4.5/10
Now You See Me is only the second worst movie about magic
released this year – it is hard to imagine the film about magic that could be
worse than The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. This is one of only a few slight praises Now
You See Me will get out of this review though. Bottom line up front – so much potential
wasted.
What sinks Now You See Me is the script. The most interesting characters, the
magicians, are kept mostly off screen in favor of bumbling FBI detectives. Two of the three screenwriters are Ed Solomon
and Boaz Yakin. Allow me to present a
bit of their writing filmography here: Solomon wrote Imagine That (2009), The
In-Laws (2003), and Super Mario Bros. (1993) while Yakin
wrote something called From Dusk Till Dawn: Texas Blood Money
(1999) and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004).
With a history of terrible films behind them, Now
You See Me was almost doomed from the start. Even a cast including Michael Caine, Morgan
Freeman, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, and Jesse Eisenberg are unable to
salvage it. We start with four magicians
in a montage of their respective acts.
J. Daniel Atlas (Eisenberg) is a top-notch cardsharp, Merritt McKinney
(Harrelson) is a mentalist and expert hypnotist who uses targeted guessing and
your facial expressions to reveal your secrets, Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher)
uses large props and misdirection as an escape artist, and Jack Wilder (Dave
Franco) is a petty con man who can steal your wallet as easy as best you in a
quick hand-to-hand fighting scenario.
These magicians are interesting. You want to watch them perform tricks and
dazzle audiences. However, we rarely get
that chance. What we get is Dylan Rhodes
(Ruffalo) who does his best imitation of a tired, no-nonsense FBI detective
annoyed that he is assigned to investigate tricksters. Along for the ride out of nowhere is
good-looking Interpol agent Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent). The subtle, tense romance brewing between
Rhodes and Dray is ridiculous. They go
through the motions of getting in each other’s way, not listening to each
other, and all of a sudden they find each other desperately attractive. What would you expect from the writer of Dirty
Dancing: Havana Nights?
Off to the side with limited screen time are the
veterans. Arthur Tressler (Caine)
bankrolls the magicians and Thaddeus Bradley (Freeman) is a professional magic
de-bunker with a TV show exposing magicians as frauds. The magicians, known as the Four Horsemen,
stage a series of shows where the punchline is always a whole bunch of someone
else’s money being thrown into the audience – the rich and corrupt giving back
to the masses they stole from in the first place.
We watch the magic unfold with nary a clue how it is
achieved and like the old, reliable plot device he is, Thaddeus Bradley rolls
in to explain to the FBI, and us, how they pulled the wool over our eyes. Playing sneaky magicians, Eisenberg and
Harrelson are very good. Fisher is just
along for the ride as the girl in the mix and Franco does not get enough screen
time to warrant much mention.
Now You See Me would have been immensely stronger if Eisenberg
and Harrelson had a chance to be on screen for more than a minute or two at a
time. Ruffalo’s detective and his squad
of scrambling agents yelling into walkie-talkies every 30 seconds is the
absolute worst protagonist to follow around in a ‘how did they do that’
story. Their foot chase through Mardi
Gras with a shaky cam of all things is best forgotten by all involved.
The elements are here for a quality summer blockbuster, a
break from the superheroes to focus on an interesting story. The characters are even here – I would not
mind seeing a sequel with just the magicians sans all of the other
distractions. Unfortunately, we get
another forgettable Hollywood cliché full of plot holes, unnecessary characters
and sub-plots, and another lesson in expectation management.
Directed by: Louis Leterrier
Written by: Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin, Edward Ricourt
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Melanie Laurent, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Michael Kelly, Common
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