Fantastic!

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This Francis Ford Coppola production directed by the great cinematographer Caleb Deschanel rambles here and there and is full of a lot of terrific scenes that ultimately add up to nothing.Griffin O'Neal is fine in the title role --- he has the same naturalness that made his sister Tatum so appealing. However,like the movie, his character is pretty fuzzy...is he a grifter? a magician? an escape artist? Deschanel's direction is fine but it's not always clear what decade this takes place in...the clothes appear modern, but the characters and dialog have a very 1920s sensibility. O'Neal joins a vaudevillian magic act, but where is there a vaudevillian magic act to be found 1980s America? The eclectic cast is first-rate: Raul Julia, Teri Garr, Joan Hackett, and Jackie Coogan have key roles and, in a rare film appearance, Desi Arnez plays the crooked mayor.

When the movie came out, it pretty much disappeared right away, which is often the fate of small movies, simply because the studios don't bother to advertise them. As well, the film was "pegged" as a kid's movie, which is absurd. It's about kids; and kids could watch it with profit and get excited about it; but where kids see a film about a boy who succeeds ultimately in becoming an "escape artist," and using his talents to defeat the bad guys, adults see a whole different film, one that is about a profound emotional connection a boy has with his father who has died. And this side of the tale is made even more affecting by its only slowly being revealed as the film goes on. One thing that may also have confounded audiences is that it's not a "talky" film. The young hero does things, he doesn't much talk about things, and that makes it a little hard to follow the motivations in places. But it is a lovingly crafted, beautifully put together, piece of work, one that is long long overdue for a release on DVD. The sequence of the young boy cracking the safe is fascinating, as is the dream sequence in the jail where he magically floats his father out of danger. Striking visuals, and a clear dramatic structure. Wonderful. As of last year, I believe American Zoetrope held the rights to the title, and while it is on their list to release, they've had higher priorities (for example, Coppola's "One From the Heart," which is good, but suffers from Frederick Forrest's unfocused performance) so it may be quite a while before this marvelous film is released. Let's hope thatwhen it is released, Deschanel has some say in the process, i.e., we get at least a small documentary on what it's like to make your first film, we get an anamorphic transfer, and we get a reasonably high bit rate for the transfer.If you can find this on VHS, that's not the best way to see it, but it'll do until the DVD comes along. Enjoy

About legacy, and fathers and sons. Much better and deeper than the ratings on this board give it credit for, in my opinion. There is little violence, sex or break-neck action but much boils under the surface and there are powerful moments. This is a fine movie.

This is one of those odd movies which is much greater than the sum of its parts. Leonard Maltin is quite right that it is muddled, and the plot has tons of holes and inconsistencies. The casting is odd and quirky. But when the smoke clears, it stays with you. Maybe it's just the concept of a child prodigy magician. BTW, the contemporary reviews in 1982 were pretty much in accord with this opinion.