Steve Carell plays the title character, a flashy Vegas magician. His career crashes after he splits with his partner (Steve Buscemi). That means he must struggle to make the predictable rebirth. Although Carell is sometimes funny, his character isn’t likable, which makes it hard to care about him. Buscemi adds nothing and Jim Carrey (as the hot new competition) is uncomfortably weird. No matter how much you want to like this movie, it’s trying too hard to be over-the-top funny and only rarely succeeds.