The Prestige

[Slayerik]

Speaking of good movies, what a great ending. Even kinda seeing it coming, I had to rewind and watch it again. I remember my jaw being dropped and saying 'Oh shit' a few times.

[HaemishM]

The Prestige was fabulous from start to finish. Bowie as Tesla was just awesomesauce.

[NowhereMan]

Yeah, this film is a twist ending done well. Even when you see it coming it still works and some nice acting too.

[stray]

Bowie as Tesla. Bowie as Warhol. Bowie as Pilate. Bowie in Labyrinth. Bowie in Hunger. The man should act more.

Anyhow, I didn't see a lot of things coming. Liked it a lot.

[Rishathra]

Great movie.  It motivated me to read the book because, hey, the book a movie is based on is always better, right?

Umm, no.  It was pretty enjoyable right up until the end.  Christopher Priest is defintely not the kind of author that feels the need to shackle himself with such creatively stunting constructs like logic, or plot resolution.  The movie actually improves on the story.

[DraconianOne]

Bowie as Tesla. Bowie as Warhol. Bowie as Pilate. Bowie in Labyrinth. Bowie in Hunger. The man should act more.

Anyhow, I didn't see a lot of things coming. Liked it a lot.

Think that Bowie as Maj. Jack Celliers is probably the best acting he's done.

[Amarr HM]

Sorry but Bowie is a subpar actor and this was a great film really enjoyed it.

[Selby]

I figured it out before it hit (usually I don't), but it was still a pretty good movie.  I definitely feel like I didn't waste my time or energy watching it.

[ghost]

A bit of advice on this one:

1.  The book is much better than the movie.
2.  If you have already read the book, do not expect the movie to be the same as the book.  In fact, consider them almost 100% different.

Good movie on its own.

[Rishathra]

The book was fantastic all the way up until the very last page.

[ghost]

The book was fantastic all the way up until the very last page.

I know.  It is sad, really.  I still give it a B plus.

[UnSub]

I really loved this movie. Most people I know who saw it didn't like it.

[lamaros]

If Jackman, Bale, and Caine didn't do as good a job as they did the movie would have been pretty meh, as it is it was enjoyable though.

[Rishathra]

The book was fantastic all the way up until the very last page.

I know.  It is sad, really.  I still give it a B plus.

[Triforcer]

The ending was obvious roughly 30 minutes before it happened.  The movie was fantastic until about that point, then it turned stupid.  

[UnSub]

I didn't care about the twist. I cared about

[Margalis]

I do feel like it suffered from the few too many twists syndrome that plagues a lot of movies these days. Sometimes I'm watching a film with twist after twist and I lose interest because the plot doesn't seem to matter to the writers as much as the supposed cleverness.

I do think what UnSub mentioned was the core of the story and should have been played up a bit more rather than the reveals at the end. In particular the penultimate reveal was not surprising at all to the point where I'd say it wasn't even supposed to be surprising except that the camerawork lingering on certain shots was clearly supposed to shock the viewer.

IMO it could have wrapped up 15-20 minutes earlier and been a better film. I still liked it, just thought it lost the plot a bit in the third act.

[WayAbvPar]

Great flick. If ScarJo had frolicked around nude for a few scenes it would rank among my favorites of all time  

[NiX]

Reading this thread makes me want to watch The Illusionist again.

[Rasix]

Reading this thread makes me want to watch The Illusionist again.

Superior movie.

[Yegolev]

Johannsen, Bowie.

[NiX]

Johannsen, Bowie.

Biel, Giamatti.

[Amarr HM]

Yeh Illusionist beats this hands down. Bowie is a terribad actor can't believe anyone would watch a film for him, remember Labyrinth?

[pxib]

I thought a better movie would have had the Bale character, crazy in prison, insisting that Jackman has a machine that duplicates people... only to learn that Jackman was simply doing a flashier version of his original version of the trick, and faked his own death by killing his look-alike when he knew Bale would be at the show. The Tesla bit was never believable and felt at odds with the otherwise realistic film. I felt the same way about the book. Better to have it turn out to be just another elaborate lie in the journals they're writing for eachother. Those relationships between the characters were far more interesting than the twists and gimmicks.

...and yes, while The Prestige is a quaint little puzzle box, The Illusionist is cinema. Also Giamatti's role is my favorite he's played.

[Yegolev]

Yeh Illusionist beats this hands down. Bowie is a terribad actor can't believe anyone would watch a film for him, remember Labyrinth?

Shaddap.

[UnSub]

"The Illusionist" is a cheap trick next to "The Prestige". Quaint, watchable, but it lacks the substance.

[HaemishM]

Reading this thread makes me want to watch The Illusionist again.

Superior movie.

No.

[Rasix]

Reading this thread makes me want to watch The Illusionist again.

Superior movie.

No.

Go play some Red Steel.   

Not saying I didn't like this movie either.  Without the dumb sci-fi stuff it could have been truly epic. 

[HaemishM]

The Illusionist bugged me from the get-go. The accents bugged the shit out of me for some reason, especially Giamatti's and Norton's. I love the actors in the Illusionist, but it just fell flat to me.

[Samwise]

The Illusionist kinda bored me.

[NiX]

The Illusionist kinda bored me.

This is because you're bland and unrelenting in how you demonstrate how bland you are.

Mr. Bland.

[Hoax]

I'm so sorry I didn't see this until now.  Holy fuck what a movie, great twists, loved it.  It almost lost me for a minute there in the middle I have to say, but that was because I thought I had it figured out (I knew something was up with Bale's buddy) but I had it all wrong which makes it even more fun.

[Brogarn]

The Illusionist kinda bored me.

The Illusionist was a fucking horrible movie. There was zero chemistry between the Ed and Jessica, a stupid ass plot, illusions that didn't make sense, and a wasted use of Paul Giamatti. I will forever remember Paul laughing at the end at what they got away with and being pissed that that was his reaction. Regardless of how he felt about the victim, his character's life was the law and these people broke it in a major way. Didn't make a bit of fucking sense.

I'm not sure about the Prestige. I liked it and didn't like it. I think what Hugh's character did in the end was both horrifying and effective, yet kind of didn't fit for me. I would have liked it better, and thought it fit better if it were actually a trick and not some weird magic Tesla ... thing. I don't know. I'm pretty sure I'm alone on that, but it is what it is. I felt it would have been far better to have had Hugh's character get the upper hand with a trick that nailed Bale's character. And yes I understand it was a game of one upmanship with Hugh going too far. But still... I just felt it was... meh. Oh, and if I missed something at the end, and didn't understand what truly happened, then please explain it to me.

Oh, and Bowie as Tesla was fucking win.

[Paelos]

...and yes, while The Prestige is a quaint little puzzle box, The Illusionist is cinema. Also Giamatti's role is my favorite he's played.

Prestige is better, but in a flawed way. Also are we really going to degrade Giamatti's work to say it was his best role in The Illusionist? The man is one of the more talented actors I've seen. His recent work in John Adams is rivetting alone. Also, Cinderella Man and Sideways. Geez.

[schild]

His best work was Shoot'em Up, no question. In fact, it made up for Sideways, which was intolerable trash for people who want to pretend to care about cinema and made me hate the guy on a level I hate few actors.