Magicians

Stars: David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Peter Capaldi, Miranda Hart, Jessica Stevenson

Director: Andrew O'Connor

The comedy duo of Mitchell and Webb from TV's Peep Show series (think Bernie Winters meets Graham Norton) makes its debut in this woeful take-off of The Prestige, as a team of magicians which breaks up (as it would) after Mitchell chops his wife's head off in a guillotine illusion just after he has caught her humping his partner.

Years later, both try for a comeback in an international magic competition.

Saddled - as is the rest of the cast - with incredibly crude dialogue that serves no purpose in such a light farce, the tyro movie stars flounder helplessly. Even such great TV comics as Morecambe and Wise fared poorly on their movie debuts, but this is something else again: the boys seem like amateurs completely out of their depth in the face of such a script (it even tries to get serious at the end) and flat direction from Andrew O'Connor. Beyond bad.

David Quinlan

USA 2007. UK Distributor: Universal. Technicolor.
89 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 3.

Review date: 13 May 2007