Director: Joe Tyler Gold
MPAA Rating: NR
Film Pulse Score: 5/10
Every year we see new trends form in the movies we see. Some years it’s zombies, or werewolves, or fairy tales, and it seems like 2013 is the year of magic. We’ve had The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Deceptive Practice, Now You See Me, and this film, Desperate Acts of Magic from writer/director Joe Tyler Gold. While this film might not be at the same level of quality as the previously mentioned titles, there’s still some entertainment value to be found here, especially if you’re into magic.
The film stars Joe Tyler Gold as Jason Kant, an amateur magician who loses his day job and decides to make a go of it on the professional magic circuit. He enters himself in an international competition and ends up falling for another one of the contestants. Wackiness ensues as Jason attempts to build this relationship while still working to win the competition and become a recognized and respected magician.
The plot of the film is bare bones and fairly uninteresting. Each section in between the magic performances feels like it’s just a transition to get to the next trick. This structure feel not unlike a porno flick where the story is inconsequential and thin, and the viewer is just waiting to get to the next money shot. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if you’re a magic connoisseur, as this is really the first “magic porn” film I can think of. Most of the tricks are fun and fairly well done, though some of them miss the mark.
Being a low-budget indie, this suffers from the pitfalls that occur with many films of similar quality. Visually, it’s dreadful, looking one notch above a home movie, the acting is poor, though not nearly as bad as some, and the score is completely awful.
On the plus side, the writing is fairly well done and many of the jokes are clever despite the paper thin plot. It is a comedy and while some of the humor falls flat, it’s a mostly entertaining and light film. It’s goofy and it knows what its limitations are and doesn’t try to exceed them.
If you’re a fan of magic, Desperate Acts of Magic is a no-brainer. There’s no doubt plenty of inside jokes for those of you that fancy yourselves the next David Copperfield or Chris Angel, but it’s also a simple, accessible film that would be okay to watch with the kids. If you go into it expecting The Prestige, you’ll be sorely disappointed, but if you just want to see some cool magic tricks then it’s probably worth a watch.
