Thanks to my mad e-mail responding skillz earlier this week, the Snook and I had free tickets to a sneak preview of The Illusionist today. (Thanks, Kinokuniya!) While I didn’t enjoy it as much as The Prestige, it was still an entertaining – and air conditioned! – diversion on a hot summer day. Jessica Biel actually impressed me with her acting, and Paul Giamatti was awesome as usual. Edward Norton just somehow leaves me cold though. I can see that he’s a great actor and all, but I’ve just never really connected with him in any role. (Plus in this movie he has one of those beards that I hate, the ones that come right up to the lower lip all the way across. *shudder*) The opening credits were annoying though, and the first 40 minutes of plot were completely ripped off from The Princess Bride. The big trick reveal at the end was pretty anticlimactic too, as most of the audience had figured it out an hour before. Still, I’d call it a worthwhile DVD rental.