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Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

This movie may not have been exactly historically correct, but I really don't care. I enjoyed finding out how Houdini did his illusions. That was very interesting. Also, while I know the real Houdini was not nearly as good looking as Adrien Brody, I thought Brody did an excellent job. The fact that he is very handsome and somewhat sexy didn't hurt. The show was extremely entertaining and I look forward to a DVD. I would watch it again. It was not touted to be an accurate documentary. The History channel had another show that did that. This was a "movie" portraying Houdini's life. I enjoyed every minute of it. I was not interested in learning all about the real Houdini, I could get books if I wanted to do that. The movie did a good enough job.

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.