THE STORY – The Four Horsemen reunite to recruit three skilled illusionists for a high-stakes heist involving the theft of the world’s largest queen diamond from a powerful family crime syndicate.
THE CAST – Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Morgan Freeman, Ariana Greenblatt, Woody Harrelson, Dominic Sessa, Justice Smith & Rosamund Pike
THE TEAM – Ruben Fleischer (Director), Michael Lesslie, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick & Seth Grahame-Smith (Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 112 Minutes
Given that a good heist shares multiple elements with a good magic trick, it was only a matter of time before someone made a heist film about a group of magicians. Enter “Now You See Me,” Louis Leterrier’s ludicrous surprise hit from 2013, and its even more ludicrous Jon M. Chu-directed sequel from 2016. The films follow The Four Horsemen –– J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), and Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) in the first and Lula May (Lizzy Caplan) in the second -– as they stage public magic shows as elaborate covers for stealing the ill-gotten gains of the 1% and giving it back to the masses. Given that “Now You See Me 2” is a direct sequel to the first, revealing its central heist to be a ruse concocted by the people they stole from in the previous film, you wouldn’t necessarily expect the duology to turn into a whole franchise, but given that the sequel made almost the same amount as the first at the international box office, perhaps it was inevitable.
Coming nearly a decade after the second film, the annoyingly-punctuated “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” may seem like it’s at least five years too late, but actually, it couldn’t have arrived at a more appropriate time than the end of 2025, when wealth inequality and the corruption of the ultra-wealthy seems to be at an all-time high. A film about magicians using their particular set of skills to dupe an evil South African mogul with a diamond mine who wants to overcharge for her products feels perfectly of the moment. In the hands of director Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”), this third franchise installment is even more ludicrously entertaining than the previous ones, perfectly balancing moral outrage with pure cinematic entertainment.
Years after their last appearance, the original Four Horsemen are back for a special one-night-only show in Brooklyn…or at least that’s what everyone thinks. In actuality, the show represents the work of a trio of friends: Showman Bosco Leroy (Dominic Sessa), pickpocket June (Ariana Greenblatt), and techie Charlie (Justice Smith). They all want to do the same thing as their predecessors, and they even get the chance to become The Horsemen themselves when Atlas shows up at their door with a tarot card from The Eye, a sign that the magic secret society wanted them to recruit them for a mission. They must work together to steal the largest diamond in the world, the Heart Diamond, from Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), whose company has long used its overpriced jewels as a front for the world’s most despicable criminals to launder their money. In the process, they meet up with Jack, Henley, and Merritt, reuniting the Four Horsemen for one last trick. But will they be able to get past the ruthless Veronika, who’s under pressure from a mysterious blackmailer threatening to expose damaging family secrets unless she surrenders the diamond?
The “Now You See Me” films have always been glossy, adrenaline-fueled affairs, getting by on a cast of charismatic weirdos and the use of magic and sleight-of-hand, which make the plot and action sequences more unpredictable than your average blockbuster. That doesn’t change here; the plot is pure hokum, riddled with holes, and the characters have nothing going on under the surface, despite numerous attempts to add depth (the theme of found families, the clash between the older and younger generations, the history between the horsemen and their breakup). Even the film’s final twist, which is clearly meant to give a deeper emotional connection to at least one of the characters, can’t quite break through the artless clockwork mechanics of the film’s overworked yet underbaked screenplay. That said, anyone coming to this film looking for a perceptive, emotional character study is looking in the wrong place. “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” is meant to be a thrill ride, nothing more, and it functions as one spectacularly well.
What the film’s screenplay lacks in character development, it makes up for in cleverly executed action sequences. The climactic sequence, which cross-cuts between a car chase on the streets of Abu Dhabi and a daring escape attempt, is all pulse-pounding thrills. And the initial diamond heist shows the benefit of the series’ clockwork mechanics, giving each of the missing Horsemen a crowd-pleasing big entrance that makes good use of their special skills. But neither of those sequences, good as they are, can compete with the film’s centerpiece scene, a chase through a series of optical illusion rooms that exemplifies everything that makes the series so successful. Taking bits of things we’ve seen before (a hall of mirrors chase, the rotating hallway from “Inception“) and mixing them with things we haven’t (a forced-perspective room that makes everything look like it’s growing or shrinking in size as it moves from one side to the other), it’s a sequence that revels in the ridiculousness of its concept and has continuous fun with it, using the illusions to toy with audience expectations. It’s a joy to watch, a blast of pure fun that easily outdoes every comic book movie released this year.
Fleischer’s slick direction does a lot of work in keeping the film enjoyable, as the pace never lags, even when the action slows down for some exposition or cute character bits. What really keeps the film as light as air is the cast. The chemistry of the original Horsemen still crackles, and their younger counterparts match them. Sessa’s considerable charisma gets a workout as the dickish Bosco, but the soul he displayed in his debut, “The Holdovers,” comes through loud and clear; he’s a movie star now, no doubt about it. Greenblatt and Smith get to have more fun with their characters, and their comic chops are as potent as their screen presence. As the villainous Veronika, Pike is having a blast, wrapping her velvety voice around a ridiculously perfect South African accent and making powerful use of her world-class resting bitch face to hide Veronika’s heart as much as possible. As much potent fun as her villainy is, what makes Pike’s Veronika such a memorable screen villain is how Pike approaches her as a flesh-and-blood woman, not just a fount of campy evil. Not that she skimps on the camp factor, diving into the over-the-top tone the series requires from its antagonists.
The heart of the “Now You See Me” series has always been in pulling the rich and powerful down off their pedestals and delivering some entertainingly on-point justice. The joy of watching has only grown in the near-decade since “Now You See Me 2,” and while the series’ Obama-era optimism may not go down quite as easily these days, “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” still packs a hugely entertaining punch. Yes, it’s ridiculous. No, it doesn’t make perfect sense. But, damn, if it isn’t a hoot and a half to watch. And especially in the midst of prestige movie season, it’s just the blast of good, old-fashioned, big-budget Hollywood entertainment that audiences need.
