Film Review - NOW YOU SEE ME ★★½☆☆☆

Sleight of hand, misdirection, analyzing body language, and staying two steps ahead of the audience, these are the tricks of the trade that have allowed magicians to wow and befuddle audiences with their illusions for decades. Now You See Me manages to use these methods to keep us guessing as a serviceable big screen crime caper, but as a magical work of wonder, overall the magic falls fairly short.

The film's rousing prologue introduces us to four performers who are brought together to become an internationally famous magic act known as The Four Horsemen. We have a fast talking street trickster Danny (Jesse Eisenberg), the mentalist Merritt (Woody Harrelson), pickpocket Jack (Dave Franco), and the lovely escape artist Henley (Isla Fisher). Fast forward a year later, the Horsemen have a millionaire benefactor Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) who funds their lavish hi-tech Vegas stage act and are on the radar of a former magician Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), who makes millions from online videos by breaking the illusionists' bro code and debunking the stage acts of other performers.

The Horsemen conclude their shows with an elaborate literal bank robbery where worthy audience members see their checking accounts swell by tens of thousands of dollars. So the stage is set and it brings them under the eye of the FBI led by Agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and Parisian INTERPOL Agent Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent). The foursome have more high stakes heists up their sleeves in their next two performances in New Orleans and Queens, New York, which leads to their cat and mouse pursuit from interantional authorities.

Our magicians repeatedly outwit, outsmart and outpace the feds, managing to make them look like buffoons on a keystone cops level, and it keeps the tone from getting into dark territory. The film tries its hand at throwing as many twists and turns in the plot that should keep the audience guessing, but offers little opportunity to figure any of it out by adhering to a "with magic, anything can happen" playbook. Our heroes, who have taken on a Robin Hood-worthy take from the rich and give to the poor crusade, are allowed to pull the rug from under us in a grounded setting with feats of magic that break real world logistics. This tends to blur the line on the flip flop nature Now You See Me treats the art in the same vein if you prefer either the title Magician or Illusionist, which imply different things.

In the true high bar set by The Prestige, the characters stay steps ahead of both the audience and each other. Upon repeated viewing, you actually catch clues brilliantly laid out before you and had not noticed before. Now You See Me attempts no such bold depth, and relies on little subtlety instead using broader strokes to reveal its secrets in flat out flashbacks.

To keep us happy, the curtain is pulled back several times and we do get to see how some tricks are executed. That's fine and its also crucial to the plot, but when written off under the cloak of magical powers, we are assaulted with characters performing numerous physically impossible feats that defy physics. Also in revealing how some of their escapist illusions are actually pulled off, the insane necessary resources readily available to them makes you take pause for plausibility.

A true highlight is an inspired sequence in an apartment where Franco's Jack has a drag out test of wits opportunity to escape an FBI raid. He literally dazzles and battles the agents with practical magic. Its an all too brief glimpse of the film's real world potential when most of the showy illusions utilized are so outlandish they shatter any hope for sustained suspension of disbelief. But watching quick thinking, ingenuity and magician's tools take on the feds in hand to hand combat is where the film hits its target.

Director Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk, Clash of the Titans) breaks into several sudden well staged action packed chase sequences (and he's damn good at it), but they come as fast as they go and tend to come off as gratuitous ploys to amp up the action for what feels should be a thinker's paced film.

The film is blessed with a superb cast, each one bringing enough to the table in this ensemble cast. But as a far as our four lead magicians are concerned, beyond some witter banter there is little connect or perceived camaraderie between them beyond their broad projected on-stage relationship. They have been a team for over a year, and there is scant chemistry and at the end of the day, it seems they all still distrust each other. Even when one of them is taken out of action, the remaining three show no remorse in the loss. Whether it should be presented on screen as justified misdirection to the audience or not, it doesn't make the team appear to be the close knit group you should be rooting for. Ruffalo has a good time with his role here, and it shows on screen. Academy Award winners Freeman and Caine provide nothing less than the solid backbone you would expect from them.

The story itself is straightforward but multi-layered and moves along with a brisk pace that you have to keep up with. Leterrier keeps the camera moving and circling about constantly and allows you little time to over think at any time. There are very few moments when things slow down and it by no means lacks visual flare or flashy special effects. But the sometimes lavish CGI takes away from grounding the magic in a real world setting, which the film finds a hard time defining. By the time the credits roll and the plot points are all out of the sorting hat, you definitely feel its take on the magical line has been blurred completely.

Despite being a lively well cast heist film, there is not much of a magic show in terms of sheer wonderment. Now You See Me is a harmless lighthearted romp that supplies ample action, twists and turns, and will keep you ultimately guessing on where its all leading to. I am probably most guilty of the fatal error of having my hopes up too high based on the film's intriguing first trailer below, but that is the effective magic of early marketing at work.

Now You See Me opens in theaters on May 31st.

REVIEW RATING: ★★½☆☆☆
Director: Louis Letterier
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Melanie Laurent, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman
Screenwriters: Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin, Edward Ricourt
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 116 minutes

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Film Review - THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE ★★☆☆☆

If there is one trick that The Incredible Burt Wonderstone can't pull out from its hat, and that is a timely redemption of its title character into a likable fellow for whom we've stop caring about. Steve Carell plays an out of touch Las Vegas strip magician whose star has faded over the years. Burt Wonderstone has the luxury of being surrounded by funnier and more interesting characters, but ultimately spends too much screen time just being an incredible jerk.

As the film opens, the young and future Incredible Wonderstone is an awkward bullied little boy who finds focus and purpose in his life when he and his buddy Anton discover the joys of sleight of hand via a home magic set and VHS instructional video based on the stage act of the legendary Rance Holloway (Alan Arkin).

Flash forward decades later, Wonderstone is a master of illusion, performing to sold out audiences at Bally's in bare chested sequin outfits and an over blown-out bulletproof bouffant along with his sidekick Anton (Steve Buscemi). What has also happened over time is Burt's transformation into a narcissistic self-made celebrity who gifts groupies he's bedded with souvenir autographed pictures the next morning and fires on-stage assistants in the middle of a live show.

But over time, edgy street showmanship has finally caught up The Incredible Burt and Anton, who before their very eyes see their audience dwindle when attention switches to self mutilation performance acts like Steve Gray (Jim Carrey). While Wonderstone is still adamant about taking the stage in flamboyant outfits to the tune of the Steve Miller Band's "Abracadabra," and doing the same uninspired show over and over again, Gray while in front of his guerrilla DV camera crew will hold his urine for days or grab a pillow and camp out overnight while sleeping on hot coals. Gray's inspiration from the likes of David Blaine and Criss Angel are not exactly subtle, but neither of those real life illusionists nearly have the brilliant physical comedy aptitude of Jim Carrey, who takes to this role with ease and thankfully runs with it with reckless abandon.

So begins the battle for supremacy (and a lucrative contract) between the old school and new school of magic. Burt finds himself not only unemployed and friendless, but in the apprenticeship of his now retirement home stricken idol, Rance Halloway. You would think the Bruce Almighty re-teaming of Carell and Carrey would bring real comedy magic to the big screen, but the biggest laughs mainly come courtesy of Carrey's signature physical skills. Wonderstone himself has too slow a transition to becoming a relatable character, maintaining his big on-stage voice even when he's not performing, tossing his life long friendship with Anton aside without a thought, and constantly calls his loyal assistant Nicole instead of her real name Jane (played by a given very little to do Olivia Wilde).

As far as actually being a funny character, Wonderstone is sorely underwritten. Where your Ron Burgundy is an obnoxious sexist ass, he is still a funny character with memorable antics and catchphrases to take home and repeat. There are few opportunities for Carell to knock it out of the ballpark, and most of the big laughs come from Carrey, Arkin and the supporting players like Wilde, Jay Mohr and Gillian Jacobs.

Olivia Wilde and Steve Buscemi are left in sideline purgatory here. Wilde is given little to do outside of the role of obligatory assistant and reluctant love interest. Buscemi's Anton Marvelton is mostly used an on object of abuse for Wonderstone's ego. And while Carrey lights up every one of his scenes, he is sorely missed when not on screen.

Where the film could have (or should have) gone with with a mile a minute punchline driven script or skew towards a comedy version of The Prestige and allow itself to become more brilliant as it goes on, baffling the audience as dueling master magicians best each other in a round by round battle of wits, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone instead sorely underplays its potential with a paint by numbers story of a fallen character who needs to be set straight.

Where the key to magic is misdirection, it is the unfortunate achilles heel of this film where you need to focus elsewhere to find the too few and in-between big laughs, and its Carell's Wonderstone who distracts you from Carrey's Gray. Where it has an edgy meanness to it, its not towards the right characters, and when it finally has heart and soul, behind all the smoke and mirrors there is little magic left to have you care about the has-been title character who needs a comeback the most.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone opens on March 15th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★☆☆☆
Directed By: Don Scardino
Starring: Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin, James Gandolfini
Studio: Warner Bros.
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 101 minutes

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