Now You See Me
Louis Leterrier’s 2013 movie Now
You See Me is part bank heist movie, half thriller. Four struggling magicians (each with a unique
talent) are recruited by mysterious business man, Arthur Tressler (Michael
Caine) to become the greatest magical quartet of all time. Also starring Woody
Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman and Jesse Eisenberg, this
movie certainly has star power.
The magicians become The Four
Horsemen and become famous after a massive show becomes wold renowned after a
spectacular bank heist – and the proceedings go back to the audience in true
Robin Hood style (i.e. rob from the rich, give to the poor). After they
turncoat on their benefactor at the second act and steal his money to give to
the audience (themselves victims of their benefactors company), the FBI are on
the case. Mark Ruffalo plays an FBI detective who joins forces with Interpol’s
French female officer, Alma Drey (Melanie Laurent). Always one step ahead, The
Four Horsemen are planning their biggest show yet. Meanwhile, their antics
attract the attention of Morgan Freeman, who is hot on their tails too – to
create a multi-faceted storyline and a surprising conclusion.
Full of funky magic tricks, action
and excitement, NYSM is a great watch and has a good twist at the end. The cast
is fantastic and kept me watching ‘til the credits roll – but stay because
there’s another bit in the middle. My only concern is that they did not spend
very much time on the Four Horsemen themselves, and this would be nicer as they
seemed to have a good comraderie and I think it would have been interesting to
see more about them. A great movie.
POPSCORE: 8/10
Now You See Me 2
Now You See Me 2 is once again
more of the same from (just about) the same cast as the first one, with the
replacement of Isla Fisher with Lizzy Caplan as the sassy Lula, the newest
member of the Horsemen. They talk away Fisher’s absence assigning the reason to
a falling out with Jesse Eisenberg’s character Atlas – and introduce Caplan’s
character as a fan of the Horsemen who wants to be part of the gang with her
unique magic tricks too. However, I don't know about you, but surely they missed a trick - this film should have been called Now You Don't.
It’s more of the same story too,
set around 18 months after the events of the last movie. The Horsemen are brought out of hiding to
perform a show to bring down a tech magnate and it gets all very Mission:
Impossible meets Ocean’s Eleven (or Ocean’s Four or Five in this instance) and
leads the viewer on a path through some mind-blowing magical tricks with some
action and adventure thrown in the mix. However,
the magical tricks the team use are verging on them actually having superpowers
and are a little less believable than the previous film, but it’s still fun
none the less.
Harry Potter himself, Daniel
Radcliffe, also appears in this movie and, although he is sporting an
impressive beard, he still seems very Harry Potterish. This is even to the
extent that Woody Harrelson describes him as some sort of man-boy in one scene.
Speaking of Woody Harrelson – his performance in this movie is fantastic and
makes an already great movie even better – especially when we are introduced to
his twin brother Chase (who is also played by Woody Harrelson… with hair!).
So yes, I really liked this movie
and I would love them to make another sequel – it could be a franchise as I
think there’s plenty more to go from here. Ruffalo, Caine and Freeman return
with their characters too and, although the ending is nowhere near as twisty as
the first movie, it leaves it open for another part to come. There’s only a few
niggly bits with this movie – including unforgiveable continuity errors, but
watching it for what it is – a bit of fun and excitement with a bit of ooh-ing
and ahh-ing thrown in – makes this a magical show worth a watch.
POPSCORE: 8/10
