Now You See Me...

There’s something special about magic that spontaneously brings the best out of you – expectation, hope, desire, sometimes even faith or belief. Those are some powerful emotions. In fact, so powerful that when it comes to magic, they seem to play right into a magician's hands and before you know it, while both your eyes are wide open, you’ve set yourself up for deception. Yes sir, magic is the art of creating visual paradox and the closer you look, the less you will see.

In ‘Now You See Me’, Jesse Eisenberg is ‘The Showman’, Woody Harrelson is ‘The Mentalist’, Isla Fisher plays ‘The Escape Artist’ and Dave Franco is ‘The Sleight’, four randomly selected magicians who corroborate their skills and expertise to form one definitive magic act known as ‘The Four Horsemen’. Apart from them being four, no one knows why this particular name, but to some of the victims of their magical acts they are indeed nothing short of an apocalyptic nightmare.  

When they are recruited to become the next hottest act to hit Las Vegas, our masters of illusion are given the blueprint to a magical act so immense they will do absolutely anything to see it through, even rob a bank if they have to. But with so many tricks up everyone’s sleeve, who is to know if a bank actually does get robbed? More importantly, who is to say it was them, even the FBI is uncertain and without having any actual proof, our Horsemen soon have their audience cheering and rooting again for some more mind-blowing acts of craftiness.  

Success unfortunately often attracts more enemies than friends and it’s usually someone from within your own ranks.  Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) is a former illusionest himself, but nowadays he exposes his former kind, exactly what the Horsemen don’t need, not with the law breathing down their necks and all. 

 

Apparently, hell hath no fury like an illusionist scorned and in conjunction with the group’s former benefactor, Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine), they soon find themselves in all sorts of trouble.

The opening scenes of ‘Now You See Me’ are well shot and as viewer, you are instantly drawn into the story of the four different characters and their various illusionist crafts. The pace at which it unravels is fast and manages to keep one’s attention on what is happening next, aided of course by some impressive magical acts. The energy that is injected into each of the actors’ performances is sound and believable, adding to a story that comes together really well.

Perhaps not the best movie ever with a plot that feels slightly watered down occasionally, but it’s loaded with truly entertaining moments making it fun to watch nonetheless.