Sorry - there's no magic tricks, new or old, in this book. If that sounds like a bad thing, stop reading the review right here.

"The Megahit Movies" is a book written for screenwriters that analyzes the major hit movies of recent years - that is, any movie that made over $250 million in North American box office reciepts. So why review it in a place like the Magic Cafe?

Simple. This book analyzes what dramatic aspects create such an emotionally satisfying experience for an audience that they are enthusiastic enough about it to tell their friends about the movie and see it again themselves a 2nd, 3rd, 4th or even 5th time!

Doesn't this sound like a quality you'd like to have in your magic act?

The chapters are divided into straightforward parts, discussing characters, objectives, conflicts, plots, story, emotions, scenes, humor and other cinematic structures.

It may sound like this is only good for storytelling effects, but sections like emotion, humor, objectives and conflicts have obvious application to almost any effect you can think of. Magicians are often trying to create a truly emotional experience for their audience, yet I've never seen anything in magic talk about emotions the way this book does!

This book is highly recommended for those willing to put more thought about their presentations.

You can find out much more about this book at the author's website, The Megahit Movies. Especially interesting for many of you will be the scene-by-scene script analysis of many scripts available there. It's a real lesson in how deeply people think in the multi-million dollar movie industry.

This should be in your magic library along with Rudy Coby's "How To Become A World-Famo......e one!)", Kenton Knepper's "Rants Into Raves", and Darwin Ortiz' "Strong Magic".

That's the kind of stuff I come on this site to read. Thanks, Scott!