Now You See Me

A breezily entertaining crime heist movie with a very interesting concept that is best enjoyed if one does not think too hard about it. A typical example whereby plot triumphs over characterisations, and the actors are exchangeable. But having said that, the plot is filled with logic leaps (oh, the irony throughout) and holes and idiocies that obviously the writers, directors and producers (it's Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman again!) have decided were not important enough to warrant a more intellectual execution. Similarly, the whole plot line, twists and turns, were predictable and rather hamfistedly written. Louis Leterrier is a competent director with a flair for the action sequences and the large magic-related setups, however, outside of his comfort zones, the movie was rather flat. As I said earlier, some of the top-billing actors were really not that essential for the success of this movie: Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco as "The Four Horsemen" were essentially supporting cast to the main 2 men: Mark Ruffalo (note the irony here again, with Leterrier as the director of the Eric Bana-starring "The Incredible Hulk", and Ruffalo, the most successful Hulk) and Morgan Freeman. As a group, the four of them were barely together for more than two non-staged scene and that showed. Eisenberg and Harrelson are teamed up again after the successful "Zombieland", but sadly their interactions here were far and in between, and kind of lacked the initial undead chemistry; similarly Fisher and Eisenberg were not sparking. The one bright spark was young Dave Franco, who after his memorable turn in "Warm Bodies", gave another memorable performance here as the youngest ingénue. He, like his big brother James, is someone to watch out for. Ruffalo tried his best but his performance was marred unfortunately by the flatness of the writing. Freeman, on the other hand, was great and you can never really decide which direction this snake is going to attack. Lastly, gorgeous Mélanie Laurent, is on screen to be nothing more than the red herring and as the romantic, strange female of the show. Regardless, of all the flaws, this was still an entertaining summer escapism movie that had way more fun that it really ought to have the right to be.