Movie Review - Now You See Me

Perhaps the greatest illusion "Now You See Me" performed was making me believe it's better than it turned out to be.  The trailers looked great, an overloaded cast of unbelievable actors, and a cool premise—what's not to like?  It hurts to have to say that the film itself—outside of fun entertaining illusions and action sequences—is paper thin. 

STORY:

FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) tracks a team of magicians as they rob banks, millionaires, and safes before the audience's eyes.

"Please...one more time?  C'mon, I said please."

"Fine.  I'm always angry.  Now, can we get back to this movie?"

THOUGHTS:

Man, did you read the story premise above?  As short and sweet as it is—doesn't it sound awesome?  Just the idea alone is worth checking out the story.  Everyone likes heist movies and everyone (this may be stretching) likes magicians.  So what the hell went wrong? 

"And Ta-Da...a frigging mess!" 

Somewhere between the flashy camera movements and pizzazz, character development was thrown out the window and replaced with a cast of top-notch actors, who hold this movie together using chewed bubblegum and soggy toothpicks.  But who needs character development when we have shots of Isla Fisher in short skirts?  Or Jesse Eisenberg being a bigger dick than he was in The Social Network.  And if that doesn't make people happy, we'll throw in two giant actors everyone likes: Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine.  Instant slam-dunk.

At least that's what the producers thought, but it turns out, a story needs a little more development than just three magic acts and a lonely FBI agent looking for some tail from an overseas Interpol agent.  You might even think that the heists or illusions are grounded in reality, but no, you'd be wrong about that too.  Just like another well-known movie in theaters, you're supposed to just let the dazzling ridiculousness pass through your brain and not think too much, because if you do, you might choke the person next to you out of sheer frustration.

"Listen, we don't know how else to say this:

Your scene is over. And it's been over for about 6 hours now."

That's why the reviews are all over the map like a drunken cartographer.  If you don't want to think and you enjoy sparkling scenery, then you'll love this movie.  If you enjoy the nuts and bolts and motives behind heists, than you're going to look back on this movie, and wonder if you left the stove on.

Mark Ruffalo plays the most likable character in the film and he's really where the writers went wrong: if they added a little more depth and slowed the frigging camera down, it would have improved this movie ten-fold.  The plot never comes close to being profound with any character, and then at the end, when it almost does—when it's almost sincere—you don't really give a crap, because you can't relate to anything or anyone.

The filming was coming along fine, until Mr. Ruffalo broke into song, trying to dazzle 

the crew with "Cuban Pete."

The magicians/Four Horsemen: Eisenberg, Harrelson, Fisher and Franco are left with nothing but the magic acts to work through.  Woody is the comic relief, making you laugh with great facial expressions and witty dialogue, while Franco is the action: fighting and exploding his way through the film.  Eisenberg does a tad more than introduce the magic acts and Isla Fisher remains a sweet and sexy face, carrying just a smile throughout.

"What the hell do you think it is?"

"Could be bad writing, but we won't know for sure until it's all over."

If you love Morgan Freeman, then you might hate his part.  He comes off as a know-it-all jackass.  The character carries all the information of what exactly is going on, but never tells anyone, keeping the information from everybody (and audience) for his personal gain.  Caine is only in the movie for a couple of scenes, and if you blink a lot, you might miss him.  Then we come to sweet Melanie Laurent, who kicked ass in Inglourious Basterds, but has a hard time doing anything here due to bad writing and lousy dialogue.  She does have one sexy French accent though, so...there's that.

The film starts with quick introductions to each magician and then they're thrown together with no reason or explanation.  This all happens with an LSD laden camera pulling in and pulling out, and ripping through scenes and over actors heads, making you feel like you're on a Disney ride gone wrong, except you can't yell "stop" before you throw up...it just happens.  Then all of a sudden the camera freezes at the middle point of the movie, making you listen to some dialogue.  But why the hell would you care what any of them have to say, when you just want to get back to the drug-induced Disney ride.  No need to worry, because the camera picks up again as the movie steam-rolls into the finale, dazzling you with the final "Ah Ha!" moment at the end.

"I just crapped my pants...I just crapped my pants!"

"Jesus...I smell it!"

CAUTION - A SOMEWHAT SPOILER

Can someone that's seen the film please call me, or email me, or send me smoke signals on what exactly happened at the end.  Where do they all go?  Did they land in some special magician Never-Never Land, where hats filled with bunnies and pockets of infinite-length-scarfs are in abundance?  What about all the felonies they just pulled?  Are we supposed to imagine all the crimes will just…be forgotten?

END OF SOMEWHAT SPOILER

"I think something's wrong with my banjo..."

"That's because it's really a shotgun."

"Oh..."

CONCLUSION:

Call me crazy, but even though I'll score it middle-of-the-road, I still liked the damn thing.  Maybe all it takes is a sexy French accent and Isla in a short skirt to put a smile on my face.  (I never said I was a complicated man)  So, if you're alright with watching two hours’ worth of three magic acts, a drunken camera, and some dialogue and plot thrown in for fun, then jump to the theaters.  If not, then maybe you should wait for the rental.

2.5 out of 5 stars (minus 2 stars for no character development & ½ star for camera tricks—bad magician, bad!)