Interesteg What makes it different from others?

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

aesgaard41 I'm a big fan of Houdini; he ranks up there as one of the top historical figures to fascinate the present. The multiple layers of his life and the different translations of it from his public side to his private side have become fuel for some very interesting depictions from the 1953 depiction, "Houdini," to "The Great Houdini" with Paul Michael Glaser and Sally Struthers in 1976, the one that ranks as my favorite. However, after Jonathan Schaech's 2008 version, one might start to wonder what might be left to dramatize. Well, there is the rumor that Houdini might have been drafted to work as a spy for British Intelligence, a claim that has never been proved. With this depicted in the film, one might start to wonder what else did they get wrong? "Houdini" still manages to adhere to the basic time-line of Houdini's life and career, but it also seems to bend things here and there to create drama and to rush into the famous moments of his life we all want to see brought to life on the small screen. From his simple life working for carnivals to his later successes, the movie actually condenses the one thing that Houdini was actually best known for than his magic: his war on phony Spiritualists and then going much further than that by establishing his motives. Could Houdini have actually believed in an Afterlife so much that he outed all the charlatans he encountered trying to find a one-true psychic in touch with the spirit world. It's a very novel interpretation that I've never seen posed before, but it also makes sense when you keep it in mind to re-watch the other Houdini movies. However, where it starts becoming unbelievable are in depicting Houdini's possible spy career and more fiction with Houdini entertaining the Russian Royal Family and meeting Rasputin before the revolution, events I've learned which never happened. It does stay essentially truthful to his death in the hospital rather than the stage legend that has been forced down our throats. (Thank you, Tony Curtis.) Nevertheless, the movie does not fail to entertain or keep our attention. Despite being thinner and more gaunt than Houdini, Adrien Brody enjoys himself in the role and gives an excellent performance, as does Kristen Connolly who is woefully underused at times as a fiery and strong-willed Bess. The highlights are the explanations behind some of Houdini's lesser-known illusions. I enjoyed the movie, and unless you're a massive Houdini purist for accuracy, this one should appeal to you as well.

inkslayer Harry Houdini (1874-1926) was a famous Hungarian-American escapologist- somebody who escapes from seemingly impossible combinations of locks, chains, and boxes.Houdini (Lionsgate) is a TV movie I watched for thirty-five minutes. Then I ejected it from my device and returned it to my local library.I suppose one cannot blame the writer entirely on this epic failure. The DP should also be scrutinized. This mess of a TV movie was clearly not a collaboration. Houdini appears to be several people's "ideas" who all wanted included in this film to satisfy their own individual needs and not the audiences.That being said, Lionsgate's Houdini is a terrible movie with terrible visuals and a story no one cares about. It is a movie suitable for a teenage video-gamer who hated studying history while in school, and was nursed on CSI and bad CGI.Poor Mr. Brody! So talented. Poor Mr. Houdini. This TV movie will surely make people forget him.Here's the bad: 1. The voice over. It is painfully annoying. Writers learn that voice overs should be kept to a minimum. Preferably, not used at all. Why? The actors and the visuals should tell the story. 2.The writing. There is very little compelling dialogue or action to help tell Houdini's unique story. 3. The visuals. The ones in this movie overpower the acting. The DP annoys the viewer with unnecessary slow motion, unnecessary closeups, and other unnecessary camera movements. Therefore, we do not experience - or are awed by - Houdini's physical feats, or Brody's interpretations of those feats. For example, we are shown one of those typical, typical, typical CSI shots of the inside of a lock being picked. Really? That's all you got? 4. The costumes and makeup. The costumes are clownish. The makeup overdone and not accurate. Think Rocky Horror Picture Show. 5. The music. Annoying and not appropriate for this story. Also, music is supposed to dwell in the background of the story and help set the tone. 6. The feel and tone. There is none. The turn-of-the-century is not a difficult time in history to authentically capture. Lionsgate's Houdini regurgitates way too many concepts and ideas already seen on TV and in movies that, basically, did nothing for those shows/movies, too.Again, a teenage video-gamer would probably enjoy Houdini since teenagers also regurgitate the same old same old while glued to their violent video games creating nothing new or noteworthy in their lives while sucking on the visual stimulation teat rather than the mentally stimulating teat.I doubt the screenwriter of Houdini studied adaptation. I know writers who have studied adaptation and could have done the book justice. In the business of entertainment, your d**k would appear bigger if you just tucked it back inside your pants, took a step back, and hired the right person to do the job. When you don't, well, you get Houdini (Lionsgate). You also get a super-inflated ego until the bad reviews start coming in.

thecrazyelwin Its a shame that a channel like History would show such fiction. This movie is more based on, or an accumulation of, past movies on the man than they are on his actual life.It is entertainment and in such, writers will change what they want to make it more interesting. As the saying goes "Controversy creates cash." If not, then Hollywood would be broke.As far as facts, they did get his name right. The way he met his wife, also quite true. His relationship with his father, no. His relationship with his mother they really down played, he was very devoted to her. The time lines of his escapes, wrong and the secret agent stuff was the worst fiction of all.For a mini-series, they told less about the man than the 1953 movie with Tony Curtis. While the 1953 movie had it's own mistakes, it was a lot more accurate than this mini-series was. I gave it 2 stars only because the actors did good with what they had.

bcastgrl HOUDINI, The latest biopic from History Channel is engaging, insightful, and filled with commendable acting (how could it not be with Oscar Winner Brody at the helm?) However, the attempt to update a centuries-old story with trendy quick cuts, and CSI/NCIS/SVU-like sound effects is just plain annoying, and may make you want this mini-series' to disappear forever. Adrien Brody turns in a fine performance as the famed magician, playing him as a complicated figure, as charming with audiences as he is jealous, and egotistical behind the curtain. You know... human. Kristen Connolly is great as Bess Houdini, illustrating how frustrating it must have been to always be in the wings, both on stage and around Houdini's ever-present mother. However, I'd have liked to see more of the suffragette struggle since Bess' inequality personified what the 19th Amendment, THE hot topic at the time, was all about in the first place. The many "how'd they do that?" trick reveals were entertaining, if not a buzz kill. And while they may take the pizazz out of magic as we know it, they also serve to show Houdini as a clever man willing to push his body to the limit for entertainment value. Leave it to History Channel for blowing the lid off of myths that have surrounded Houdini's story for years. Previous biopics have played with the facts far too long for dramatic effect. HOUDINI is entertaining enough, and the two night length was just right. Sadly, the production effects and other digital wizardry will date this mini-series long before the Great Houdini's legend escapes our cultural legacy.