We both like Steves Carell and Buscemi but they didn't really do it for us in this story of stuck-in-the-80s magicians struggling for their Las Vegas careers. Carell's (last in Hope Springs) character is annoying, but not in a Michael Scott way, and Buscemi's is kinda pathetic (even though he's normally so good, e.g. in New York Stories (1989), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Living in Oblivion, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), Fargo (1996), Trees Lounge (1996) which he also wrote and directed, Kansas City (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), Ghost World (2001), Romance and Cigarettes, Delirious (2006), Interview (2007), Youth in Revolt, and the serieses The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire, just to name a lot). Jim Carrey (most recently in these pages in I Love You Phillip Morris) plays a crazy competitor who is somewhat funnier but he can't save this, despite no shortage of supporting cast members, including Alan Arkin (last in Argo), Olivia Wilde (People Like Us), James Gandolfini (Zero Dark Thirty), Jay Mohr (Hereafter), and more. David Copperfield appears briefly but worked behind the scenes.
The writing team of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Horrible Bosses) may be to blame (I spotted a cameo by Daley as a paramedic, recognizing him from Freaks and Geeks), or maybe it's the story by them, Tyler Mitchell and Chad Kultgen (feature debut for both), or maybe director Don Scardino (a lot of TV, including 38 episodes of 30 Rock) let this founder.
Often we like movies with low ratings such as this (38% critics/63 audiences on rottentomatoes) but not this time. Wait for cable, record it on your DVR, watch the beginning, maybe a half hour, skip 45 minutes or so, and watch the end, including the bonus.
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