Now you see me, now you don't.

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2013)

The title of this movie almost sums up how the film is presented. All that's missing is the second half of the saying: "now you don't". It goes to say that at some points this movie is fun and entertaining, hence the "now you see me", and at other times it can become almost the opposite, "now you don't".
The movie presents an interesting concept from the start: a group of illusionists who perform bank heists during their shows and reward the audience with the money. The plot is interesting yes, but the amount of plot holes overall over-lap the amount of a well structured story. There are times where the movie simply makes no sense. I found myself struggling to keep up with the excess amount of twists thrown in, along with the brutally fast pacing of the film. On the plus side, some of these twists are exciting and lead to some great moments, and some of the "action" scenes, if you will, are fun to watch. The magic tricks and illusions are especially interesting. However, more often than not, the plot as a whole fails to deliver, despite the occasional exciting scene.
Director Louis Leterrier's direction style didn't always seem to fit this movie. The pacing was way off, and there was little to zero character development, making it seem like a group of characters were thrown together for almost no good reason. Now again, there are occasionally parts where I felt the movie was moving along fairly well and it had me interested, but too often the movie lacked proper pacing, and suffered from non-existent character development throughout.
The cast ranges from the mildly to the highly experienced, with the likes of Dave Franco to Morgan Freeman, Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg. It's a talented and diverse cast that is brought together, and each actor does a great job in their respective roles. Again, the one thing that hurt the cast was the lack of character development. Mark Ruffalo, Isla Fisher, and Michael Caine round out the solid cast and to reiterate, all give great performances.
In Now You See Me, there was a great opportunity to create an interesting take on the heist-related genre. At some times, the movie is entertaining, showing off some fun, mind-stretching action scenes that leave you wanting more. Unfortunately, more often than not, the incomplete plot, under developed characters, overly fast pace, and misleading feel for the movie prevents it from being something bigger and better.
6.5/10