NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt, Rosamund Pike, Lizzy Caplan, Morgan Freeman, Andrew Santino.
This is the belated third film in the franchise that began in 2013. The Now You See Me series follows a quartet of crime fighting illusionists known as the Four Horsemen who used magic tricks to bring down powerful criminals. The quartet consisted of J Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher). It has been ten years since we last encountered them in 2016’s imaginatively titled Now You See Me 2. But in the interim they have split up acrimoniously and gone their own ways.
The catalyst for bringing them back together is a trio of younger magicians and activists who have been using holograms and special effects to impersonate the Four Horsemen at a special show in New York. This trio consist of Bosco (Dominic Sessa, from The Holdovers, etc), Charlie (Justice Smith, from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, etc) and June (Araina Greenblatt, from Borderlands, etc). They are out to expose a cryptocurrency ring that is financing international criminals and terrorists, laundering money through lavish events and selling diamonds at public auctions.
Their main target is Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike, from Saltburn, etc), the powerful and ruthless head of a South African mining conglomerate which has built its immense fortune on blood diamonds. The two groups of illusionists reluctantly team up to steal “the heart”, the largest diamond in the world which is in the possession of Vanderberg. Veronika also owns an F1 racing team, which sets up a climactic confrontation at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Their ambitious plan takes them from New York to Antwerp, to France and onto the hedonistic neon lit delights of Dubai. These exotic locations have been nicely captured by cinematographer George Richmond (Deadpool & Wolverine, etc) who gives the film a glossy surface.
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t has been written by Michael Leslie (Assassin’s Creed, etc), Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (the pair who wrote Zombieland, etc) and Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, etc) and has been directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, etc). Fleischer maintains a fast pace throughout glossing over some of the gaps in the logic of the script. The film includes a couple of impressively staged set pieces, including a fight in a revolving room that seems like something out of Inception. Kudos to production designer David Scheunemann (Bullet Train, etc) who has created some impressive sets, including a magical house in France in which each room is shaped differently. Some great CGI effects are used to create the elaborate illusions and the magical tricks here.
The writers try to give everyone plenty of screen time and give them enough to do to make their characters vital to the plot. Most of the original cast return here, although the absence of the genial Michael Caine, who has supposedly retired from filmmaking, is keenly felt. And Morgan Freeman, who has played Taddeus Bradley in the previous films, bids farewell to the franchise here and will not return for a fourth film in the franchise (which is already rumoured to be in development). Harrelson brings some touches of humour to the material, but his contribution smacks of contractual obligation rather than a deep commitment to the material. Eisenberg is his typically smug self here and his Atlas constantly clashes with Sessa’s unlikeable and opinionated Bosco. The addition of new blood to the series is intended to shake up the familiar, and it works to a certain extent bringing some tension to the working relationship between the old and the new. Sessa brings an intensity to his role, while Smith delivers an enthusiastic performance, and Greenblatt brings a perky energy to her role. Pike brings a coldness and ruthless quality to her powerful Veronika and has fun chewing the scenery as the villain of the piece.
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is a high stakes caper film that delivers pretty much what fans of the franchise have come to expect.
★★★
