magicians

This week's rental DVD was magicians.

It stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb, who are a double act. They've had their own show on BBC, which I have to admit was a little disappointing, but they're also the stars of Peep Show on Channel 4, which is one of the best sitcoms ever.

Mitchell and Webb don't write Peep Show, but Magicians was written by the people who do. It was also directed by a guy who used to be a Magician (in fact, I think the premise for the film was his idea). It also had Jessica Stevenson in it (off of Spaced), who actually probably gave the best performance.

If I'm honest, however, the film was a little disappointing. Trouble is I've kinda been thinking through as to why and I can't work it out. I think it was more about a combination of little things, rather than anything major.

For one thing it didn't really seem to actually have a stance on magicians themselves. Whilst that sort of thing is clearly just a backdrop to the story (stories are always about characters) it still came across as being partly appreciating magicians and partly thinking they're sados.

Another problem was that the jokes seemed a bit thin. Whilst you expect movies to be more focused on a core plot than perhaps a TV sitcom can get away with, doing so to the detriment of the gags seems like a bad idea.

I also found it difficult to like or, indeed, sympathise with any of the characters. In the peep show, I can understand Mitchell and Webb's characters as people, even when they behave despicably. Here they both just seemed like people I didn't really care about.

There wasn't enough establishing them as people for me to care about - just a montage of photos over the credits and a single scene where they chop a woman's head off. Why does this make me care about them? I didn't really care about her.

That last one is actually a pretty big one and may be the core story.

It certainly carries over into my frustration over David Mitchell's character and Jessica Stevenson - their relationship is all over the place and it actually got a little annoying (and confusing, to be honest).

Lastly is a bit of an odd one - it sort of seems like it's trying to be a parody of The Prestige. Unfortunately it only does the in a half-arsed way, plus The Prestige is a brilliant film and doesn't really deserve any sort of parodying.