Now You See Me: Now You Don't (12A)

A hi-tech team of socially conscious illusionists comprising showman Bosco, expert pickpocket and acrobat June and proud magic history nerd Charlie pull off an audacious redistribution of wealth in the name of the disbanded Four Horsemen, who have vanished into the ether. Or so the young pretenders believe. They discover J Daniel Atlas in their supposedly secret lair, armed with a playing card, which commands him to recruit the wannabes for a daring heist.

LondonNet Film Review

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

In an early verbal exchange between magicians in director Ruben Fleischer’s heist sequel, one self-aggrandising performer suggests a true master of sleight of hand can perform an old trick with a flourish and fool an audience into believing they are seeing something new. The four scriptwriters pulling the strings of Now You See Me: Now You Don’t act on those words, engineering an elaborate ruse to steal a large, uncut heart-shaped diamond after it is removed from a hi-tech subterranean vault using a few of the same deceptions from the first two films in the series…

A hi-tech team of socially conscious illusionists comprising showman Bosco (Dominic Sessa), expert pickpocket and acrobat June (Ariana Greenblatt) and proud magic history nerd Charlie (Justice Smith) pull off an audacious redistribution of wealth in the name of the disbanded Four Horsemen, who have vanished into the ether. Or so the young pretenders believe. They discover J Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) in their supposedly secret lair, armed with a playing card from the clandestine society of magicians known as the Eye, which commands him to recruit the wannabes for a daring heist.

Working with Atlas as their arrogant mentor, the untested trio leverage their impressive skills to bamboozle and bewilder during a high-profile auction hosted by ruthless South African diamond despot Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike). The Eye also woos fellow Horsemen Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) back into action to assist with the elaborate act of misdirection, which is billed as “a chance to drive a stake through the heart of the devil herself”. Innocent bystanders including boorish fashion photographer Marc Schreiber (Dominic Allburn) are the unwitting pawns in the Four… no Seven Horsemen’s risky endeavour.

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is a confidently staged swindle that nestles alongside earlier chapters and blatantly lays its cards on the table about extending the franchise (a fourth film is currently in development with Fleischer at the helm). Friendly rivalry between the original quartet of Eisenberg, Harrelson, Franco and Fisher and their headstrong proteges provides opportunities for spiky repartee and begrudging co-operation. Some of the old guard are starved of meaty character development to demonstrate growth in the nine years since the Horsemen bolted out of their stable.

A reliance on tried and tested trickery allows us to stay a couple of steps ahead of the intentionally knotty plot and pre-empt an obvious ace up the sleeve before filmmakers are ready to play it and reveal who has been secretly conning whom for the best part of two hours. The scriptwriters do not try and cheat us too, which is a disappointment.

– Sarah Lee