Jon Petre reviews "Now You See Me", But you won't buy the DVD.

"Now You See Me" (12A)
Director: Louis Leterrier.
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo and Woody Harrelson.
Rated: 12A, for containing moderate sex references, violence, threat and strong language.
Running time: 115 minutes.
Out now, in UK cinemas.

When Scott phoned me on the 'ole landline to go and see Now You See Me, initially I said no. Now, I like cinema trips as much as the next penniless blogger, but I really didn't want to see Now You See Me. It struck me, at first, as one of those supposedly "Hollywood Blockbusters" that you see nowadays: Where the director/producer, armed with a lack of creativity and a budget that would put Rochester Council to shame, makes a sub-par script and storyline but uses a flank of big names and too much advertisement to hammer home their movie. (cough cough, Last Stand, cough cough). So as you can tell, I was going into the screen with pretty much a closed mind.

But I was pleasantly surprised.
While I was right in assuming that it was going to be a heist movie, it was a lot better than I expected. It started off positively cringe-worthy, like all heist movies do, with the characters all doing their thing in different places, all being so different and unlikely that we as the audience couldn't possibly see them working together. But lo and behold! Some happenstance has brought them into one unit, and we return a year later to see the four leads working together in Las Vegas.

I should also mention that they are Witches. Or rather, they're magicians (Maegi to the layman) and that's where it's different. They're using their magic to scam the scammers, and I think that the producer was trying to go for a sort of 99% vs 1% feel to their crimes, which was a bit hit and miss to be honest. And the action and tricks were good, and it was a very enjoyable movie, and the plot had more twists and turns than Lombard Street.
The movie was good fun, and although I was right in that Morgan Freeman and Micheal Caine seemed to be in the film simply so that Morgan Freeman and Micheal Caine are in the film, I liked it anyway. 

No, I don't write all of my jokes.

That said, there were some cringes to be had, namely in the scenes where all four of the "horsemen" were in together (shudders).

 The sequences with the youngest horseman (the actor's name escapes me and I can't be bothered to use Google) were particularly annoying, as everything he did was the archetypal 'rookie'. 

However, it was good fun, and although it has its flaws, it's worth a view. It's the sort of thing that you'll like, but not enough to buy the DVD, but you'll still watch it if it's on Sky Movies. (cough cough, Total Recall (2012) cough cough).



For this one, I'll throw my hat in the ring and join Scott Gentry with a good 'ole 3 out of 5. See you later folks, and stay classy!

3 STARS

Written by Jon Petre.

Watch the trailer below!