A Hollywood blockbuster that's actually fun

Rating: 8/10 (30 November 2013)

Sort of a modern-day version of "Charade" (much better than the ACTUAL modern-day remake, "The Truth About Charlie"), "Now You See Me" is a phenomenally entertaining piece of prestidigitation about four street magicians - Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Isla Fischer - who form an act called The Four Horsemen, whose claim to fame is that they have the ability to rob banks without leaving the arena where they're performing. Like the Stanely Donen classic, "Now You See Me" is built on a series of plot twists and character turns in which no one or nothing is quite what he, she or it appears to be.
The always engaging Mark Ruffalo is the skeptical FBI agent trying to catch the criminals in the act, while old pros Michael Cane and Morgan Freeman have the time of their professional lives as a veteran magician and a veteran magician debunker, respectively. Their scenes together are alone worth the price of admission. And Ruffalo is perfection as the slightly disheveled and perpetually outmaneuvered law enforcer who finds himself up against a quartet of antagonists who always manage to be a good half-dozen or so steps ahead of him.
It's hard to overstate just how much fun this movie turns out to be, with well-earned kudos going to Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt for their infinitely imaginative screenplay, Louis Leterrier for his turbocharged direction, and all the technical wizards who've engaged in a little legerdemain of their own by making the magic scenes so seamless and convincing.
And if it all doesn't seem entirely plausible in the end, and you walk away with the nagging suspicion that the writers must have cheated in some way - well, that IS the power of magic, after all.
Hollywood filmmakers please take note: THIS is how you make a crowd-pleasing blockbuster!