Now You See Me

Directors: Louis Leterrier

Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco

Summary: Charismatic magician Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) leads a team of talented illusionists called the Four Horsemen. Atlas and his comrades mesmerize audiences with a pair of amazing magic shows that drain the bank accounts of the corrupt and funnel the money to audience members. A federal agent (Mark Ruffalo) and an Interpol detective (Mélanie Laurent) intend to rein in the Horsemen before their next caper, and they turn to Thaddeus (Morgan Freeman), a famous debunker, for help.

My Review: Now You See Me is a superficially diverting but substance-free concoction, a would-be thriller as evanescent as a magic trick and one that develops no suspense or rooting interest because the characters possess all the substance of invisible ink. Propelled by hyperkinetic action, constantly swooping camera moves and a techno score that never quits, this attractively cast caper makes such a big point of things not being what they seem that, by process of elimination, you can hardly help guessing who's really behind everything. This Summit release could do reasonably well out of the gate but will have trouble holding its own against heavy summer competition.

The cast of characters in this quick-fingered charade consists of hustlers, con artists and tricksters, the core group being (despite the fact that one of them is a woman) The Four Horsemen, entertainers so popular that they can draw sell-out crowds in giant arenas. There's cocky illusionist Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), wise-ass mentalist Merritt (Woody Harrelson), feisty escape artist Henley (Isla Fisher) and scamming pickpocket Jack (Dave Franco). Brought together by an unseen hand with an eye to melding their skills to spectacular effect, the flashy quartet takes to the Las Vegas Hilton stage with the announced intention of robbing a bank before the spectators's eyes.

In a rapid-fire mash-up of high-tech gizmos and flashy showbiz razzmatazz, a randomly selected French audience member dons some futuristic headgear and is teleported to his bank in Paris, whereupon the millions in paper money in a vault there magically rains down on the delighted onlookers. Among those in admiring attendance are august figures of uncertain intent, the show's financier Tressler (Michael Caine) and Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), a debunker of magicians' tricks who discreetly videos the proceedings.

My Rating: 10/10