ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW: Now You See Me

Major Spoilerite James Smith had a chance to see an early screening of Now You See Me, starring Isla Fisher, Morgan Freeman, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Michael Caine and more.

NOW YOU SEE ME
Director: Louis Leterrier
Writers: Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin, Edward Ricourt

CAST
Henley – Isla Fisher
Thaddeus Bradley – Morgan Freeman
Dylan Hobbs – Mark Ruffalo
Michael Atlas – Jesse Eisenberg
Jack – Dave Franco
Merritt Osborune – Woody Harrelson
Arthur Tressler – Michael Caine
Alma Vargas – Melanie Laurent

An FBI agent and an Interpol detective track a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and reward their audiences with the money.

I love magic. Surprisingly however there have been few movies about magic; few good movies anyway. While a few recent films come to mind, namely 2006’s The Prestige and The Illusionist, Now You See Me strives to be more than a one trick pony.

Where the movie succeeds the most is that it’s able to convince the audience that magic and magicians are once again cool. The main characters aren’t wearing capes, they aren’t taming tigers, and they definitely aren’t dragging out some paper thin supernatural allusion. All four of the Four Horsemen start out as street magicians. They are more Cool Hand Luke then Burt Wonderstone.

The film is built in many ways like a great magicians performance. Add a little drama, a bit of flair (by which I mean lens flares), some genuinely funny jokes here and there, and, like a good magic trick, a plot with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing all the way to the end.

There is a bit of a love story between Mark Ruffalo and Melanie Laurent’s characters that felt a bit flat to me but I am more than willing to admit that I may not fit into the demographic for that particular plot point. It just seemed to slow down the story line and all-together shoehorned into an otherwise fast paced caper.

BOTTOM LINE: Smart and Fun

Now You See Me is a fun popcorn flick that is both smart, funny, and a lot of fun. In a summer filled with heady sci-fi epics and muscle bound superheroes, Now You See Me keeps you guessing without a clear villain and protagonists with questionable motives. The star of the film, in the end, is the magic itself. And like a great trick, the fun is all in figuring out the reveal in the end.