toubabs Russell Crowe is young and shows as much talent as in every one of his movie ! Bridget Fonda is as beautiful as ever ! The love story between them is very appealing and the touch of magic makes you smile ... The kiss in the air between Russell and Bridget is pure magic !

KillerTomato ***MILD SPOILERS*** Warning: this movie needs to be picked up with a pair of tongs and held downwind. It is possibly the worst movie I've ever seen---when it was over I looked at the box again because I thought it might actually be an Allen Smithee feature. (I have friends who caution me that I won't really know what bad is until I see "The Lonely Lady" starring Pia Zadora...but until then I will hold firm that this holds the title.)It goes from being a quirky crime noir, to a romantic comedy, to trying to capture the magic realism of Latin films to For-God's-Sake Isn't-This-Gawdawful-Thing-Over-Yet? Now, there is nothing wrong with a movie that has romance and adventure along with truly bizarre scenes --IF it fits in with the entire style of the movie from start to finish. ("Like Water For Chocolate," is a good example.) Just because Paul Rodriguez is brought in to dance around with a sausage doesn't make it any less American and bland. Everything about this movie feels manufactured and artificial. Plus, it has a scene that I can't imagine would make any Hollywood starlet say, "Oh, I have to do this role..." I hope this won't be considered too much of a SPOILER but...she lays an egg!Russell Crowe is strangely wimpy looking in this film and Bridget Fonda's expressions range from vaguely put-out to slightly irritable. You never see much emotion on her face...even when rather troubling things are happening to her. Now, I'm not a director, but I think I would have given Ol' Bridge a little tip: when an egg comes out of your ass, at least look startled. There's another riveting scene when she barfs up her heart. And then she can't love anymore. Get it? You can almost feel the invisible elbow in the ribs from the writers, "See? Isn't that quirky? ISn't that just so damn QUIRKY?""Rough Magic" is a boring film that tries to incorporate a bunch of different styles to mask the pedestrian script and lackluster acting. Having Bridget Fonda looking bemusedly at the egg she just laid will not make this movie endearingly quirky. It may make you laugh so hard soda comes out of your nose, however. If in ten years this movie is playing in theaters at midnight and people are showing up in Magician Assistant outfits and flinging eggs and hearts at the screen, well, it wouldn't surprise me.

Sam-80 I've tried 3 times to give this movie a chance to get it's point across. It doesn't. As in most films Russell Crowe is in he gives his all but the story is pretty convoluted and doesn't give you much to care about. It gets pretty stupid towards the end. We kind of understood the owl showing up but never could understand the green lizard. The saving grace is the scene between Alec and Myra in the church and of course, somehow, Russell winds up dancing with his leading lady, something that happened in several of his earlier films. The beginning of the film Russell and Bridget are very Bogart & Bacall and the banter flows pretty well, even if we have heard it before. If you have the need to see Mr. Crowe there are better films to choose from. I'm still waiting for Russell to be cast in a good romantic comedy, something like "Bringing Up Baby" and Lauren Graham can certainly throw out the Katherine Hepburn lines to him.

NJCondon The seeds of a good movie are there in "Rough Magic", a film with an excellent cast, an intriguing premise, and a great location. However, these seeds never really germinate, as the film fails to be convincing. As the movie progresses, the characters behave in an increasingly arbitrary manner while the events of the plot become similarly arbitrary. Thus, by the end, my willing suspension of disbelief was completely gone and I found myself bored. I think that the film was trying for the sort of magic realism found in movies like "Like Water for Chocolate", but the key to magic realism lies at least as much in the realism as it does in the magic. While "Like Water for Chocolate" worked because we believed in the characters, "Rough Magic" fails, despite some genuinely entertaining moments, because we don't.Overall Rating: 1 1/2 stars (out of 4), or 4 (out of 10)