Hah. Nobody cares.

MR. MAGORIUM'S WONDER EMPORIUM: 4/10 (D+)

Even after some really awful buzz and even worse reviews, I still expected to enjoy this movie. Needless to say, I didn't. The film itself ran about 93 minutes long and it felt at least two hours. Not a whole heck of a lot happened throughout the running time and what does happen is stupid and ridiculous. This could have been a pretty decent, fun kids movie. It fails on basically all accounts, though. The script is awful and I didn't laugh or smile even once. No, I lie. There was one moment in the whole film I actually really enjoyed. It dealt with Portman's character bringing Hoffman to the hospital so he wouldn't "go away." That was the only good moment in the whole film. One of my favorite actresses, Natalie Portman, was absolutely awful here. You can tell how bored she was. I don't know what made her want to do this. After Goya's Ghosts and this, she is in need for a comeback. Dustin Hoffman was even worse though and was incredibly weird and creepy. I hated this. Don't see it.

And I have to say the ending (as well as the tone of the film) was incredibly shocking and dark for a children's movie. When I saw this in theaters, during a certain scene, I heard a few children asking their parents if they could leave.

So I'm sure Hoffman dies, anything else?

He basically kills himself.

Basically is one of the worst words in modern English, care to elaborate for someone curious about how the movie ends who will never see it?

3/5

I actually thought this was pretty underrated. It's not perfect by any means, but it ultimately achieves what it sets out to do, and I enjoyed myself the whole way through.

One thing I liked was how it didn't need any exposition... It just lets us accept the shop and this world for what it is and gets on with the story. It's actually pretty original in that respect, there's some good creativity here with the stuff they come up with in the store. The script in general avoids ever going into cute or kiddie mode, and in general the dialogue is very believable and charming.

It's also pretty well acted. It's probably Dustin Hoffman's best performance in a decade or more(that's not saying much, but anyways), Natalie Portman is her normal charming self, and it was the first time I bought Jason Bateman as a leading man and real actor in his movie career, it's really the first time I've seen him play someone other than Michael Bluth. I also liked how they didn't force a romance between the two, most films predictably would, this one didn't need it.

While the movie itself isn't gutbursting, it did make me chuckle enough to enjoy myself (A cameo by a certain muppet made me crack for about 5 minutes), there's some good random humor here.

One more thing movies35, did you leave 30 minutes early? The ending isn't dark at all.



This kind of reminds me a bit of a Stardust situation, where it's really under the radar and might pick up more fans on dvd, ultimately this film isn't nearly as good as that, but it might be just as underrated for the fact that NOBODY saw it (I saw it on a plane, I had no desire to before). It's certainly a much better film than say Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factor or Fred Claus or Alvin and the Chipmunks or anything else of the type released recently.

I still want to see this. Zach Helm wrote the wonderful Stranger Than Fiction so I have confidence in this project.

No, I most definitely didn't leave thirty minutes into it, though I probably should have. Sure, it had a happy ending but that doesn't mean the movie didn't have a dark tone. Kids were CRYING and telling their parents they wanted to leave even.

B-


It's decent and obviously comparable to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. However, those who thought that that movie was eccentric...well, be aware of this one since I found Magorium to be far more eccentric and offbeat. It definitely takes some time to get used to the whole set-up because the way it is, we are just presented with the fact that this is a magical store with magic all-around. There's no more explanation or elaboration, we're just thrown into this world and have to accept it. That was the part that was a bit hard for me at first.

The art direction is pretty beautiful here. Natalie Portman delivers another solid performance and Dustin Hoffman shines in his supporting role. The little kid who played Eric (?) annoyed me to be honest. No surprise he has no friends in the movie, heh. Jason Bateman is okay here, though I've seen him better.

Overall, it's a nice fairy tale, not too challenging, not too exciting, but full with nice visuals and it has its heart in the right place too. I wish it had gone on for a bit longer, though. Especially the future fate of Portman's character interested me.

6/10 -> C

When this project was announced a few years ago I was looking forward to it. I like this type of movies.

Hoffman was good, if a bit too eccentric (in some scenes he would come off as a retard), Portman was fine, and Bateman was probably the best out of the three grown up leads. The little kid was by far the best character. He was just as eccentric as Hoffman, but much more believable and he had the best interaction with the rest of the cast.

Too bad the movie feels rushed at parts - maybe with some fine tuning this could've been a great kids movie.