The Trick With the Gun (2015)
The Bullet Catch: It's the most dangerous illusion in magic. Fourteen men and women have died performing it. In The Trick With the Gun, magician Scott Hammell and author Chris Gudgeon set out to perform their own version of the deadly trick, and get more than they bargained for. What begins as an exploration of the hidden world of magic ends as a study of a friendship falling apart. It's a story about risk, relationships and the delicate dance between reality and illusion . . . and how everything changes when you're staring down the barrel of a gun. Featuring interviews and performances from Penn & Teller, Bill Kalush, Carl Skenes, Hans Morretti, George Schindler, and many others.
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So much average
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
OK, let me tell you the major flaw with this movie....The movies main focus is the relationship between the two friends. The shooter and the shootee:the magician. From the beginning of the movie we are pulled into this strained relationship, and I wouldn't have a problem with that except for the context of this relationship. The magician has a problem with the shooter. He wants to make sure he can shoot straight, so he grills him about going to the shooting range and practicing and so forth. The shooter claims throughout the documentary that he is more than capable of doing the job and therein lies the basis for the movie. Now, for the problem....Obviously the shooter does not need to know how to shoot a gun! This is a magic trick, and as such, no one will be in danger because no one is ever going to shoot a gun at the magician. If you want to see how this trick is actually accomplished just go on wikipedia. Their are many different and very simplistic methods used to create this illusion. So, this is why whenever the magician is talking to his friend the "shooter" there is much rolling of eyes and obvious befuddlement. I can imagine the cutting room floor is filled with lines from the shooter exclaiming "Why should I learn how to shoot when there's not even going to be a shot fired!" And that is the feeling one gets throughout the documentary. The most ridiculous moment in the movie comes when the magician is practicing catching tennis balls in preparation for catching a live bullet....Yes, I actually just typed that.....He also claims that he will actually not just catch the bullet, which of course is impossible, but he will catch it as it bounces off his chest....Yes, I also just typed that as well. Do they makers of this movie think we are all 5 years old? This documentary is complete rubbish, and an insult to anyone with an IQ above 100. I think if the makers of the documentary were a little more honest with the whole thing, this could have been much better. Sadly it has the feel of just another "reality show" where nothing is real at all.