Abracadabra

Rating: 7/10 (24 August 2016)

Now You See Me is a dazzling heist films heavy on style, visual trickery and fast edits. Four amateur magicians (Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco) are brought together by an unknown controller who groups them together as The Four Horsemen and they soon become top Vegas magicians.
However that is not the end of it. During the finale of an act they pick a random audience member who appears to have teleported into his bank vault in Paris. He is told to switch the ventilation system that blows out Euros on to the Parisian streets. The audience go crazy and the next day the Four Horsemen are brought in for questioning by the FBI.
The bank in Paris was robbed and a prop used in the magic act was found at the scene in Paris.
The magicians are being investigated by a determined but dim FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) and an Interpol detective (Mélanie Laurent) who seemed to be more in tune with the conjurer's slight of hand techniques.
The Four Horsemen have a patron (Michael Caine) who promotes their shows and latest tricks. Morgan Freeman is on their trail as he makes a living in exposing magicians tricks and helps out the FBI.
This is just the beginning though. The Four Horsemen become folk heroes as it turns out that their victims are people or corporations who have duped or cheated the ordinary person and now it is payback time.
Director Louis Leterrier keeps his show moving using effects and dazzle. It is frothy fun as the Four Horsemen use all manner of trickery to evade their captures but you kind of guess who the real mastermind is going to be. The clues are laid down as we go along.
I was concerned as to why the Morgan Freeman character was deemed to be a fall guy, he might have been smug but he was not a villain. Also these amateur magicians had skills so magical they must have studied at Hogwarts school of magic. So despite being an enjoyable film, it does fall down on logic but it is fun.