Sunday, June 2, 2013

Now You See Me - Review

“Now You See Me” – Review

"Now You See Me" is about four people who have one thing in common; they all know elements of the art of magic. Brought together by some unknown and mysterious benefactor they are all rebranded with the unique name of “The Four Horseman”; a super-team of the world’s greatest illusionists.

Their mission is to follow to the letter specific instructions from their benefactor with the ultimate plan of pulling off a series of incredible daring heists against seemingly unrelated corrupt business leaders during their live stage performances. They’re benevolent goal is to eventually close out each performance by showering all of the stolen monetary profits from these various business leaders on to their adoring audiences all the while staying one step ahead of the law of an elite FBI squad and Interpol on their case. It’s the classic film caper of the cat and mouse game of who is exactly the smartest person in the room or in this case in the movie.

The problem with the film is it took what was a genuinely promising premise - plot idea and then spent the next 90 minutes of missing horribly its mark on the story’s development and follow through, resulting in something far more of a series of silly mechanical and over manufactured scenes than anything really magical or interesting. Instead this film was just an excuse to run out the clock on a revenge caper mixing some parts with real magic and a mixed bag of computer generated special affects explained away as magic.

Bottom line this is a film that wanted to borrow some of the stylish mood of Ocean 11, without the smarts, wit, humor or sophistication and for some reason borrow a needless Jason Bourne Identity fight and chase scene to apparently round things off for people like me who were already magically morphing into something called being a bit bored.

2 -1/2 Stars

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