Sorry, this movie sucks

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The Magician is often compared to movies such as Chopper, Leon and Man Bites Dog (Cést Arrivé près de Chez Vous). Of those three, I would say that it comes closest to Man Bites Dog. Both movies are satirical and both movies have a killer followed by a camera. Still, though there are quite a few similarities, the Magician is certainly not a rip-off.Ray Shoesmith is a hit-man from Melbourne. His friend is making a documentary about him, as a sort of memento just in case he kicks the bucket a bit too soon. We follow Ray doing what he does. There are a few story lines woven through each other, with the mayor storyline focusing on a guy Ray is supposed to kill. Things take a different turn though and what starts out as a simple job ends up to be a bit more complicated. Instead of having it's main focus on violence, The Magician is much more about dialogue. And many of those dialogues are truly hilarious. Not in a typical comedy way, but the humor is much more in the normality of conversations between friends and conversations just to kill some time. Still, despite the humor and lightheartedness of some conversations, there is always that dark undertone. For example, at one point some fast food has to be ordered, which is quite an amusing scene. But at the same time, you don't forget that one of the guys is still Ray's mark. This makes it exciting all the way. At times you would almost think of Ray as just a normal chap, but certain scenes in the movie make clear that we do deal with someone who is a cold-blooded hit-man. The contrast between those sides of Ray is always there and make him a very believable character. He's charming, at times sensitive, but also a merciless killer, and often oh so real. Ray is brilliantly portrayed by director Scott Ryan himself. The acting is perfect, his performance outstanding. Some of Ray's facial expressions are worth gold. It;s quite a while ago since a movie really had me laughing out loud. I honestly can not find anything negative to say about The Magician. I can only say that this movie is absolutely worth your time and money. If you manage to get your hands on it, watch it. If you have a good sense of humor you definitely won't regret it. Kudos, Mr Ryan!

The only reason I am not giving it 10 out of 10 is that I got a couple of the characters mixed up at one point (the sequences are shown out of chronological order). It is also true, as other reviewers have pointed out, that the film gets a bit talky in the middle section. It is as if Ryan gets a bit seduced by his own script-writing. Well, it is hard to cut out writing.To my mind, the strength of this movie is the characterisation. Scott Ryan is a marvelous character - the antithesis of the wine-drinking, PC, environmentally-conscious middle-class intellectual elite of the Howard years. His accent is broad, he likes his 'chewy' and his 'Big M'. I was transfixed by the way he drank his McCoffee all up while seeming to wince with every mouthful.I don't want to make this a long boring review so I'll just make some final last observations: the crew double as cast in most if not all cases; stay for the end of "I'll Be Gone" by Spectrum and one last out-take after the credits are finished; Ryan has clearly been influenced by *Pulp Fiction* (and why not?).

In the same mould as Clerks, we follow the life of hit-man Ray, who prides himself on making people disappear. Set in a period where underworld violence was big news in Melbourne, this movie attempts to give an insight into the people behind the crime and not the crime itself.Just like Clerks, the characters debate trivial facts - such as Clint Eastwood's CV, the price of eating faeces - and it is in these conversations that we discover Ray's personality. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Scott Ryan (scriptwriter, directer and star) has restricted what we discover about Ray. We don't hear Ray justifying his line of work and we certainly don't find out the fate of his target, Tony (who offers to pay off Ray), almost until the end.Whilst the minimalistic feel of the photography may make some cringe, it certainly adds to the situation of the movie. The real winner in this movie is in the script and it's delivery. Without seeming to over-act, Ryan and Ben Walker's Tony give a realistic depiction of the situation.Scott Ryan has created an debut that (with a four figure budget) has fascinated Australian film-goers and kept us wondering what's next.

In a mock/documentary style, we travel around with Ray Shoesmith, a hit-man in the city Melbourne. After his latest hit on an unsuspecting man shot in his garage, Ray moves on to his next person. Tony is a drug dealer, who Ray's friend Edna has mixed up with. Grabbing Tony off the streets, throwing him into the car, drives off to the middle of nowhere for Tony to dig his grave. Jumping from Tony's ordeal, to other hits and Ray's rocky friendship with Edna, we start to see who this enigma of a man is.In recent times, films have been taking that step of raising life mundane aspects into a form of entertainment. The magician runs off a series of non-interconnected conversation, small banter, that ultimately has no end game; it doesn't bring much insight into the people we are watching. Gay actors, what car would you most want to own, would you eat your own excrement, Mardi Gras, etc. The dark humor that is entwined into these conversation stop The Magician failing into redundancy. Tiffs over how a dead man walking digs his own grave is nothing short of devilish. The problem with the conversations is they lack a lot of consistency. While many grab your attention, other fall flat and become mundane; much to the subject matter.For a hit-man, Ray is one unorthodox professional. Writer/director Scott Ryan spins the image of a hit-man from a suave, professional assign to an everyday Australian who you wouldn't pick from the crowd. Ryan never portrays Ray as an antihero, nor tries to make you feel sympathy for him, as he is an amoral person, in a amoral profession.Also taking the lead as Ray, Scott Ryan brings so much charisma to Ray. There is such a presence he holds, you don't want to miss a word he says. At times you are just wondering what is going on in his head. Ben Walker as Tony and Nathaniel Lindsay as Edna both give solid performances; both being amateur actors.The Magician does have it flaws, though they are overcome by some very interesting conversations with one strange man.