Perhaps I'm just weird about certain things but I don't like movies about illusionists. Thing that annoys me about them is that they can make things as crazy as they want, without having to explain anything. And yes, this movie also features all sort of implausible magic tricks in it. It feels like cheating! It should be a law, that when you decide to do a movie about illusionists, you are only allowed to use actual magic tricks and no 'movie magic'.

But besides all of that, this movie has plenty of other problems in it as well. The premise actually still sounded kind of nice and promising to me but I was absolutely annoyed and disappointed by the way certain things played out.

It believes that keep pulling rabbits out of the hat and stack surprise upon surprise, equals being a clever and surprising movie. But more often than not, things just don't add up too well. It's a typical example of a movie that thinks it's being more clever than it in fact truly is. As a matter of fact, the movie is a very lazily written one in some regards. It mostly relies on coincidences and other conveniences for its story. When looking back at this movie, you have to agree on it that certain things just don't make any sense or add up too well, no matter whether you liked the overall movie or not.

And it still is a very easy movie to like. I mean, sure, it's an entertaining one to watch. It has a constant fast pace and some fine actors, that help to keep you interested in the movie, all throughout. It's not the fun heist movie I expected it to be but it certainly is not without its entertainment.

Thing that still at the same time annoys me about its pace is that it's trying to go to fast at times. Sometimes the camera literally can't stand still and it keeps swirling all over the place, even when not an awful lot is happening. No, I'm not talking about shaky cam but swirly cam...shaky cam's lesser known but far more annoying cousin!

Guess you could say that the foremost thing this movie has going for it, is its cast. Not all characters are equally likable but the actors playing them still give a fine performance. I particularly liked Mark Ruffalo and Woody Harrelson in this movie.

Really, calling this movie a terrible one would be crazy in my opinion. It actually, despite everything, still succeeds to bring some entertainment, some good snappy type of dialog and fine performances by its cast. I just wasn't too fond of its story however and the way certain things played out.

6/10

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A movie about life that hardly is teaching or saying anything about life? I just don't know what this movie was trying to do or say with its story.

This movie is confusing me. Was it supposed to be some sort of random slice of life? Then why did it had to pick such a terribly uninteresting approach, with the totally wrong sort of characters. It just doesn't help the movie that its main character is a lying criminal, who besides, by his irresponsible actions, is constantly bringing his little 11-year old nephew in serious danger, while trying to teach him about the 'real life'.

Just because he takes his little nephew along and just because the movie is basically seen from the young, innocent, unbiased and still naive perspective of the young boy, the movie believes that's enough to make us sympathize for the movie it's main character as well. Well, nice try but it most certainly didn't work for me. It's just a cheap way to create some sympathy and provide the movie with some false emotions. The movie should have put some more effort into creating some true good emotions, plot lines and characters really. That way the movie actually might have turned into a heartfelt, effective- as well as truly engaging one.

And if this movie is supposed to be all about life, what kind of lessons are we supposed to take out of this movie? That crime doesn't pay and life on the streets is hard? Well, isn't that a well known fact and aren't there like a million movies like that already? No, this movie isn't teaching or showing us anything new and surely also doesn't provide any solutions or answers to anything. Granted that the movie isn't ever trying to provide any solutions or answer questions but it's the kind of depth and seriousness that I was missing from the movie and its story.

It's a very shallow and simplistic movie, that tries to come across as something realistic but all of its plot lines and developments prevent this movie from actually ever coming across as one.

I liked some of its cast. I mean hey, it has got Danny Glover and Charles S. Dutton in it and to be fair, Common isn't all too bad in this movie but his character certainly still remains a very lacking one and he also just isn't the sort of actor that you would like to watch as a main character. He doesn't have enough range (yet) as an actor to be able to pull off certain emotions and to move the audience and to get people behind his character.

There are far better and more effective genre movies to watch! This one is nothing but a half handed attempt, that is lacking any good depth, emotions and originality, to just about everything.

4/10

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Something is missing from this movie. By all means, this should had been a great, entertaining and heartfelt, modern fairy tale, for the whole family to enjoy but the movie handles certain themes poorly and make some odd choices with its story at times.

And honestly, I still foremost really liked the movie. It's harmless and cute enough still and the movie has its moments. But that doesn't take away anything from the fact that this movie still is being a bit of a missed opportunity.

All of the right intentions were there, it just didn't always worked out successfully. The approach they were going for was a heartfelt family movie, in which a mysterious young boy brings people together and changes their lives for the positive. It just happen to do it all in a wrong way, for most of the time. First of all; it does far too little with its mystery/fantasy aspects. They accept the boy for who he is and where he came from pretty early on- and easily. Besides, it all seems like the boy is doing very little special actually, as if the movie was afraid it would loose some of its viewers if it was going to be more heavy on its fantasy aspects.

That perhaps was the movie its biggest problem; it wasn't heavy on its fantasy. The movie rather picks some uninteresting plot developments instead. It prefers to be about pencils, as opposed to something more heartfelt or bigger than life. It seems like the movie still wanted to be about morals and wanted to teach you about life but it mostly does so by inserting stereotypical characters and some forced or formulaic dramatic moments. It's not as warm and emotional involving as this movie required to be, in order for it to let it all work out.

I am also still a bit confused about it who this movie was aimed for. It seems to be a bit too slow and uninteresting for young children and not convincing enough for adults. It's a bit in between of being an entertaining children's movie and a modern fairy tale for adults. I did wished they had balanced certain things out a bit better, so the movie would had been better and more fun to watch for both adults and youngsters.

The movie is still being fine as it is. I mean, all the things I had problems with didn't ruined the movie for me in any way and I could certainly still enjoy and appreciate it for what it was. It's cuteness factor and innocence still make this a recommendable film. Just don't expect to be very taken- or blown away by any of it.

7/10

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