Now You See Me

The trailer for this movie was well made. It was director Louis Leterrier's invitation to come and see his cinematic "magic act" and I accepted that invite. I see this movie therefore as being in the same class as Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige". While that film is better, the directors of both movies act as magicians and the film audience is being entertained/fooled. The difference between the two movies is that "The Prestige" asks if we are watching closely while "Now You See Me" teaches that we need to be watching far enough back instead of looking closely if we are to discover the secret. "Now You See Me" is quite funny but the film feels a little fast paced for those who see it for the first time. The second time allows you to see even more far back but it is still entertaining. The cast is also noteworthy.

The introduction of each of the Four Horsemen was well handled. My favorite is Merritt's with Danny's as a very close second. Danny's trick works for the movie audience as well because I was thinking of the seven of diamonds. You can tell how the trick is done as a result of it working through the fourth wall but it is still awesome. The three acts of the Four Horsemen are not just for those in the movie's story but also for us watching the movie as mentioned earlier. Leterrier is the one fooling us as a "magician" of sorts. With the first act in Las Vegas for example, he portrays the robbery as pure magic. As the character of Bradley shows us how it is done, the trick suddenly seems quite obvious. An important plot point however is that the FBI can't arrest the Four Horsemen because they have no proof that the robbery was anything but magic. They know how the trick was done thanks to Bradley but they still can't prove the Horsemen's physical theft of the money. I did catch Atlas' trick with Agent Rhodes' cell phone the first time. In New Orleans, I thought it was very stupid for Rhodes to yell out "freeze" because he should have remembered that was the trigger word. This is another example however of how the filmmakers are pulling the strings of good storytelling. The best part of the story is that you are kept guessing and the twist at the end was completely unforeseen. The unknown fifth horseman keeps even the Four Horsemen a little in the dark. Maybe this whole thing will backfire on them instead of the FBI. There are plenty of suspects as to who the fifth horseman is but the filmmakers did a great job in fooling us blind. The one flaw I see with "Now You See Me" is the speed of scenes in the film was little too fast. You definitely need to see this movie more than once in order to fully understand the plot but the good news is that you get the jist of the story the first time you are watching. The real test of this movie was if it is entertaining after multiple viewings and I enjoyed it the second time as well.

The casting choices were well done as well. Even though Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg is the first name on the cast list, Mark Ruffalo is the actual protagonist. Both men did pretty well nonetheless. I have already said how much I like Harrelson's performance. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman were welcomes sights (Caine was in "The Prestige" by the way). These two actors have worked together before in all the films of "The Dark Knight" trilogy so chemestry was not a problem. Boaz Yakin helped to write this film and I loved his movie "Remember the Titans" from over 10 years earlier. The producers of "Now You See Me", Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, have written such films as "Transformers" and J. J. Abrams' "Star Trek". I can see their handiwork a little. I like the tiny coincidence of Mark Ruffalo in a Louis Leterrier film because both men independently of each other have helped to bring the Hulk to the big screen. It is probably well known by this point that Isla Fisher almost drowned during her intro scene. Some of the shots that made the final cut were her in real trouble in the tank.

I had fun seeing this film even though it was a little fast-paced for my taste. You really enjoy this two-hour magic trick and I wonder why other critics did not enjoy it. I like good stories personally and this film was entertaining thanks to the cast and other filmmakers. The humor was also genuine but while you are laughing, keep in mind that you are being manipulated. I didn't see a sequel coming and it fell a little short of what I was hoping for.

4 Stars