I’d recommend “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” to exactly three kinds of people: people who loved the first two movies, people who aren’t insufferable about movies and people who think Dave Franco is hot. Fortunately, I’m all three.
“Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” is the latest installment of the series by the same name. It brings back the franchise’s star-studded cast, including Dave Franco (“21 Jump Street”), Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”), Woody Harrelson (“The Hunger Games”) and Morgan Freeman (“The Shawshank Redemption”). But three new bombshells have entered the villa: June (Ariana Greenblatt, “Barbie”), Bosco (Dominic Sessa, “The Holdovers”) and Charlie (Justice Smith, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”).
The franchise follows four Good Samaritan magicians as they do magic for the greater good, like robbing insurance billionaires and giving their money to people they’ve screwed over — what if the person who killed Brian Thompson had done that instead, huh?
As usual, the Horsemen are still Robinhood-esque magicians — not the Harry Potter kind — and the film keeps the series’ sleek, cocky, on-adderall vibe surprisingly intact despite being on its third director in as many films.
In the first two movies, this was a credit to Ed Solomon (“Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”), who developed their screenplays. The third was written by writing duo Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (“Deadpool”), who worked with director Ruben Fleischer (“Venom”) on Zombieland. It was actually a cute little Zombieland reunion, as Eisenberg and Harrelson also acted in it. Part of that continuity may also come from the actors themselves, with Eisenberg, Franco and Freeman all being award-winning producers or writers in their own right.
With the three new Gen Z characters, I was worried that the screenwriters would do that old-person thing where they attempt to mimic our vocabulary without actually knowing what it means. Honestly, I should’ve known better; there’s no way Greenblatt would’ve let that slide. Their characters were actually believable young adults, and no one said “skibidi,” which is always a victory for cinema.
I thought the magic-action-fighting schtick that the franchise always nails was just as fun as always — maybe even more so, thanks to the added competitiveness after the original Horsemen’s so-called “break-up” and three new characters all trying to fit in.
As much as I love to watch Jack (Franco) pick locks, watching June (Greenblatt) outdo him might’ve been even better. In addition, I’ve seen some online reviews that complain about the movie’s CGI, but I honestly didn’t notice anything glaringly obvious. Maybe I just like to believe in magic.
Before I get into the spoilers — because this franchise runs on plot twists the way a car runs on gas — I’ll admit my bias. The second installment has been my favorite movie for the last seven years. Before that, it was, you guessed it, the first one. Although I still give a slight edge to the second movie, mainly because Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians”) directed it, I think the third one holds its own. Fleisher keeps the energy up, but nothing will ever beat the infamous card-trick scene in “Now You See Me 2.” For that reason, I rate this latest film four out of five stars.
And the score? I liked it. The film keeps its typical theme music and its mystical-suspense vibe, but added newer tracks, like Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” (duh) and Reneé Rapp’s “Lucky,” written for this movie. The music heightens suspense without ever distracting, at least to my untrained movie-reviewer ear.
**MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**
As per usual, the actors made the movie. They all seemed genuinely happy to be acting together after their eight-year hiatus. I could not have been more thrilled to see Lizzy Caplan (“Mean Girls”) reprise her role as Lula in the film, as her notable absence in the film’s trailers really upset me.
There were a few plot issues which bothered me, but didn’t surprise me, especially as a long-time fan.
Firstly, the reason the Horsemen “broke up” was when Dylan (Mark Ruffalo, “The Avengers”) gets thrown in jail after a mission goes horribly awry — believable enough. But the final twist reveals he was never actually being tortured in a Russian jail; he just let the team think he was. That fits his manipulative streak, just barely, seeing as Merrit spent his off-years a victim of alcoholism as a result. It doesn’t make sense that Shrike would let him almost die for the sake of an Eye plan. The twist felt like an easy way to get out of Ruffalo reprising his role entirely, but not completely in character.
Inarguably, the most annoying part was Thaddeus’ death. Watching Freeman slowly die while four strong, able-bodied magicians did nothing — and I mean nothing, not applying pressure, not carrying him to a hospital, nothing — to help him, was just about the dumbest thing ever.
But other than those two annoyances, I loved this movie. The fight scenes were amazing, and watching June do parkour was phenomenal. There’s a scene when the characters’ competitiveness actualize and they all try to outdo one another with a frenzy of magic tricks. My jaw was on the floor the entire time. This was furthered by the fact that I know that the actors can actually do card tricks and they look freaking cool, so I could pretend all the magic is real.
Finally, the end plot twist; it killed me. The fact that Charlie was a Vanderberg was not at all something I could’ve predicted. I normally strongly dislike plot twists but the “Now You See Me” series is the only exception. I always know something is afoot — there’s no way my perfect angelic heroes could ever actually lose — but I can never predict what it is.
**END SPOILERS**
I wholeheartedly recommend this series to anyone looking for a fun night, so long as they don’t have a stick lodged in their rear-end. This movie is wonderful, should watchers let go of their predispositions and choose to enjoy it for its pure fun. Choose fun, choose magic and choose to watch “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.”
