BELIEVE

BY ED BRUCE edbrucevegas@yahoo.com

This the multi million dollar Criss Angel ten year promise at the Luxor in Las Vegas.

This has got almost totaly negative reviews and I wanted to dislike this before I got there......and I did. I disliked it after I got there too ! My first negative thought was Angel's no show for a library project for children that my wife had planned.......Angel a no show, no excuse, no response......instantly a lack of character and credibility.....its not fixable, no one could recover from an act like this !

So try and overcome this first impression.....no can do.

The Las Vegas Review Journal entertainment writers.....very credible and almost always in agreement with my thoughts say....."The shotgun marriage of Cirque du Soleil and TV magician Criss Angel seems to tie the hands of both parties. Cirque's darkly beautiful visuals aren't enough to perk up predictable illusions, and the down-the-rabbit-hole story is an awkward showcase for Angel's persona." Pretty accurate and fair.

Here are my reactions........they include the big three negatives......too late...too loud....too dark.
They got all three early ! It seems "unbelievable" that something as enormous as this would not start on time.....never acceptable. Of course everthing is too loud....this more than most and the general themes and movements appeared mostly in the dark...obviouly by design.

This monstruosity begin with one of those awful 1/8 of a second video cut highlites of Angels Mindfreak tv show over horrendous noise....you couldn't call it music (the Beatles and Tchiakovsky are music) so they started by killing whatever first impression you can make and never recovered. Angel's pleas for audience accetance and cheerleading went mostly to silence.

Cirque,..... with its history and athletic creativities impose a natural entertainment value which is not totally lost here....but they have a bad marriage.....who wrote this shit ? They have totally no story here......ironically this afternoon I attended the movie....THE BOY IN STRIPPED PAJAMAS.....which had the ultimate great story.....what a contrast.

The Mindfreak tv show with its encompassing of all the negatives....to include long setups....has some who dunit, how did they do it...its amazing.....not much of that here. To be fair the disappearing finale, the straight jacket escape and some Cirque brief dance numbers caught my eye. As a jurnalist and local fan I would like everything to succeed....to include this....the over under might be 6 months...that for a ten year Casino commitment !

There is a morbid body detachment aura to this, with a total not understandible rabbit theme...."be wery wery wery quite....we are hunting wabbits here) ....NO ! Actually I personally am for body detachment if I can chose the bodies....it doesn't work here.

Lovely big theatre for 15oo.....$100 bucks a pop plus, sold out this night...two shows nightly .....This could return $300,000 a night.....but who buys it ? I salute these people for cashing in ! I could not reccommend this to anyone and if one wished to see magic....Lance Burton...David Copperfield...Dirk Arthur....better ...cheaper.....every day and for productions ......O ....Mystere.....The Phantom....all seen here and reviewed postively here....all recommended highly here. NOT THIS !

Seems the attraction is Angels tv-rock star status for the young. I ask myself how the hell did he get 1500 to buy this....word of mouth transfer business from the the lady next to me verycold ..."I did not like it. " I present an open forum for any positive reaction to this ?

Got to give it something for the Cirque effort..... 71 C-