6/30/2023 0 Comments Now you see me 2 2016As I said the movie started out really fine, in the sense that it was doing what I wanted it to do. Its sequel starts out with the same unpretentious and fun vibe of the first only to slowly escalate up to what becomes one of the most lifeless and visually painful experiences of the year. "Now You See Me" was a personal guilty pleasure of 2013, it was absolutely unpretentious and unbelievable but it knew it was so and with the help of a talented cast and a couple of good characters and story beats it turned out as a fine time at the theater. Well, if you step back a bit, you'll see the big picture that NOW YOU SEE ME 2 is not as crafty as it's cracked up to be. This franchise says that the closer you look, the less you see. It's bad enough that they had to resort to this annoying unlikable family member, on top of that, they couldn't just get another actor and have it be a brother, instead of identical twin?! Woody Harrelson is a great actor, but watching two of him bantering, that's the point when I stop taking this movie seriously as a piece of entertainment. I think that was a poor decision on the filmmakers' part. For some reason, they had to present Woody Harrelson's character's identical twin brother, also played by Woody Harrelson. Isla Fisher's Henley whom I thought was a strong female character, got replaced by Lizzy Caplan's Lula who's more concerned about getting laid. The film would like to make you believe that it's smart, it even thinks itself that way, but in its attempt to give you a seemingly intricate and elaborate trick and a big reveal, it gets lost in its own process. The first film had more mystery, thriller and intrigue, so at the very least it kept you engaged, but NOW YOU SEE ME 2 resorts to cheap laughs and a build up that frankly kinda insults our intelligence. But a certain revenge plot threatens their impossible heist yet. In NOW YOU SEE ME 2, the four horsemen Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Lizzy Caplan, after a year of outwitting the FBI and winning the public's adulation with their Robin Hood-style magic spectacles, resurface for a comeback performance in hopes of exposing the unethical practices of a tech magnate. But this sequel however, NOW YOU SEE ME 2, is a big giant mess. So to say that "Now You See Me" didn't have its amusing moments, would be a lie. It's heist caper like Ocean's Eleven but with faster sleight of hand. Mildly entertaining is how I'd describe it. Here's the thing about 2013's "Now You See Me," I didn't hate it but I wasn't completely wowed by it either.
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