The Witches (1990)

This is just exactly how you imagined it in your head as you read the Roald Dahl book as a child, with the witches a grotesque gaggle of foul bald creatures who plot to turn all the children of England into mice; one boy on holiday with his grandmother in a beachside hotel must stop the witches from enacting their dastardly plans but will he be able to after they've turned him into a mouse?

★★★★☆

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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

This pulpy crime comedy has mismatched investigators, one an injury-prone small-time crook, the other a tough guy P.I., hilariously bungling their way through a seedy LA investigation involving long lost sisters, body doubles, setups, and an enormous body count, and features scenes and situations that play out again very similarly in the 2016 The Nice Guys, also directed by Shane Black and it too inspired to some extent by the pulp crime books of Brett Halliday.

★★★★☆

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The Illusionist (2006)

Childhood sweethearts are reunited in adulthood when she, now fiance to the Austrian Crown Prince Leopold, is called up on stage to participate in his David Copperfield-style magic show, in this very romantic mystery that slightly frustrates with its NQR historical context too blurry to justify the morally ambiguous implications of the movie's twist.

★★★☆☆

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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)

Siegfried and Roy-style magicians find their Vegas-style magic show under threat from a brash, grungy street performer, in a well-executed comedy that is often very funny, with a final scene that had me in tears of laughter.

★★★★☆

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