Now You See Me Review: Mediocre “Ocean’s 11” With Magicians

Now You See starts off with a promising premise. The production value is slick and the banter between the characters is amusing.

The characters are the same as the onscreen persona of the actors who play them. Jesse Eisenberg (with better hair) as the arrogant sleight of hand expert, Woody Harrelson as the sarcastic hypnotist, Dave Franco as the smirking conman, and Isla Fisher as the plucky escape artist.

However, as the movie progresses the Four Horsemen is chucked aside. The movie shifts to focus on the skeptic detective Mark Ruffalo, and his predictable flat romance with another detective, french Melanie Laurent.

The Four Horsemen pops out to do their thing. But the magic is aided by editing and CGI, rendering it ineffective.

The cat and mouse plot of elaborate action set pieces are mixed with conspiracies, magic societies, forced romances, and an unconvincing Morgan Freeman.

When the film finally climaxes, nothing is what it seems. As a result, you got no one to root for and the scattered plot gives you no clear story to make sense of. Much worst, the final revelation is a key to a half-baked mystery, used as an excuse to tie in all other half-baked plot points.

Now you see me looks good when taken at face value and there’s one cool fight scene. But ultimately, its sheen is deceptive. It starts out as Ocean’s Eleven with magicians, gets tangled in its own deceptions, and then crumbles into a disappointing mess.