Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Box

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.

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.

I've never been to Las Vegas, I've never seen S&R show, and all my knowledge about them comes from Father of the Pride series. Still, this movie was definitely worth watching and very enjoyable.

By today's standards, the movie lacks in graphics and in scientific approach. I would have so much preferred to watch it without all these ridiculous and silly "effects" which may have been impressive a decade ago, but now look cheap. Special effects should help viewers immerse in the movie, not exist by themselves. But this knowledge comes with time and a decade ago these effects were the way to go, so I'm not to blame the authors. Another problem is that today everyone knows that there's no such thing as a "white lion breed", so what S&R did isn't environment preservation in any way.

But... the way S&R treat their animals and interact with them warms my heart. I don't advocate using animals in circuses, but I know for sure S&R love them and never treat them badly (just google for "Make sure no harm comes to Montecore").

The way S&R portray their childhood memories, children's perception of the world is interesting and fun to watch. This is as documentary as Simba's singing I Just Can't Wait To Be King in The Lion King is. But still, it's fun.

The music, the narration are top notch too.

The sad thing about the film is that there's a very high quality IMAX filmstrip lying somewhere, but we won't get to see it...

Siegfried and Roy's first autobiographical sketch on film comes with state of the art graphic effects and a touching story about the lives of two of the most greatest performers alive. In their story they challenge the obstacles that came from postwar Germany and the strenuous tasks of making it in show business. Furthermore the film adds a touch of beauty to the meaning of fufillment of lives goals but gives a new understanding to the word success, for not only is it acheived by believing in onself it is the outcome of years of preserverance.