Now You See Me Review

Now You See Me is a 2013 caper film directed by french director Louis Leterrier, director of the aggressively awful Clash of the Titans. Now You See Me follows four magicians who are brought together by a mysterious benefactor, and transformed into a Las Vegas act The Four Horsemen, their act involves teleporting a man from Vegas to Paris to his bank in the eighth, convincing him to rob the bank, and showering the audience with money, their activities attract the suspicions of the FBI who attempt to discover the secrets to their trick. This leads to caper with the authorities chasing the horsemen to New Orleans, with a final showdown in New York, at 5 Pointz.

Now You See Me is an incredibly modern movie about magicians, it is about magicians with residencies in Las Vegas and who use modern technology to support their acts. The opening sequence of the film features the four magicians using various tricks in order to survive and make money. Each of the Four Horsemen present a various trait, Jesse Eisenberg plays J Daniel Atlas, an illusionist and leader of the group, Woody Harrelson plays Merrit McKinney, a mentalist, Isla Fisher plays Henley Reeves, an escapist, and the cute Dave Franco plays Jack Wilder, a slight of hand magician and the youngest of the group, during their run-in with the FBI, they encounter Dylan Rhodes, played by Mark Ruffalo and Alma Dray, an Interpol agent played by Mélanie Laurent, the cast is rounded out by Morgan Freeman, playing a former illusionist and Michael Caine as Arthur Tressler, the horsemens benefactor. Now You See Me succedes largely due to its talented, likeable and charismatic cast. 

 The film uses various plot twists in order to continually stay one step ahead of it's audience, however it manages to refrain from being too infuriating, by never taking it too far, the films plot is clever and engaging, and uses a variety of intriguing locations. The film manages to come to a successful conclusion, tying up enough ends to leave an audience feeling satisfied, yet providing enough leeway for a sequel. The films production design is slick and modern and the film makes imaginative use of it's different settings, with the groups opener being set on the Las Vegas strip, the second show taking place in the french quarter of New Orleans and a car chase taking place on the 59th street bridge, the shows finale takes place at 5 pointz and a parcour chase sequence features the back alleys of seedy manhattan.

Overall Now You See Me, despite being fantastic fun is far from perfect, the characters remain woefully underdeveloped and Dave Franco is painfully underused. I actually like the ending of the movie and like the fact that there are some ends left untied, leading seamlessly into a sequel. The story and cast are engaging and exciting and the film, to put it simply is just fantastic fun. Rating: A

J. Daniel Atlas: First rule of magic: always be the smartest person in the room.