Now You See Me

The dictionary defines magic as the art of producing a desired effect or result through the use of incantation or various other techniques that presumably assure human control of supernatural agencies or the forces of nature. Now if that doesn’t confuse you then you have a tremendous command over the language.

But the intent has been achieved.  Because magic intends to deceive you into believing something that is so impossible that it amazes the living daylights out of you.  Like hypnotizing the wife of a cheating husband or escaping a tank full of piranhas or guessing the card you have chosen by illuminating an entire building with the same.  WOW!!!

 

All of this happens within 5 minutes into Now You See Me.  And if your imagination hasn’t been captured, then you are a non-believer or just plain daft. Because what will follow over the next 2 hours is a thrill a minute ride where you will be riveted to the screen thanks to the amazing skills of The Four Horsemen.

 

Four street performers – J Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and my favourite Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) are picked off the streets and bought into the same place at the same time.  Their purpose – to come together and pull off some of the greatest tricks ever.  And do they make magic!!!

 

It would not be unfair to say that Louis Leterrier has achieved mastery in the genre of thrillers considering that he gave us the first 2 installments of the Transporter series.  But I am going to stick my neck out and say that he has taken himself to a whole new level of frenzy.

 

In fact, the only thing you may find wrong about Now You See Me is the pace.  It is so fast – too fast at times – that you will hope that life had a rewind button.  It maybe a great way to get people back once again to the halls just to understand it better – and I am going to be a glad victim of the technique.

 

Leterrier gets pretty much everything bang on to give us what can be described as the entertainer of the year from Hollywood.  Is it Oscar worthy? I don’t think so.  There was that little something missing and pardon me for being unable to point out what this was exactly.  I am – as you are aware – an amateur critic.

 

Superb performances can be attributed to the the casting director in picking up some of the best talent in the business.  To me, the outstanding performance came from Mark Ruffalo as the frustrated FBI agent after the Four Horsemen.  I mean no disrespect to Morgan Freeman or Michael Caine.  We are too small to comment about their capabilities.

 

The screenplay, dialogues and the chase sequences are all woven beautifully into an edge of the seat thriller.  This will stick around for 3 to 4 weeks at least if not more.  But try catching it over the weekend because one never knows.  And pay careful attention because you may miss something in the blink of an eye.  8 on 10.

 

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2430182937/?ref_=tt_ov_vi