Magicians, assemble! Sensing the aging out of its Four Horsemen, the producers now give us the Magnificent Seven. Ok that title was already taken, but Now You See Me: Now You Don’t injects some new tricks into its act, for more of the same heist movie fun of the first two. Plus, a Gone Girl baddie can’t hurt either.
Pretending to do a Four Horseman show, newcomers on the scene Bosco LeRoy (Dominic Sessa), June Rouclere (Ariana Greenblatt), and Charlie (Justice Smith), yep, that’s it, continue the tradition of taking from rich aholes and giving that money to the hard working people of the world. Their latest stunt has pulled J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) out from hiding, in part because these 3 are on his turf, and in part because the grandmaster of the Eye (still funny), wants them to team up. Next target: Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), current CEO of a South African diamond company, who’s family, wouldn’t ya know it?, happened to gain their great fortune through illegal arms money laundering. Methinks Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), and Henley Reeves (Isla) might show up as well, making Atlas choose which Horsemen he wants to ride into battle with.
As the first 2 movies showed, magic was made for the cinema. And throw in a Robin Hood heist element will only make the audience root harder for you. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t saves its 2 big heists as opener and closer. Both elaborate set pieces that, with the power of editing, makes any magician’s powers feel infinite. In between, the movie becomes a world hopping delight, staging big sequences in rural France, Antwerp, and Abu Dhabi. Each sequence comes with its own elaborate fun sets: a giant gallery soiree, a Formula One car reveal, and the most lavish, Rube Goldberg magician house money could buy. All accompanied with incredible costume changes, disguises aplenty, and a fun character reveal or twist to wind up the audience for the next sequence. The threequel never takes itself too seriously, and in that, keeps the film a wholly enjoyable entertainment, even if a bit lazier with the plotting (I could smell a few of the twists a mile away).
The new blood goes a long way to making Now You See Me: Now You Don’t as fun as its predecessors, maybe moreso. It allows for lots of fun character pairings, especially the Dominic Sessa/Jesse Eisenberg one, with Jesse motormouthing into Sessa’s eyerolls and condescending imitations. Ariana Greenblatt is a nice glue addition, ably fitting into whatever grouping she ends up on. And Justice Smith gives us a nerdy wannabe energy that we haven’t seen before, like a fan who gets his shot to play in the pros with his idols. And if the magic isn’t working as much for you this time, cutting to South African Karen might entice you. Rosamund Pike is having a blast donning the accent and just oozing menace and being drunk on her own power/hubris. If she blinks in this movie, I never saw it. It’s perfectly unsettling as a big budget baddie; she’ll be very hard to top if they make another one of these.
And in this case, I hope they do! The Now You See Me films never aim to be more than what they are. And it’s a lane that works wonders, and should continue to do so with some new blood entering and some leaving. I would be into a little mini arc somewhere in here, where a few Horsemen turn on each other, making their Empire Strikes back in Now You See4Me, hiding the 4 in the middle.