This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Don't Believe the Hype

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

each child has his heroes. this film reminds this fact. and gives the clothes to it. the CSI technology, the impeccable performance of Adrien Brody, the metamorphose of a great illusionist in a symbol of his time, the science as tool of magic, the force of details, the personal life of a pure showman who is more than piece of entertainment but a kind of revolutionary are good points of a series who propose a new and convincing perspective about the history more than portrait of an artist. and this is the source of seduction of "Houdini". the courage, and the art to transform well known information in a dramatic and impressive show about the grow up of a modern hero. so, in great measure, a series for the inner child.

Houdini is a two-part, four-hour History channel event miniseries written by Nicholas Meyer and directed by Uli Edel.The miniseries follows the man( Adrien Brody ) behind the magic as he finds fame, engages in espionage, battles spiritualists and encounters the greatest names of the era. The drama will chronicle the life of a man who can defy death through his stunts, his visions and his mastery of illusion. It was shot entirely in Budapest, Hungary (coincidentally the real Harry Houdini's birthplace). Brody, who had studied magic as a child, performed many of the show's stunts himself, including the suspended strait jacket escape and the famous Chinese Water Torture Cell.

Anyone who has read anything about Houdini, seen his picture or the rare film footage we have would have to wonder why Adrien Brody thought he could carry this off. He looks at best ridiculous as Houdini. Physically Houdini was a mini muscleman but Brody is painfully skinny. He doesn't have the charisma either. Houdini could capture his audience and his eyes according to those who met him were intense.Adrien Brody was reasonably good in the Pianist (not deserving of an Oscar in my opinion) but I have not seen him carry of anything well since. In Cadillac, the film about Chess records he was just awful, but in this he is even worse.Sadly other cast members seem quite well cast, especially Kristen Connolly as Houdini's wife Bess.Who knows one day we might actually get a good film about the great Houdini?

This disgrace started with the late Bernard C. Meyer, a psychoanalyst at Mt. Sinai hospital in New York. His specialty, apparently, was to write books about historical figures based on his "analysis" of their characters. To do this he would cherry-pick facts and anecdotes written by others about his subject (and therefore hearsay) to gain "insight" into their true character.His work was then taken by his son, Nicholas Meyer, and turned into a screenplay for the History Channel. This is not, of course, history. It is a copy of a copy of an opinion based on little evidence. If the name Nicholas Meyer is familiar to you it may be because he is the author of "The Seven Percent Solution" in which he portrayed Sherlock Holmes as a delusional drug addict who hallucinated his deductions. Apparently creating fiction and passing it off as analytical thinking is a family trade.Please do not think that this pastiche has anything at all to do with the real Harry Houdini. It is a characterture created to enhance the reputation of two members of the family Meyer. There is no history here. There is very little fact here. There is NO legitimate analysis of the character of Harry Houdini here. There is nothing here.The History Channel should be truly ashamed.