[.ca] Rough Magic

Russell Crowe is the reason to watch this odd film:
For some strange reason, only Bridget Fonda's name is mentioned in the listing, when Russell Crowe is the reason to buy this DVD. In a co-starring role, he brings attractive wounded dash to an odd film with mystical undertones. The movie is flawed, with an improbable story, but the interaction of the cool Fonda and macho Crowe, with the support of Jim Broadbent and Paul Rodgriguez, helps draw you in to a world populated by magicians and rogues. While the movie didn't meet with much success in the theater, it deserves a new life in the home movie library. Crowe is charming and humorous, and as always, rises above the material to fully flesh out his character, a war vet trying to make a go of detective work. Fonda is a confused magician's assistant on the lam. Together, they find their way to Mexico where snake oil salesman Jim Broadbent makes their acquaintance. The road trip leads them to a roadside encounter with Rodriguez, who is deliciously smarmy as an annoyed petrol station owner. The unlikely adventures, encounters and errors can be forgiven on re-viewing this film, and one can enjoy the interplay of character, some beautiful scenery and an actor\oCrowe\c who as always, is on top of his game and joy to watch.

Run Away If You Love Good Movies:
I got Rough Magic through the Inter-Library Loan System. I can only grovel in relief I didn't pay money for it. This movie tells the story of Myra Shumway, played by Bridget Fonda, a magician's assistant who, through a series of events too boring to detail here, flees to Mexico with a roll of film containing a photo of a senatorial hopeful (her fiance) killing a man. (And don't ALL ultra-rich prospective senators choose shirttail poor, tough talking, thieving magician's assistants to marry?) Russell Crowe is Alex Ross (no relation to the famous comic book artist of the same name), a newspaper stringer detailed to find her. That bare description of plot sounds like it could actually make a decent romantic screwball comedy. Any idea can be well or poorly done, right? Unfortunately, Rough Magic goes straight for "poorly," not even stopping at "well." The script is trite, the pacing slow, the direction amateurish. Myra's surrogate father figure, her boss at the beginning of the movie, looks and acts like an overdone, overage, overweight Mandrake the Magician. Myra's soon to be ex-boyfriend, the wannabe senator, is a raving loonie who plans to have their marriage in a museum dedicated to his family's uranium business. No, I'm not kidding. When asked, "Why not a church?" he enthuses, "This is a church! A church of atomic science!" Myra herself is impossible to like, a compulsive thief with a smart mouth (as smart as this script can make it, anyway) who constantly lies to everyone around her - even when there's no logical reason to lie. Bridget Fonda once again proves her inability to turn in a decent job of acting. I hate to say that, it sounds meanspirited. I'm sure she's a very nice person in real life, but the God's honest truth is she's not much of an actress. Even Russell Crowe, my favorite actor, with a vein of talent deep and wide running through his soul, is unimpressive as Ross. His character is vague, unaffecting, and Russell endows him with a mushy, obviously fake New York accent. Or maybe it's Chicago. Hell, Boston. It's so inconstantly applied it's hard to tell. Almost as if, realizing he was involved in a piece of forgettable, poorly produced trash, Russell decided not even to try. There's zero romantic chemistry between the two main characters. Fonda and Crowe move - lethargically - through the motions of flirting and finding each other attractive. And it's not believable. Obviously the only reason this is happening, these two people are falling in love, is that the script requires it. After 30 minutes or so, I just couldn't hack it anymore and stopped the tape. The person who had Rough Magic before me also stopped it less - MUCH less - than halfway through. I know this because someone was not kind, they did not rewind. I did, of course - thus readying this piece of dreck for the next unsuspecting victim. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

Ridiculous plotless Magic:
I must admit that I saw this terrible movie based solely on the fact that some parts of it were shot in my home town. Yes, I'm mexican, and in the small town I live, we don't get to see much films shot, let alone foreign films with stars like Bridget fonda (back then none knew much about Crowe, one of my favorite actors nowadays). The point is that since the movie didn't have any publicity around here I didn't know anything about the story or so, thus, I had absolutely no expectations on the film except seeing my town in the movie. Actually I saw it on video, since it never came to theaters around here. My God! this movie was a shame! You feel shame when you see a movie as bad as this, specially because the way they portray Mexico. Well, actually that's only a minor grip, because in my opinion, the movie lacks a plot, the acting (even coming from Crowe and Bridget Fonda) is plain BAD, the editing, rythm, camera direction and direction in general, are abysmal. What happened whit this movie? This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The movie never feels in a "fantasy-like" set (or even magical one), although there are things like this really stupid scene where a guy is transformed into a sausage or something alike! what's with that? What's this? Sabrina the Teenage Witch? There it would fit, here just feels like "oh, that's... huh... yeah... funny?... weird? what was this movie again?". If you want to give it a shot rent it first, please, before buying it! ...

Not As Rough As It Sounds:
As you can see from my name I'm a big fan of movies! (I've reveiwed another VHS movie online, see The Quick And The Dead. I'm still Moviechick101). "Rough Magic" begins with Myra who's an assistant to a kind magician mentor, and has a jerky fiancee. Everything is looking great but when a backstage prank turns to murder, Myra leaves her small town and heads for Mexico. Her fiancee is determined to bring her back, (more for his benefit than anyone else's) so he hires a down-and-out but charming fella by the name of Alec Ross to get Myra back. So Myra is in Mexico just hanging around and swindling guys out of a few bucks. Then she meets Alec Ross, who can be pretty funny except he's got a bit of a fast mouth, like Myra. So of course this means that you get some down-right funny scenes in this one! Although when they first meet, you can tell that Myra thinks that Alec is a sketchy guy, she goes along with him on a road trip because she figures that she's got nothing to lose. So she and Alec go on a wild adventure of trust, betrayal, humor and ultimety love. (I won't tell anymore because it would take away from watching the movie). Although a few scenes are slightly confusing* and I think the movie lost it a bit in the end, the last couple of scenes are pretty touching so I gave it a four out of five. It's a movie worth renting and I'm even concidering buying it. If you're not into the romantic comedy thing, (don't worry, neither am I) see "Rough Magic" for it's humor. It's a nice film that you won't mind watching a few times. *Due to the fact that a couple of scenes are confusing, I suggest watching "Rough Magic" once or twice. And remember, exspect the unexpected! P.S. I have no idea why there are two of my reviews posted here, I only sumitted one.

Not As Rough As It Looks:
As you can see from my identity, I'm a big fan of movies! If I like what I see I reveiw it, and even if it's just okay, I do it anyway. (I've reveiwed another VHS movie online, see The Quick And The Dead, I'm still Moviechick101). "Rough Magic" begins with Myra, who's a magician's assistant with a jerky fiancee and a kind magician mentor. Everything is looking great, but when a backstage prank turns to murder, Myra leaves her small town and heads for Mexico. Her Fiancee is determened to bring her back, (more for his benifit than anyone else's). So he hires a guy by the name of Alec Ross who's just a down-and-out fella to get Myra back. So Myra's in Mexico and she soon meets Alec Ross, who can be really funny except he's got a bit of a fast mouth. But of course Myra does also, so they get along very well. (Because of this you get some laugh-out-loud scenes in this movie!). Althought when they first meet you can tell that Myra thinks that Alec is a sketchy guy, she has nothing to lose so she and Alec embark on a wild adventure of humor, trust, betrayal and ultimetly...love!(I won't tell anymore, because it would take away from watching the movie). Although a few scenes are slightly confusing,* and I think that the movie lost it a bit near the end, the final scene is touching so I gave it a four out of five. Which is still very good. It's defenetly worth renting and I'm seriously concidering purchasing it online. I loved it, and I'm really not one for romantic comedies! It's a cute film that you won't mind watching again. *Due to the fact that a couple of scenes were a little confusing I suggest watching the movie once or twice. Believe me it works!