of lesbians. A man jokingly says he is having an affair with an elderly woman in a rest home and she smiles. A magician suspended in a glass box above a crowd for a week announces that he will not be able to have sex for 7 days. We hear that a magician has sex every night with different women in his bed that sleeps 24 people. A young boy has a prescription bottle of testosterone pills at lunch and tells a school mate that they are given to him because he is too much like a girl.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
age 18+

Overlooked drug message.

I think the ending is awful! They go from wanting to inspire with magic to drugging the entire audience every night. And it's not even mentioned in the Common sense review! - Fantasy drugs used on non-consenting victims by the protagonist - and the act being depicted as OK in a movie is a HORRIBLE message.

This title has:

Too much drinking/drugs/smoking

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (3):
Kids say (13):

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.

Movie Details

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