The Now You See Me films revolve around stage magicians The Four Horsemen using their unique skills to pull off altruistic thefts that stick it to bad corporations and individuals and redistribute the wealth either to the people said evil entity has wronged, or simply to the fans in attendance. Said Four Horsemen are; illusionist J. Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), mentalist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), sleight of hand specialist Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and either Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) or Lula May (Lizzy Caplan) depending on the movie. There is a shadowy organisation of mythical do-gooding magicians in the background, referred to only as "The Eye", but they are less important this time round.
Who is important, is a trio of new magicians consisting of Justice Smith's Charlie and his friends Bosco LeRoy (Dominic Sessa) and June Rouclere (Ariana Greenblatt). While they begin the movie impersonating the Horsemen, they soon team up with their heroes to take down shady diamond mining dynasty the Vanderbergs. The Vanderbergs are headed up by Veronika, played by Rosamund Pike with a South African accent that is either gloriously over the top or ridiculously distracting, depending on your point of view.
Antagonist aside, there is a nice chemistry between the cast, both old and new. We do need to suffer through some cringe inter-generational "humour" ("I've been doing this since you were in diapers" kind of stuff), but the majority of interactions are entertaining. The rivalry between Atlas and Bosco, the arrogant, self-styled leaders of each group, is mined for a good amount of laughs and the new team's found family vibe contrasts nicely with the original cast's camaraderie built on grudging respect. It helps that the newcomers are all excellent actors with their stars on the rise in Hollywood. Their prominence does mean the Horsemen have reduced screen time, which will disappoint many given they're probably the reason most people are tuning in for a third time. This little Woody Harrelson is criminal.
The other selling point of these films is the mixing of magic showmanship and heist movie. If the first film stretched believability with some of the tricks the cast perform (it is all illusion, there are no actual magic powers), and the second film put it in the bin, Now You Don't sets that bin on fire. The set up, technology and flat out dismissal of the laws of physics required for pretty much anything happening here to be adjacent to the real world is off the charts. That isn't really a problem as all popcorn franchises tend to get more extreme as they go on, just ask The Fast and the Furious, but it occasionally becomes a little distracting. There is a segment set in a "The Eye" safe house that leaves you wondering who set all this up and for what purpose. Some of the spectacle also feels a little too CG heavy, which is surprising given the director and cast's claims that as much was done practically as possible.
Despite the niggles, Now You See Me: Now You Don't has enough spirit and sense of fun to get by, although, like a magician repeating their trick, it isn't as good third time round. The closest analogue to the series is probably the aforementioned Fast and Furious franchise, with magic tricks and nerd camaraderie swapped in for car stunts and sweaty machismo. If Now You See Me wants to come anywhere close to the car family's longevity, it will need to find something new and confound the law of diminishing returns next time round.
6 diamonds up 10 sleeves.
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