Rough Magic
Rough Magic
PG-13 | 30 May 1997 (USA)
Rough Magic Trailers

After accidentally committing a crime, a magician's assistant flees to Mexico in search of a Mayan shaman and the magical potion she is rumoured to possess. But upon arrival she is trailed by a handsome private eye.

Reviews
Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.
Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
KillerTomato ***MILD SPOILERS*** Warning: this movie needs to be picked up with a pair of tongs and held downwind. It is possibly the worst movie I've ever seen---when it was over I looked at the box again because I thought it might actually be an Allen Smithee feature. (I have friends who caution me that I won't really know what bad is until I see "The Lonely Lady" starring Pia Zadora...but until then I will hold firm that this holds the title.)It goes from being a quirky crime noir, to a romantic comedy, to trying to capture the magic realism of Latin films to For-God's-Sake Isn't-This-Gawdawful-Thing-Over-Yet? Now, there is nothing wrong with a movie that has romance and adventure along with truly bizarre scenes --IF it fits in with the entire style of the movie from start to finish. ("Like Water For Chocolate," is a good example.) Just because Paul Rodriguez is brought in to dance around with a sausage doesn't make it any less American and bland. Everything about this movie feels manufactured and artificial. Plus, it has a scene that I can't imagine would make any Hollywood starlet say, "Oh, I have to do this role..." I hope this won't be considered too much of a SPOILER but...she lays an egg!Russell Crowe is strangely wimpy looking in this film and Bridget Fonda's expressions range from vaguely put-out to slightly irritable. You never see much emotion on her face...even when rather troubling things are happening to her. Now, I'm not a director, but I think I would have given Ol' Bridge a little tip: when an egg comes out of your ass, at least look startled. There's another riveting scene when she barfs up her heart. And then she can't love anymore. Get it? You can almost feel the invisible elbow in the ribs from the writers, "See? Isn't that quirky? ISn't that just so damn QUIRKY?""Rough Magic" is a boring film that tries to incorporate a bunch of different styles to mask the pedestrian script and lackluster acting. Having Bridget Fonda looking bemusedly at the egg she just laid will not make this movie endearingly quirky. It may make you laugh so hard soda comes out of your nose, however. If in ten years this movie is playing in theaters at midnight and people are showing up in Magician Assistant outfits and flinging eggs and hearts at the screen, well, it wouldn't surprise me.
jerzeygrl All Russell Crow fans should check this cute movie out! This is not an intense movie, but nice on a rainy day or late at night if you can't sleep. Too bad Bridget Fonda doesn't have enough meat on her bones to fill out her very sexy outfits...
jack-284 When I first saw this movie I knew I liked it immensely, but I didn't really know why. I had to see it several times before I really "got" it. It's a very very different movie. The symbolism was a treat! Things which were shown in a fantasy-type way are things which happen in real life--e.g. bitterness being shown as an egg being laid that when hatched, is a venomous spider. In this movie, just about anything can happen! Love is magic but love can't happen with bitterness in the way; likewise, magic can't happen without love. The actors exuded the '40's style with finesse with the witty lines, and Bridget Fonda's costumes were exciting. I will surely watch this movie again and share it with others.
NJCondon The seeds of a good movie are there in "Rough Magic", a film with an excellent cast, an intriguing premise, and a great location. However, these seeds never really germinate, as the film fails to be convincing. As the movie progresses, the characters behave in an increasingly arbitrary manner while the events of the plot become similarly arbitrary. Thus, by the end, my willing suspension of disbelief was completely gone and I found myself bored. I think that the film was trying for the sort of magic realism found in movies like "Like Water for Chocolate", but the key to magic realism lies at least as much in the realism as it does in the magic. While "Like Water for Chocolate" worked because we believed in the characters, "Rough Magic" fails, despite some genuinely entertaining moments, because we don't.Overall Rating: 1 1/2 stars (out of 4), or 4 (out of 10)