Book and Movie Reports by Ed

Movie(s) Review: "The Illusionist" and "The Prestige" Do you ever wish you could rewrite movies? I really felt that way after recently watching The Illusionist and The Prestige back to back. I love watching magic tricks. Even when I know how they're done, I love seeing how the illusion happens. Both of these movies are about magicians who lose the woman they love, both have startling twist endings, and both made me roll my eyes. One problem with The Illusionist is that the illusions are not possible, at least, not without a massive computer graphics effort. That a turn-of-the-century magician could produce these effects is ridiculous. My main problem with this movie, however, is its tone. After SOMETHING BAD happens, it is very depressed for most of the rest. There is no reason for this. Instead of feeling depressed because SOMETHING BAD happened, the magician could have been angry and vengeful instead. The actual plot result would have been identical, but the a