F/X: Murder By Illusion (1986)

Two things - Crocodile Dundee (another 1986 movie release with an Australian lead) and a nonsensical, inexplicably punctuated title - probably detracted from F/X: Murder By Illusion's success in the box office, and revisiting it today reveals a good concept stretched by middling action sequences into a way-overlong movie-with-a-tv-budget, but as a kid I loved this Mission: Impossible-lite, Now You See Me crime-magic story, about Hollywood special effects man Rollie Tyler (Australia's own Bryan Brown) hired by the Justice Department to fake the murder of a mobster in the Witness Protection program.

★★★☆☆

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Scoop (2006)

A journalist, a magician, and a ghost investigate the possibility a killer-on-the-loose is well-to-do man-about-town Peter Lyman in this very minor Woody Allen comedy mystery that gives the distinct impression of having too quickly made the transition from Allen's notebook to the screen because none of the elements of the story hold together very tightly (and you feel with a bit more trouble things like tarot cards, fortunes, magic, death and careers would) and everyone is ad-libbing really badly.

★★☆☆☆

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