In Now You See Me, four magicians, the best of their craft, are summoned by an unknown person. Together they take the world by storm and play to packed stadia and huge TV audiences. It’s all a ruse, of course, even the ruses are ruses. There are also twists. It’s that kind of film. Stereotypical Interpol and FBI agents bumble around and a couple of legendary actors, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, are thrown in for gravitas.
Now You See Me starts promisingly enough. The interplay between the four magicians, played by Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Woody Harrelson and Isla Fisher, is amusing and fun. Their stage show is spectacular and the magic global in its scale and extravagance, to the extent that 3D glasses were almost required.
The heist set-up is also intriguing and for a moment there, a clever and ground-breaking film threatened. And then it all went, well, Hollywood normal. Car chases, shooting, explosions and a pointless love interest combined with a fairly predictable and almost ridiculous ending.
Now You See Me is a complex film and mostly in a good way. While it is largely an entertaining piece of film-making it’s ultimately a disappointment.
