I finally caught "The Illusionist" on cable, and I was very disappointed in it, for the same reason I was disappointed in "The Sixth Sense." The only reason for each to exist is the stunning shocker of an ending -- in the one case, finding out somebody is dead you thought was alive, and in the other, finding out someone you thought was dead is really alive. If you know the ending or suspect it, it pretty much spoils the movie for you.
And I knew both endings from the opening of the movies, so I spent the whole time studying scenes to see if I was right instead of just enjoying the unfolding of the stories. That's not because I'm all that good at anticipation. But each movie had such a buzz going around about it that if you only half listenend and thought about it for more than a minute, you had to know what was coming. I mean, how many times did they play that trailer on TV of the kid saying, "I see dead people"? Duh.
So do me a favor the next time a "Psycho" comes along. Just tell me it's a nice, suspensful movie, but otherwise, shut up.
