From the director that brought us Memento and the two latest Batman films, Christopher Nolan excels himself with this dramatic thriller, The Prestige.
The Plot
The film begins with Michael Caine's character telling a young girl about a magic trick. Each magic trick has three parts, ... Read review
Is there a secret you would kill to know? In this electrifying, suspense-packed thriller ... more
from director Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, Memento), Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play magicians whose cutthroat attempts to better each other plunge them into deadly deceptions. Scarlett Johansson also stars as the stage assistant who's both a pawn and player in their rivalry. A brilliant supporting cast (including Michael Caine and David Bowie). An ingenious story. An astonishing payoff. Once you see The Prestige, you'll want to see it again. Watch closely.
When you want the freedom of giving your toddler their own eating space or play table ... more
space this is your answer. With it's hard castor wheels it's extremely easy to manoeuvre around the room. The Prestige high chair has a fitted wipe clean plastic tray to allow the younger diner their own eating space, or when he is bored can play with his toys on the tray. Comes in a range of 5 stylish finishes to suit any home or commercial environment. Features: Height: 860mm Footprint: 640x420mm Weight: 10kg
Is there a secret you would kill to know? In this electrifying, suspense-packed thriller ... more
from director Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, Memento), Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play magicians whose cutthroat attempts to best each other plunge them into deadly deceptions. Scarlett Johansson also stars as the stage assistant who's both a pawn and player in their rivalry. A brilliant supporting cast (including Michael Caine and David Bowie). An ingenious story. An astonishing payoff. Once you see The Prestige, you'll want to see it again. Watch closely.
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: K.C. Bascombe - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Jesse James, Rachel Skarsten, Charles Powell, Linda Purl, Kevin Zegars
Advantages: Great charecters, script. Disadvantages: Not much at all
From the director that brought us Memento and the two latest Batman films, Christopher Nolan excels himself with this dramatic thriller, The Prestige.
The Plot
The film begins with Michael Caine's character telling a young girl about a magic trick. Each magic trick has three parts, the Pledge, the Turn and then finally The Prestige.
The film follows two starting magicians, Angier and Borden. They start ... ...wrong.
The two spend the film, trying to work out each other's secrets and ruin their tricks, eventually ruining their livelihood.
Borden then however discovers a trick, the ultimate trick. This trick makes Angier loose his mind trying to work out how the hell Borden does this trick.
The Characters
Hugh Jackman & Christian Bale play the two leads, Rupert Angier and Alfred Borden, the ... more
From the director that brought us Memento and the two latest Batman films, Christopher Nolan excels himself with this dramatic thriller, The Prestige.
The Plot
The film begins with Michael Caine's character telling a young girl about a magic trick. Each magic trick has three parts, the Pledge, the Turn and then finally The Prestige.
The film follows two starting magicians, Angier and Borden. They start off as good friends but then turn into rivals when Angier's wife is killed in a magic trick that went wrong.
The two spend the film, trying to work out each other's secrets and ruin their tricks, eventually ruining their livelihood.
Borden then however discovers a trick, the ultimate trick. This trick makes Angier loose his mind trying to work out how the hell Borden does this trick.
The Characters
Hugh Jackman & Christian Bale play the two leads, Rupert Angier and Alfred Borden, the two give out fantastic powerful performances in this film. Some of their best work.
Scarlett Johansson plays Olivia, a young woman who helps Angier with his act, and later becomes his 'love'. Johansson's charecter is typically bland as usual; I believe she would have been better playing Piper Perebo's character. Perebo plays Angier's first wife and meets her untimely death at the hands of the magicians and starts the fued between the two. Fantastic acting from this actress despite the small role.
Andy Serkis is also fantastic as usual, He plays Alley, the quirky guy who deals with all of the inbetween between the customers and David Bowie's charecter Tesla.
Michael Caine plays Culter, the maker of all of the tricks. He took what could have been an unmemorable role and made it brilliant.
The Good Points
The film is full of twist and turns and will probably leave you shocked and confused at the end. You will probably have to go back and watch the ending again to understand. I think I've watched too many of these films as I was able to work out the ending quite quickly into the film, but I know mates struggled understanding it.
The script is fantastic; it gives the audience some fantastic mind boggling twists. It's quite a dark movie; some might not like this and might find it hard to get into.
The film is usually compared with another Victorian film about magicians which was released around the same time, The Illusionist. The Illusionist is fantastic, but nothing near as good as the Prestige. The magic in The Illusionist is a lot more believable I have to say, but The Prestige manages to pull you in, in a way that The Illusionist was never able to do because of its PG rating in my opinion.
Even though the magic, especially the main magic trick in the film seemed even more unbelievable, the tricks in the film that do seem believable are fantastically shown. They even show you how they do some of the tricks.
Another great thing about the film was the atmosphere with all of the costumes and the sets. This really made it feel more realistic.
The Bad Points
There aren't many but is get's confusing at times. The film can suddenly change seasons in milliseconds. The ending is pretty easy to work out as well, I can see how it can be complicated for people who don't do a 'guess the twist' thing throughout the film, but for me, it was just too easy.
The main criticism, which really is quite minor, is the soundtrack. With such a Victorian atmosphere throughout the film, they end it with a pop song?
Should You Watch It
Yes, is the final answer. I assure you, you won't be disappointed. It's clever, innovative and most importantly acted brilliantly. If your looking for a 'magic' film to watch with your children, go for the Illusionist, it's pretty simple and with a PG rating, it can't hurt them.
The Prestige however is more dark and confusing; it will have you racking your brain trying to work out all of the twists. It's just perfection. One of the only films I can really give 10/10 to.
Advantages: Two rivals with one thing in common: Each has something hidden in plain sight. Disadvantages: None. Art house film marketing for major release due to it's all-star hollywood cast.
...act is called "The Pledge"; the magician shows you something ordinary, but of course... it probably isn't."
"The second act is called "The Turn"; the magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary."
"Now if you're looking for the secret... you won't find it, that's why there's a third act called, "The Prestige"; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've ... ...Directed by Chris Nolan, the man who brought us Memento and Insomnia, oh yeah, and that Batman movie I didn't particularly feel one way or the other about.
The Prestige dares us to enter the competitive world of two up and coming illusionists, competitors so obsessed with giving the other his comeuppance that they end up destroying not only each other, but the very fabric of reality each of them so covetously cherished.
*deep breath after ridiculously ...
Coyote98 24.11.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Prestige (DVD)
Advantages: Intrigue/ Acting/ Unusual/ Magic Disadvantages: Bit long for some 128 minutes
The Prestige is an extroardinary film that I had the pleasure to see this week. I saw it on the trailor for 'World Trade Centre' and thought it looked quite interesting so I bookmarked it in my mind until it was released. Of course, not many films live up to the trailors but this one did, in fact it surpassed them.
Directed by Christopher Nolan who brought us the likes of 'Batman Begins','Insomnia' and 'Memento' and adapted by Christopher along ... ...Angier.
Christain Bale (Batman Begins/ The Machinist/ Empire Of The Sun) - Albert Borden.
Michael Caine (Cider House Rules/ Batman Begins/ Get Carter) - Cutter.
Scarlett Johansson (Lost In Translation/ Girl With A Pearl Earring) - Olivia.
Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly/ Cheaper By The Dozen) - Julia Angier.
David Bowie - Tesla.
Andy Serkis (Lord Of The Rings/ King Kong) - Alley.
Rebecca Hall - Sarah Borden.
But a great cast doesn't always mean ...
WormThatTurned 01.12.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Prestige (DVD)
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Advantages: Good acting Disadvantages: I didn't like either of the main characters, too long
it apparently did all that time ago. There are also some impressive special effects, the most eye-catching of which were the electrical experiments that Tesla undertook. These really caught my attention and seemed to suit David Bowie, famous for his eye-catching acts, down to the ground. I watched the film on DVD, but I would expect that the special effects would look even better on big screen.
So, there is little to complain about acting-wise. The story is not bad and the special effects are good. So what didn't I like about The Prestige? It is not so much that I didn't like it as I found it slightly dull and certainly not as exciting as I expected. The main problem for me was that I disliked both Borden and Angier. They are both portrayed as over-grown schoolboys with an axe to grind. I initially preferred Borden, but after the way he ...
Advantages: Good basic story, performances, special effects, twist at the end Disadvantages: The story is quite complicated, may be hard to follow entirely for some
and a few disturbing images. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to young kids at all, it is a bit dark in parts I suppose and I think the certificate is right, this is for teens and older. Also with the running time at just over two hours, it could bore the young, so I agree with the rating of 12. There's no nudity, sex references or drug references present in the movie.
- Official Website -
The official website for The Prestige can be found here:- http://video.movies.go.com/theprestige/
Here you'll find information on the movie and the DVD, the movies trailer and other video clips. There's also a photo gallery, some downloads (screensavers, wallpapers and email signatures) and 'anatomy of an illusion', which explains the three parts of a magic trick - 'The pledge', 'the turn' and of course 'the prestige'. Again, as always, this is ...
Advantages: Riveting plot, fantastic acting, brilliant direction Disadvantages: Box is plain, only a few special features, no commentaries
I originally intended to watch this movie in the cinema after hearing Jonathan Ross rave about it on TV. With Hugh Jackman (X-men), Christian Bale (American Psycho), David Bowie (The Man Who Fell to Earth) and Michael Caine (Alfie and many many others) starring and Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) directing, it sounded intriguing to say the least! I never got round to going to the cinema for it so I bought the DVD and finally watched it the weekend just gone. And boy was it worth it - I just wish I hadn't waited so long!
The whole plot centers around the idea that a magic trick consists of three parts: the pledge (the magician shows you something ordinary), the turn (the magician does something to the object e.g. make it disappear) and the prestige (the object is brought back), of which the prestige is obviously the most ...
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
