The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Reviews
Top CriticThis comedy about a magician who must hit bottom before rising again to the wonder of his beloved craft pulls plenty of sweet moments and a slew of laughs out of a story that might have been thin air.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
This may be the kind of semi-bad, semi-inspired comedy that could not only stand repeated viewings but perhaps improve with them.
A generic, fitfully funny mainstream comedy that doesn't nearly get the best from its name-brand players but doesn't qualify as a desecration, either.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
A veritable festival of bad toupees and repeated gags that just lie there, "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone'' runs a bit more than an hour and a half but seems much longer - like it had been edited down at the last minute.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
"The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" isn't incredible, but it's a nicely performed bit of programmed Hollywood hilarity.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
... has its share of engaging-to-great bits, including, truth to tell, one gag performed by Carrey that made me laugh louder and longer ... but it falls kind of flat as a complete moviegoing experience.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5
It's as if Carrey has been waiting, through a series of bland and corny showcases, to find a role that doesn't derail or divert his intensity, but embraces it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Burt Wonderstone is a lazy, underwritten imitation Will Ferrell movie.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
It's a long, limping slog from the halfway point to the finish line, even if the actors have built up enough goodwill by then that it's bearable to coast the movie out.
No amount of smoke and mirrors can hide the burst seams, frayed wires and bad-hearted humour of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
Perhaps it's a magical disappearing humor act that afflicts this throwaway.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
"The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" can't transcend the fundamental problem built into movies and television shows about magic. It isn't really magic if you're watching it second hand.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Did the producers appeal to a denominator even lower than common by making their film as dumb as possible, or did it just turn out that way?
There are some funny bits and characters around the edges of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, but its core is empty of humor.
Calling it "The Mildly Diverting Burt Wonderstone" would have been more accurate, but how many tickets is that going to sell?
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
[It] fumbles so badly that you can almost make out the flop-sweat on its brow.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Magicians have been pulling rabbits out of hats for ages. And yet, with all this talent, no one can make a decent script materialize.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
After 100 minutes of "Burt Wonderstone's" scant laughs and missed opportunities, you wish it would just vanish down a trapdoor.
Occasionally amusing but instantly forgettable.
Like a creaky Vegas act desperate to please, "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" is so eager you can't help wanting to like it. But you also can't help wondering if something better is playing in the theater next-door.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
The material isn't sufficiently funny to allow me to forgive the film's feeble storyline and two-dimensional inhabitants.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
You watch it thinking that it should be smarter and funnier, but you have a pretty good time anyway.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
The typical gags involve burnt flesh and the sight of someone pretending to crush a puppy to death. It's not a comedy; it's a wince-edy.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
Welcome back, Hilarious Jim Carrey. We've missed you.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Is this really what the audience wants? A deliriously unhinged setup and larger-than-life characters, abruptly devolving into a mind-numbingly familiar story with a totalitarian happy ending?
Always seems poised to deliver big laughs but, once the smoke and the pigeons clear, leaves you only with a mild chuckle or two.
There's no question that you will laugh at times throughout "Burt Wonderstone." But if you are looking for something truly magical, you will come away disappointed.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Carell doesn't give us enough to root for. Burt is a jerk, pure and simple, with the charm missing. Sure, in the predictable story he slouches toward redemption, but at a certain point, it's too late to care.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
Too cautious and unimaginative to bring off what a great magic trick - or comedy - should do: make us laugh out loud with surprise.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
After it's over, poof! You'll forget you ever watched it in the first place.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
Carell again plays oblivious in the fitfully inspired magician comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, but he doesn't play human.
Wonderstone's climax revolves around an improbable comeback trick that involves making an entire audience disappear. The movie itself should have no problem accomplishing that feat long before the end credits.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
In the end, there's nothing here beyond the obvious riches-to-rags, friendship-lost-and-found, celebrity-rivalry clichés.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Some laughter but little magic in by-the-book Las Vegas comeback tale.
Carell is at the top of his form as the self-absorbed Burt struggles to maintain his haughty sangfroid while trying to convince himself, and everyone else, that's he's still a superstar.
One-off gags and throwaway lines muffle the creaks of a well-worn plot.
