Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Box

If you have seen their show you will love this DVD. If you have not seen their show it will mean little to you. The DVD includes some of the illusions seen in the show and their early life story. I am seeking a pal versionof their other DVD's e.g. Siegfried and Roy at the Mirage and it must be a Region 2 version. I have been unable to unlock my player to cope with a region 1 DVD version of this " Mirage " disc. I would appreciate any information as to where I can get a region 2 disc. Luckily I got the magic box in region 2 from Holland. I have seen other reviews with some very harsh comments but the picture quality along with the special effects are excellent quality.

You know a movie which starts by a ten minutes long presentation of the theatre's sound system is not gonna rely too much on your central nervous system for understanding. IMAX movies belong to this kind. I knew it, yet nothing could have prepared me for the experience in deep stupidity that is the viewing of this film.

The story is told as if the audience had an IQ of 4. It is empty and vain. I wont even speak about it, it fills me with dismay.

The purpose of IMAX is to have spectacular shots. The excerpts from Sieg&Roy performances are really great and a pleasure to see, although the very nature of performance magic loses its interest on film.

However, these beautiful shots add up to a very little part, maybe 10%, of the movie time. The rest is storytelling so rotten it gives the creeps, and computer generated "stuff" that is at the same time technically awful and aesthetically extremely ugly and pointless. On the technical side, you can see the pixels in the image and the pixels in the (ugly) textures ; and on the aesthetic side, it's JUST PLAIN UGLINESS that you can witness in glorious 3-D and surround sound. I'll say it another time. IT'S A-F***IN UGLY !

One could say that, well, they intended to have that "cardboard" look for whatever artistic reason. But no. The word "artistic" cannot be associated with this film.

A troubling thing is also this repressed homosexuality which oozes fron the two "heroes" ; by the end it is pretty obvious that they probably do more than just magic together, and we dont see a single woman in the entire movie except their mothers and some dancers. And they show them living happily together with all their white tigers in their mutimillion ranch. Well well. I would have built a shrine to this director for having put out the first french kiss between two guys on IMAX close-up. But he didnt do it. He chose hypocrisy instead.

By the way, the director also directed "The Lawnmover Man", which seems fitting, in the end.

OHHHHH! This movie is outrageously awful. And yet, it is also bound to have you laughing for the whole film. No, film implies that it has merit. This is not a film. This movie has no merit at all.

The plot holes and inconsistencies are hysterical. The New York Times review mentions the line describing either Siegfried's or Roy's childhood in "Pre-post World War II Germany." Sure enough, it's there. Whatever that means, I'd love to know it. My German friends can't figure it out either.

Poor Teenage Siegfried sees a book about magic in the store window but he doesn't have enough money to buy it. Lucky for him, the exact amount of money needed floats by in a puddle. I'm inclined to think that he broke the store window and stole the book, but....

Then, Teenage Roy is caught in quicksand...outside of Bremen in Germany. German quicksand!!! That's right, only in this movie. Fortunately, the big shaggy dog saves his life and solidifies his bond with the animals.

One day, 20-year-old Roy is playing with a Cheetah at the zoo. The next day, he's smuggled the Cheetah aboard an oceanliner where Roy is working as a steward. How did the Cheetah get out of the zoo? The movie doesn't go there, but we know the truth...

It's hilarious to see the look of disgust that Siegfried has for the tigers while Roy is riding on their backs.

Poor Anthony Hopkins. Fortunately, he's made enough good movies (Silence of the Lambs, Titus (A MUST SEE!), etc.) to not be remembered for his role as the narrator in this lame waste of money (both mine and the producers').

There is so much more to say, but I forgot most of the movie because I was laughing too much. I'll close with this, however. The only possible explanation I could think of for the overall awfulness of this movie, is that the Tiger wrote the script.

The IMDB lists this one as a "documentary." It's more like a 40-minute commercial, written by Siegfried & Roy themselves. At no point do you feel you've learned anything new about these carefully coiffed slight-of-hand experts. The first half of the production spins a magical tale of how fate brought the two European artistes together and eventually made them the toast of Sin City. The last half of the film indelicately drives home the point that Siegfried & Roy's animals live pampered, un-abused existences on the pair's luxurious Las Vegas estate (the only thing that could have made this sequence more obvious would have been a subtitle that read "Take that, PETA!"). Yes, it's filled with fancy 3-D effects, not to mention all those magic tricks that have made this decrepit duo two of the biggest stars on the Vegas Strip. But the best trick doesn't even happen on the screen. It takes place at the box office before the show even starts when you're duped into forking over eight bucks for a so-called "documentary" that turns out to be forty minutes of fluff.

There is a mistake on the credits of this movie that I would like to set straight.

Kaelee Brown (sp) is listed as the Visual Effects Coordinator for this film. That is incorrect. I was the VFX Coordinator on the film, but failed to get the credit because I quit prior to the completion of post-production. Kaelee Brown was the girlfriend of Unit Production Manager, Neal Allen. Kaelee came on for a few weeks in the end and got the credit because of that connection. Due to the fact that this was a non-union shoot, I had no recourse to get the credit changed. I have attempted to contact both producer Michael Lewis and Director Brett Leonard, but the production company (L-Squared) is no longer in business, and they will not answer e-mails.

I am no longer in Visual Effects, but it would still be nice to be credited for the 16-hour days I put in on the shoot.

Why I quit is another story involving Visual Effects Producer, Kymber Lim, who has gone on to much success - and I'm sure her lying and back-stabbing has helped. That's why I left.

It is a pretty cool flick, though. Even if you're not an S&R fan.

DJR