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 - WRATH OF THE TITANS ★★☆☆☆

Let's start off by addressing the elephant in the room right away: Yes, there is a marked improvement in the 3-D for Wrath of the Titans over the poor conversion process that plagued 2010's Clash of the Titans. Two years ago, the reboot of the 1981 mythical swords and sandals classic quickly became the whipping boy for the growing trend of converting 2-D films to 3-D late in post production, a process that was not always met with smashing results on the big screen. Hollywood has yet to reverse the trend of adding the third dimension to nearly every tentpole in town, but more on that later.

Ten years following the defeat of the Kraken in Clash, we find Perseus (Sam Worthington), the demigod son of Zeus, living a tranquil life as a father, widower, and fisherman. Zeus, Hades, and the other Titans of Olympus are slowly losing their Godly powers as humanity's devotion to them wanes, and their ability to contain the imprisoned evil Kronos is quickly dissipating.

Perseus becomes the reluctant hero who must travel far back into the Underworld on a dangerous quest to save his fallen father from Hades and Ares, who have betrayed him in order to grant Kronos his freedom to conquer the Earth (a cheat sheet for the Greek Gods Family Tree would be useful at some points). Cue the cameos for the half man/half beast Minotaur, the two-headed Chimera, the one-eyed Cyclops, and throw in appearances from some familiar winged characters from the 1981 original. Not that this is all a bad thing, but we have seen much of the same in the first installment.

What works in Wrath is the grand scale of the FX-heavy quest, and a satisfying battle frenzied third act. Some of the action sequences are nothing to scoff at, mostly if this is your type of movie, and you know who you are. You can marvel at the high octane battles, elaborate CGI creatures, and abundance handheld camera work that will leave you unsettled into your seat.

When Wrath is pushing ahead on all cylinders, director Jonathan Liebesman delivers moments on par, in scope, and intensity as seen in his last big screen effort, the frantic but entertaining Battle: Los Angeles. Liebesman has the knack and know how for dropping the audience right smack in the thick of full blown CGI showdowns, some of which will never be fully appreciated anywhere beyond the big screen. I am a glutton for FX heavy excess, so admittedly big budget eye candy in healthy doses is rarely lost on me.

What doesn't work here in the overall scheme of the film unfortunately is a charmless hero in Perseus, who offers little beyond brooding brawn and a reluctant warrior's heart. The straightforward screenplay allows Sam Worthington so little opportunity to shine, emote any charisma, or even breath easy with light hearted moments when he is not slaying one mythical monsters after another.

The welcome whimsical characters on the journey here are the demigod Agenor, the son of Poseidon (played by Toby Kebbell), and Hephaestus (in an all too brief appearance by Bill Nighy), the weapons forger to the Titans. Beyond them, most of the characters are just all business. Though it's worth noting that it's good to see Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes playing it out big this time out after having little to do in Clash.

Going back to the 3-D. While not as distracting as the last installment's, Wrath's conversion from 2-D does not particularly add much either. To be fair, not many recent 3-D movies have justified their release in the format (Avatar and Hugo stand in a high class of 3-D all on their own).

Too often it adds a simple effect, not an overall experience. A few shots jump out at you, sure, but I wouldn't count the extra dimension as a deal breaker here. But like most 3-D films, motion blur on fast moving scenes, and an overall darker picture (the 3-D requires more light from the projector bulbs than most theater owners are willing to give to audiences), have become a standard downside with the presentation.

So while Wrath of the Titans makes a fine Friday night piece of action packed special FX-laden escapism suited for its target audience, it is also a missed opportunity to improve upon the missteps made in the previous installment that could have benefited from some extra dimension.

Wrath of the Titans opens in RealD 3D, IMAX 3D, and 2D on March 30th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★☆☆☆
Directed By: Jonathan Liebesman
Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Rosamund Pike, Edgar Ramierez
Studio: Warner Bros.
Rated: PG-13