Magic Magic (2013)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is a very good movie. The character development is great and the tension seems unbearable at times. Its a movie that has more affect with the second viewing because once u know the outcome, you can see every little creepy nook and cranny. This film follows a young and probably immature girl who goes on a vacation with her older cousin and a few of her older friends. This girl thought she would have fun but it turns out she just couldn't handle it. There are many things that remind me of my childhood, as I have been in the shoes of the protagonist and the antagonist at times. That moment when ur surround by older kids and you think they are always laughing at you. Or that moment when you are the older kid and can tell the girl is uncomfortable but keep it up for no reason. Just cuz ur older and apparently to you, cooler too. Being isolated and feeling trapped can cause a person to really lose their grip especially when they are struggling to fit in. But this movie is so much more than that. The film slowly builds to an extreme level of tension and as the viewer you are scared to see what happens next. Its an example and testament to times when you think you have a clue but you don't. The older kids were certain they knew what Alicia needed. They were a little too certain,for tge wrong reason. They didn't really read the signs. This is a powerful movie for youths to watch. A powerful message on bullying and a powerful message on paranoia, Magic, Magic truly stands tall in its genre. It IS a horror movie and in the best kind of way possible.

MAGIC MAGIC is a horror film with a twist, and to provide any kind of review of the material at all means that I need to spoil the twist. It starts out as your usual 'backpacking Americans run into trouble abroad' type thriller, complete with lots of animal cruelty for those who like that sort of thing, and some of the most repulsive characters ever put on screen.As the storyline progresses the viewer gradually becomes aware that this is something different. The horrors aren't supernatural and there's no killer here after the group, instead, the horror is internal and more realistic than most; it's the horror of mental illness. Sadly, the script is quite wishy-washy when it comes to the specifics of the thing, and the aforementioned bad characterisation spoils the whole thing. The Chilean locations are nice, but Michael Cera plays one of the most irritating characters I've ever seen, and Juno Temple (KILLER JOE) isn't much better in yet another degrading part.

OK, WOW; this "movie", if you would call it that, was completely pitiful, bad acting, a horrible and near-impossible to understand turn of events/plot-line/etc and just hard to watch.*SPOILERS IMMINENT* I watched this with my father and a friend of mine, and we all shared the same view as we watched the main character sabotage herself, blame it on her "friends" refuse to listen when they DID try to help her, all to die in the end by neglect/stupidity on the part of her friends for taking here to a witch doctor, instead of an emergency room, and watching her die while choking on a part of the "healing serum" or whatever the hell she was being made to drink.I'll probably get some anger/hate for this review, and some may understand and like the movie more, but I'm sorry, I just could not. One star.

I could resume what i liked watching in one sentence: I liked juno temple boobs and ass. Almost nothing else with logic or sense happens in the movie. This is not a portrait of a girl with mental illness, although you can find some craziness there. What does hypnosis has to do with mental illness? What does psychopathy behavioural (like the killing of the animals)has to do with mental illness? And why she dies at the end? In the movie you see something that i don't know what is...a disease(?) that progresses rapidly. Whatever that is, mental illness takes its slow pace to evolve.Oh! and you don't die! ...just like that! If you like mental illness movies, try "one flew over cuckoo's nest" or "A Beautiful Mind" and leave this aside.