Lost in the Shuffle

He started off good. The history of playing cards etc, but devolved into some silly long winded, self-indulgent, pat on his own back about some theory of a king or something......who cares?! Should've delved deeper into the mystery and meaning of the cards themselves. BORING! He goes on and on about different influences, seeming to try to make this a biography, and it has some good clips. A couple of good tricks by people that aren't him. He stacks these different interactions in some sort of, i dunno what. What does it even have to do with his end "trick"? There is absolutly no payoff to this terrible boring movie. I appreciate the clips of the greats, but this is just BORING.

This is an excellent movie! Lots of interesting facts, a mystery and tons of fantastic magic. Be sure and check it out. We have seen it a few times now. Each and every time we watched it we saw something a little different. The most famous card manipulators in the world are in the movie and they each bring something to the "table". We got out a deck of cards just to see if the mystery was in our deck. It is neat to learn something new that we did not realize before. We will never look at the deck the same again. Thank you for making this excellent movie readily available for everyone to enjoy!

I'd probably give this a higher review- six or maybe a seven-if not for one thing: ALL the ten stars reviews here are by people who have never written a review on IMDb before. This often means that someone had people log on and write ten star reviews to boost the film's rating and credibility. There are two reviews that don't fit this description, the authors of which gave the film an eight and a nine respectively. These are worth reading. Another person gave it four stars. I do think it deserves better than that, but at least I know this opinion came from someone not associated with the film. [BTW, I'd issue the same warning about films that receive a lot of one star reviews from people who haven't reviewed anything else. This can often be enemy action.] As for my own opinion, I think the film has some very good aspects. It's always fun to watch magicians at work, and some of the history is interesting. But the film's main claim is based on too much supposition to be of any value in academic history circles. Correlation does not imply causation, as the saying goes. The film is well put together and not a total waste of time, but take everything it says with a grain of salt.

This Movie is an absolute must see! Such a creative and unique plot about the secret murder mystery hidden within the cards that everyone knows so well. Included are educational and thought provoking interviews from some of the greatest leaders of the Magic industry! The movie also tells the story of how playing cards, as we know it came about, from the earliest record in Chinese paintings to Medieval times. Shawn Farquhar and Jon Ornoy have done a great job mixing the history of cards and card magic with the story and symbolism of what really is going on behind the very familiar characters on the front of those cards. Farquhar and Ornoy go to great lengths on their worldwide journey to bring to you their revelation!

And what it feels like to be in the company of ones. What differentiates them from engineers and people in scientific trades. The value and the heartfeltness of truths for all factions and for all types of people. The value and place of story telling. And still all the aspects it takes to become a performer in your own right.

With good editing.

The final big time and place cut I was sceptical on, but upon the second viewing - it fits and brings the (not so obvious) story arc to its intended finish.

Whats especially well done is, that it stays truthful to the audience throughout, while it tells them everything to know to understand whats happening before their eyes in an analytic way also -- and yet in its credit sequence it ends with the most easy thing you can do to an audience - mislead them, but in a way - that if you listen to it closely you'll understand, that it is misdirection in a very fundamental way. Yet still truthful. And for certain, no big mystery, because you've been told how it works by one of the magicians in the first third of the movie.

And yet the movie is not about any of these things. Its about the sense of wonder, the heart, the comfort and the story telling, that Shawn Farquhar brings and brought to magic -- and about being entertained by a shockingly probable murder mystery. And at least in my interpretation, how he hands over his understanding of the craft to future generations.