Hugh Jackman: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked
And 5 That Sucked...
5. Peter Lyman Scoop (2006)
2006 was a weird year. It was the year when not one, not two, but three separate films about stage magicians were released in the space of twelve months: the underrated Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti drama The Illusionist, the aforementioned Prestige, and then also Scoop one of those ill-advised dramas Woody Allen keeps making, despite nobody but him enjoying them. To pile one coincidence on top of another, Scoop was the second time that year Hugh Jackman found himself starring in a film about stage magicians. In this case it was Allen himself who took that part, as The Great Splendini, with Jackman an aristocratic eccentric who might just be a serial killer. And it's up to Scarlett Johansson's plucky journalism student to get to the bottom of it for some reason! Allen's dialogue, only ever written in his voice, is clunky enough put into other's mouths for his comedies; in his dramas it's even worse, with neither Jackman nor Johansson doing much with the script. It was never released in the UK.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
