The Magician (1993/British TV)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Telefilm: B

 

 

It is hard to do a good story about counterfeiting money, especially after William Friedkin’s To Live & Die In L.A. (1985, reviewed elsewhere on this site) aced it so well.  Digital printers have frankly taken the shock out of the ability to do such things on top of that.  However, Terry Winsor’s The Magician (1993) is based on an actual case in the U.K. and stars Jay Acovone as the man in pursuit of the title character, who is believed to be the mastermind behind some shockingly good forgeries.

 

Clive Owen joins him as the detective out to nail the mystery man and perennial character actor Jeremy Kemp is the man who may be the link to the truth and apprehension of the man and break-up of the operation.  The teleplay by Jeff Pope and Winsor is much better than what we have been getting out of TV movies since the 1980s and the story always remains interesting enough to keep one watching.  Minus any of the pretension of the police procedural, The Magician is a nice little police thriller worth seeking out.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is softer than a show of its recent time should be, with detail issues and other slight glitches that get in the way of the presentation.  This has to look better than this.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 is stereo at best with no real surrounds.  There are no extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo