An interesting distraction

Rating: 7/10 (6 December 2018)

A movie about magic.
Or is it?
Is what we see real, or is it an illusion? That is what magic is all about.
Only these four are not just performing illusions they are robbing banks, and other institutions. Are they just randomly choosing an institution to profit from, or is there a greater motive behind all the trickery.
A federal agent is brought in to solve the heists. Mark Ruffalo plays as Dylan Rhodes. He is smart, he is tough, he is dedicated to nail these thieves and put them away. But they ARE illusionists and they keep slipping away from his grasp. Even when they are in custody, he cannot seem to bring enough evidence to bear that will keep them locked up. There are several important and interesting people besides the main four magicians who call themselves the four horsemen. There is Morgan Freeman as Thaddeus Bradley who makes presentations exposing the tricks of magicians. He is getting rich from ruining the magic acts of others. Michael Caine as a wealthy man who is promoting the four horsemen as a way to profit. Then enter a bright young woman from the French division of interpol after a bank in France loses I think it was 30 million euros.
There are several respectable foot chases through buildings and alleys and an above average car chase. When it seems we are about to see an answer to all the activities we are thrown a curve. But even then, is it real or an illusion?
I enjoyed this film, hope you will too.
I didn't really sense chemistry between Rhodes and the lovely French interpol agent played by Melanie Laurent, but that was not a major point. One thing I did not care for was that lousy "shaky camera" effect. This movie like too many other recent movies has the camera so close to the action it is sometimes hard to tell what I am seeing. And the shaky camera is disorienting, use a damned tripod will youi?