Louis Leterrier’s Now You See Me has an appealing comic spirit, and it’s a considerable amount of fun, in parts.
It concerns four talented but low-level illusionist-hustlers: one card master (Jesse Eisenberg), one mentalist (Woody Harrelson), one daring escape artist (Isla Fisher), and an artful pickpocket (Dave Franco). One day they receive a mysterious summons to become part of The Eye, whatever that may be. They have no idea who’s behind this outfit, but they agree to join, and soon they’re headlining Las Vegas with a group act that ranges from disappearing rabbits to water tanks full of deadly piranhas.
The actors alone make the movie worth watching. Eisenberg, less jittery than usual here, is deftly comic; Harrelson is once again wonderfully droll; Fisher is an entirely lovable screwball; and Franco (brother of James) is a very good-looking guy.
Also on hand are Michael Caine, as the quartet’s shady multimillionaire mentor, and Morgan Freeman, as a magic-debunker with a hit TV show. And after the four young stars manage to rob a bank in Paris without leaving their Vegas casino stage, a grizzled FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) shows up with a lovely Interpol operative (Mélanie Laurent) to get to the bottom of their shenanigans.
Read the full review at Reason.com.