Now You See Me

Now You See Me, the latest film from director Louis Leterrier is a hokey, cornball, big budgeted summer popcorn flick that amazingly entertains. It's a great story with a lot of heart but sadly it's saddled with some truly annoying and badly acted performances. Because of that, Now You See Me gets two buckets of Killer Korn.



Okay, I was going to start this blog off talking about the director and his past films. I was going to go into detail about the looks of his films and his work with certain cinematographers, but I scrapped all that and chose to go a different route. I am not a fan of Louis Leterrier's films, there I said it. His first feature length film was The Transporter with Jason Statham and I thought it was a waste of money. Then he did Unleashed and that was his first time teaming up with Morgan Freeman, which surprised me. Since I like Mr. Freeman, I saw it and thought that was also a waste of time. Then he did The Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton and that was a decent movie. Not bad, not good but it was better than Ang Lee's Hulk movie. Louis' Hulk was a story with both heart and outlandish nonsense, but because it was decent, I decided to check out his remake of Clash of the Titans. His Titans remake was again, a decent movie. Saddled with really horrible 3D effects that has been deemed by Louis himself as a cash grab, Clash nevertheless was neither great or atrocious (though the studio chose not go back to him to do the sequel to Clash, Wrath of the Titans). Now the one thing I noticed about Louis films, they all have two things in common, a story with heart coupled with something that keeps the film from being a really good film. Now You See Me keeps that streak alive for Louis.

This time though, it's the really bad acting which surprises me. The cast is chock full of people who are seen as being really talented. Jesse Eisenberg (from the social network) plays J. Daniel Atlas, Woody Harrelson plays Merritt McKinney, Isla Fisher plays Henley Reeves, Melanie Laurent plays Alma Dray, and Dave Franco (from Warm Bodies and James Franco's younger brother) plays Jack Wilder. Then there's Michael Caine who plays Arthur Tressler, Morgan Freeman who plays Thaddeus Bradley, and Mark Ruffalo who plays Dylan Rhodes. In my opinion, that is one impressive casting coup. The problem is they are all very, very annoying. They all overact, all of them except Morgan Freeman, he just walks through the movie until the very end, then he decides to chase the Oscar. The story is a timely one and a cool revenge fantasy, sadly it's in a movie with unnecessary CG and atrociously annoying performances.

Four magicians all get a card with an address and a time to be at that address. That of course opens the floor up for the witty banter between rivals and ex-partners. They label themselves the four horsemen and they make a name for themselves and get themselves a show in Vegas (something every magician pines for obviously), financially backed by Michael Caine's character Arthur Tressler. During their show in Vegas it appears they rob a bank in Paris using an audience member. The Feds and Interpol get involved and rush in to arrest the Four Horsemen, but since they didn't keep a dime of the money they couldn't be charged with a crime. The following show, in New Orleans has them turn the tables on Arthur and he wants them taken down and destroyed, that's where Morgan Freeman's Thaddeus Bradley comes in. He debunks magicians and reveals their tricks and agrees to take down the Horsemen. It's only towards the end does he put it all together and realizes that he, like Tressler is a target.

This is only the sixth movie by Louis Leterrier and he definitely has a long way to go before he becomes a master storyteller with the moving image. He IS on his way to the point though, that much I can safely say, his trajectory is headed in the right direction. He just needs to learn that age old adage, "less is more". There is way too much in this film that didn't have to be in this film, but when you're busy taking from so many other films like Ocean's Eleven for one, I guess one can tend to overdo it. Shot in New York City impressed me and using the 5 Pointz building in Queens made me smile. If you are a fan of graffiti art then you know all about 5 Pointz, some of the greatest graffiti artists have left their amazing works on those walls throughout the years. Sadly it won't be around much longer so for it to be immortalized in this movie was a lovely tribute. The soundtrack by hit or miss specialist Bryan Tyler is all HIT! The music is perfect for the story and the images. It's big, brash, showy, and sly which is perfect for a movie based around magic.

If you don't mind bad acting, unnecessary special effects, and magic in your movies, then Now You See Me just may entertain you. It's a nice alternative from Star Trek and bad car movies anyway. Check it out and I'll see you at the theater.