Now You See Me: Now You Don't review

NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T: 

THIRD MAGIC HEIST RELIES ON OLD TRICKS, BUT QUITE FUN OLD TRICKS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

LIONSGATE

The Four Horsemen, Morgan Freeman, Rosamund Pike, Dominic Sessa, Justice Smith, and Ariana Greenblatt in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t

 

            The Four Horsemen are back with more magic tricks in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, the third installment of the Now You See Me film series dating back to 2013. I liked the first two Now You See Me movies though I hadn’t thought about them for several years, but I thought they were perfectly fine films for what they were with an interesting blend of magic and heists. 

            Honestly, it’s a fascinating concept with a lot of potential, a group of con men (and women) that perform elaborate magic tricks to pull off an impossible heist. However, these films aren’t exactly like The Prestige meets American Hustle or Ocean’s Eleven, but like I said, they are fine for what they are. 

            Now we have this new film released nearly ten years after 2016’s Now You See Me 2 with Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland 1 and 2, The Social Network, A Real Pain), Dave Franco (21 Jump Street, The Disaster Artist, Together), Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers, The Great Gatsby (2013), The Beach Bum), Woody Harrelson (Zombieland 1 and 2, The Hunger Games franchise, Venom: Let There Be Carnage), Lizzy Caplan (Freaks and Geeks, Mean Girls, The Night Before), and Morgan Freeman (Driving Miss Daisy, Bruce Almighty, The Dark Knight trilogy) reprising their roles and Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland 1 and 2, Venom, Uncharted) in the director’s chair this time. Easiest recommendation ever, did you like Now You See Me and Now You See Me 2? If so, then you’ll probably enjoy Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. 

            It isn’t really a threequel that takes the Now You See Me franchise to the next level or something like that, it just gives people exactly what they enjoyed about the previous films and it’s done well enough. These are crowd-pleasing movies and aren’t trying to be these deep and complex films that subvert people’s expectations or blow their f*cking minds, if you’ve seen at least one Now You See Me movie then you know the formula. 

            The film is set ten years after Now You See Me 2 and follows a new group of aspiring magicians consisting of Charlie (Justice Smith-Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, I Saw the TV Glow), Bosco (Dominic Sessa-The Holdovers), and June (Ariana Greenblatt-Avengers: Infinity War, In the Heights, Barbie) who catch the attention of J. Daniel Atlas (Eisenberg), the former leader of the Four Horsemen who have since been disbanded and proposes a plan to steal a valuable diamond from the wealthy and powerful, Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike-The World’s End, Gone Girl, Saltburn). Atlas and the new band of magicians bring the remaining Horsemen back together including Merritt McKinney (Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Franco), Henley Reeves (Fisher) as well as former fourth Horseman (or woman), Lula May (Caplan; reprising her role from Now You See Me 2) and former grandmaster of the Eye organization, Thaddeus Bradley (Freeman) for one last magic-filled heist. 

            Overall, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is a film that gives exactly what it advertises, a third Now You See Memovie and doesn’t try to be anything more. It understands the franchise’s formula and gives audiences more of what they enjoy about it, sexy people performing magic tricks while also performing a heist and showing the elaborate ways of how they pulled them off. 

I came in with absolutely zero expectations and came out having a good enough time, in this age where people expect greatness out of their cinematic franchises, sometimes a movie or franchise can just be good and that’s fine. That’s essentially what the Now You See Me films are to me, good junk food movies with bursts of wit and intelligence here and there. 

The magic sequences are fun though much of them are repeats of what we’ve seen in the previous films. However, there are times where the franchise’s creativity does shine with my favorite example being this action scene involving the Horsemen and the aspiring new Magicians are escaping from the police in this old estate owned by the Eye with rooms that go upside down, a hallway of infinite stairs, a funhouse of mirrors, and a room where people and objects’ sizes change, it’s easily the best part of the movie. 

All the Horsemen actors work well off each other which is probably a given since this is only movie #3 and have enjoyable chemistry with the newcomers. Everyone has their moments to shine and are very funny to listen to and see interact with one another, what you’d want to see from this cast in a movie like this. 

There’s this really great scene where the Horsemen and the new magicians are in this one room together and they’re just exchanging illusions and tricks in this one continuous shot. It’s a visually and technically impressive sequence and a great way to exchange banter and character development between the leads, loved that moment. 

Rosamund Pike is a fun antagonist complete with a South African accent, this snooty and wealthy woman who you just want to see shit happen to and boy, shit does happen to her. Probably won’t be a legendary performance of hers like Gone Girl, but Pike delivers on evil ham and cheese. 

If you enjoyed the previous two movies then you’ll likely enjoy Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. It gives you everything from the earlier films with some new faces and a few new tricks along the way, might not be a very magical formula but it is a working formula.