The Incredible Burt Wonderstone(2013)

Plot Summary

• In 1982, young Albert is harassed by bullies. He is told that nobody likes him and that nobody will ever like him. His mother gives him a special magic trick set by veteran magician Rance Holloway (Alan Arkin) as his birthday present. He studies the instructional video and begins to practice some tricks, attracting the attention of a classmate, Anthony. Anthony is on medications for his allergies and asthma and as a result has no friends at school. He is also taking testosterone pills as his doctor says that he is dangerously close to being a girl. Anthony and Albert start writing down their magic trick ideas in a notebook.They practice together and eventually become professional magicians Burt Wonderstone and Anton Marvelton, earning them success and an ongoing headlining act at the Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas. However, after ten years of performing the same tricks over and over again, Anton is fed up with Burt's ego, which has already cost them previous female assistants, all called "Nicole" in the act. Burt complains about everything on set, including the excess perspiration from Anton. In a rush, Burt enlists production assistant Jane (Olivia Wilde) as the new Nicole. Burt propositions Jane for sex in the middle of their act on stage, but Jane refuses.Burt needs a female audience member for one his tricks and he purposely picks an attractive looking girl named Miranda (Gillian Jacobs), whom he later to his penthouse suite for a night of sex.Burt (Steve Carell) and Anton (Steve Buscemi) encounter up-and-coming street magician Steve Gray (Jim Carrey) performing a unique yet horrifying card trick for his TV magic show, Brain R**Ist. Steve gets an audience member to pick a card and write his mother's name on it. Then he provokes the same guy to punch him in the face. As he does, Steve's face swells up and he uses a pocketknife to make a cut on his cheek to relieve the pressure. And from the cut he takes out a card, the same one on which the man had written his mother's name. Burt and Anton approach Steve for him to join their show with his act, but Steve is almost dismissive of them. Steve continues to perform his shows for a TV audience and his popularity continues to grow.Audience numbers soon dwindle at Burt and Anton's show, upsetting Bally's owner Doug Munny (James Gandolfini). Manny says that Burt needs to refresh his act and attract a younger audience. Manny says that Steve is the future of magic, and he has captivated the audience between ages of 25 and 45 nationally. Steve's stunts include holding his urine for 12 straight days, or not blinking for 4 consecutive days.Taking a cue from Gray's endurance-based stunts, Anton suggests that he and Burt try a similar tack-locking themselves in a plastic cage called the Hot Box hung above ground. Due to the Vegas sun, temperature inside the box is expected to hit 200 degrees and the duo have challenged to stay in it for a week. Overconfident, Burt does not prepare for the stunt (he wears his normal magician's costume which is completely inappropriate for the act as it is velvet) and almost instantly falls into a panic, causing the stunt to fail and injuring Anton. Anton angrily ends his partnership with Burt (after Burt refuses to apologize for his actions and his lack of professionalism), and Jane also quits.Burt refuses to change his act, staging his two-man show alone to disastrous results. Munny shuts down the production and Burt, having squandered his earnings over the years, is left broke. Burt had invested in business which all went bust. One of them was a Mexican bottled water, which was basically selling water borne diseases for $3 per bottle. The other was a Titanic themed restaurant, but the floor was slanted and the food kept sliding off the tables. Burt spent $75,000 in the previous month on bed-sheets. All Burt has is a $200 bond that his Nana left him in 1973, which is now worth $248.Despondent, Burt tries to find work and is eventually hired as an entertainer at an assisted-living facility catering to former Vegas entertainers. There he meets Holloway, who retired several years before because he found that he was no longer happy performing. Holloway counsels Burt about magic, inspiring him to remember the initial wonder that led him to become a magician. Burt is shocked to see Jane-herself an aspiring magician-working for Gray. Appalled by Gray's (Jim Carrey) style, Holloway and Burt polish their own tricks. Jane visits her grandmother at the facility and patches things up with Burt.Doug is opening a new casino-hotel and is offering a five-year contract to the winner of a talent search on the casino's opening night. He invites Burt to do a magic show at his son's birthday party, but Gray also appears and tries to upstage Burt with his own tricks. Disgusted by Gray's actions, Jane leaves his show. Burt reconnects with Anton, who has been distributing magic sets in Cambodia. A drug found in Cambodia that puts users into a deep sleep gives them an idea for a sensational trick.At the show, Gray's performance involves him drilling into his brain, claiming it will not affect him. This however, backfires, leaving Gray with brain damage. Holloway then introduces Burt, Anton, and Jane's performance, the "Disappearing Audience". The group secretly sedates the audience with sleeping gas and then transports them to an outside location in the same seating locations. The audience awakes and responds with awe, and Doug awards the headlining act to Burt and Anton; they ask Jane to be their opening act. The trio then performs the Disappearing Audience trick again, returning everyone to the casino theater, as now mentally impaired Gray watches on with the drill bit still in his skull.The final scene shows how Burt, Anton, Holloway and others transported the audience to the open area, by unceremoniously dragging and transporting the unconscious audience members to the area and hauling them back to the theater in a moving van.

Storyline

• Superstar magicians Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) have ruled the Las Vegas Strip for years, raking in millions with illusions as big as Burt's growing ego. But lately the duo's greatest deception is their public friendship, while secretly they've grown to loathe each other. Facing cutthroat competition from guerrilla street magician Steve Gray (Jim Carrey), whose cult following surges with each outrageous stunt, even their show is starting to look stale. But there's still a chance Burt and Anton can save the act - both onstage and off - if only Burt can get back in touch with what made him love magic in the first place. — stefanstojkov "The Incredible Burt & Anton: A Magical Friendship!", starring the "Incredible Burt Wonderstone & Anton Marvelton", is a successful headlining Vegas magic act, they who have a theater in which they perform at Bally's named after them. Burt and Anton have been unconditionally loyal friends for thirty years since they were "Albert Wenzlestein" and "Anthony Mertz", bullied, neglected and thus otherwise friendless preteens, the birthday present of a Rance Holloway Magic Kit to Albert which brought them together. Their friendship and professional partnership is threatened as Burt has become completely enamored with his own fame, believing that he is the sole reason for the show's success. He is now misogynistic, treating each of their female assistants as interchangeable puppets. Their latest assistant, Jane, who Burt continually calls Nicole (Jane's predecessor) and who has admired Burt since she first saw him perform ten years ago, is also an aspiring magician. But his insensitive attitude toward her has changed her mind about what was her dream of working as an actual magician alongside him. He also believes that what worked in their show ten years ago when they started headlining at Bally's should work now to draw in the crowds. The show is also threatened with the arrival into Vegas of Steve Gray, a street magician who is an Internet sensation with his over the top vulgar street shows, in contrast to the more staid tricks Burt and Anton perform which are meant to entertain through amazement and wonder rather than gross theatrics. As Burt learns he has squandered away all his money as his professional life goes on a quick decline, working becomes important again for the fundamental reason of needing to support himself. In doing so, he may come across someone or some people who can show him again that special something which changed his life when he was that bullied, neglected and friendless preteen, just in time for their boss at Bally's, Doug Munny, the owner, to choose the headlining act for his new Vegas resort. — Huggo Partners for 30 years, illusionists Burt and Anton made the Las Vegas Strip a magical place to be. But lately Burt and Anton's ticket sales have plummeted right alongside their once-strong partnership, allowing gritty street wizard Steve Gray (Carrey) an opportunity to steal their runic thunder. Now, in order for old dogs Burt and Anton to reclaim their rightful status as the best magicians on the Strip, they must learn some dazzling new tricks, and patch up their fractured friendship in the process.. A middle-aged male magician does everything that he can to get back on stage after he feels like he has lost his edge and fame. As another middle-aged male magician grabs the spotlight, he tries to find anything that will help him become number one again. — RECB3