'Now You See Me: Now You Don't’ REVIEW: A Few Tricks Up Its Sleeves
'Now You See Me: Now You Don't’ REVIEW: A Few Tricks Up Its Sleeves
The main Now You See Me: Now You Don't cast / Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
Spoilers ahead for ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’
From my first 30 rewatchings of Ocean's Eleven to the constant reruns of Breaking the Magician’s Code, heist films and breaking down magic have been a continual obsession in my life. That idea of a well-executed plan to perform the impossible, then sleekly slipping through with a sleight of hand, then revealing the big twist at the finale, always tickles a sensation of both curiosity and coolness. I have been craving for years for a truly good heist film, which is what makes the Now You See Me franchise both a fascination and a hilarious punchline to that lifelong desire. And after nine years since the enjoyably contrived Now You See Me 2, the film truly ramps up the silliness (and number of Horsemen) with this recent installment.
Right down to the name.
After years of comments and complaints that the second film should've been subtitled Now You Don't, the third installment is now called: Now You See Me: Now You Don't. This film is the perfect personification of that tongue-in-cheek energy that continues and escalates to pack in more of the dumb, but ultimately fun, series of conspiratorial capers. All with a liberalist approach to anti-capitalist direct action and a new set of young magicians to boot.
Rosamund Pike as Veronika Vanderberg in Now You See Me: Now You Don't / Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
Set around a decade after the events of Now You See Me 2, the Horsemen have long been dormant. Thus, the film is now centered on a set of three younger rookie magicians: Bosco Leroy (Dominic Sessa), an aloof and arrogant trickster with a penchant for subterfuge via uncanny disguises and impressions, June (Ariana Greenblatt), an athletically gifted pickpocket and sleight of hand specialist, and Charlie (Justice Smith), the behind the scenes mastermind planner with an encyclopedic knowledge of all things magic.
With similar backgrounds of orphanage, debts, and a political desire to enact change, the three perform similar Robin Hood-esque capers against the rich in reflection of that. With such an irreverent admiration for the Horsemen, the film literally starts with the trio pretending to be the Horsemen, making a comeback to grift money out of a crypto bro con artist, utilizing all their gifts to essentially just get by.
Impersonating a group of legendary magicians immediately calls the attention of the Horsemen’s de facto leader, J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), who got a card from the Eye with a calling. It’s a mission to take down one Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), the CEO of the Vanderberg Corporation, a family conglomerate involved in blood diamond mining, and funding war criminals and corrupt politicians. To hit the billionaire where it hurts, they plan to steal the Heart Diamond (a direct reference to the Hope Diamond) to take leverage away from her continued dealings.
But along the way comes an unexpected reunion with the rest of the strained and jaded Horsemen, each with their own lives. Sleight of hand expert Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) is now a struggling freelance magician, while mentalist and hypnosis specialist, Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) is drunk and indifferent to the Horsemen's cause. Escapist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), on the other hand, is now a mother and mostly retired from the magic life. With a now-fractured Horsemen caused by clashes in personalities and regrets over failures in their mission to the Eye, it now becomes a team effort with these relatively green magicians to get them working together to unravel the deeper conspiracies to the Vanderberg name.
Bosco Leroy (Dominic Sassa), Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), and Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) in Now You See Me: Now You Don't / Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
How this film threads through the charcuterie of plot threads and new characters, however, is admittedly messy and overstuffed. That potentially compelling diamond mine of deeper conspiracies to the Vanderberg legacy? It gets mostly answered by hilariously clunky exposition. And the established conflict of a years-long personal rift between the Horsemen? Resolved in one speech by Charlie.
But where Now You Don’t more than makes up for these shortcomings is in two aspects: one is the overall embracing of this overflowing story, with an emphasis on the absolutely silliest elements of the franchise; the other is the unexpectedly creative and visually appealing directions that Ruben Fleischer takes the film to.
Promotional still featuring the main Now You See Me: Now You Don't cast / Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
As for the element of Fleischer’s direction, I had initial fears that after years of uninteresting, mediocre projects, he could never make a film to equal the endless enjoyment from his debut in Zombieland. Which is what made it more than a shock that Fleischer truly had a lot more tricks up his sleeve in incorporating both the absolute best of CGI and practical effects, and compellingly fun camerawork and choreography. Easily the biggest highlight of this film's visuals was an incredibly well-constructed one-shot where the Horsemen and the rookies both try to one-up themselves in showing how they would steal and hide the Heart Diamond. With an escalating series of varying tricks, magic props, and even a clothing change, this shot was just laid out with a simple, smooth, continual tracking shot that just allowed the chaos to unfold while never losing focus. It felt akin to the second film’s iconic card frisking scene in the Macau labs, only this time, more ambitious and even somewhat character-centered in showing the evolving dynamics between the older and newer blood of magicians.
The main Now You See Me: Now You Don't cast / Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
But for that aspect of being self-aware of the silly, the film really leans into the sheer absurdity of what are ostensibly street magicians being completely capable fighters or superhero magicians; to the hilarious degree that they can take on Interpol agents and armed guards on the same skill level as their misdirection and sleight of hand tricks. It even reaches the point where Jack directly references that he doesn’t think they should be “superhero magicians,” while earlier able to fight off trained private security with throwing cards.
They even throw in MCU-level crowd-pleasing pops. One example includes reintroducing a retired Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), in what is ostensibly his last appearance in the franchise after sacrificing himself to allow most of the Horsemen to escape. And another bigger surprise is the unexpected return of Lula May (Lizzy Caplan), now an ex-partner to Jack (which gets predictably resolved by the film’s ending anyway). There is something so funnily cinematic universe-coded about having rumors of Lula’s fate after Fisher’s return to the series, as if it were Robert Downey Jr. coming back to the MCU after Tony Stark’s death. It’s the audacity of making a franchise of heisting magician wizard-fighter that just lends this stupid movie to circle back around being entertaining and compels me to see more. The film even tops their MCU-induced sensibilities by having Dylan Shrike (Mark Ruffalo) do a brief appearance via a magic box Zoom to promote the three rookies into the Eye.
Ultimately, Dylan calls for them all to start a new mission for more of this insanely goofy series of heist-magic espionage films. And if there are more Now You See Me’s like this, I wouldn’t mind the Horsemen, both old and new, taking their time to prepare their next trick. Seeing is believing, and I have faith in them.
‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’ is now showing in Philippine cinemas.
