Now You See Me 2 review

[Westside Steve]

Now You See Me 2

 

Summit entertainment

 

PG 13. 129 min

 

 

 

So keep in mind that even though it is the Summer movie season that doesn't mean everything is going to be spectacular or even really good. Actually it might mean the opposite, since the studios are aiming at kids who are home for the summer and bored . Unfortunately the two openers I could get in time for deadline are retreads, neither one sequels to anything I thought sequelworthy. Don't misunderstand I enjoyed the first NOW YOU SEE ME, and may I say it is a concept I usually enjoy. Con men fleecing bad guys through all sorts of clever trickery and misdirection is always a lot of fun when the producers take enough time with the script.

 

If they don't, there's always the chance of pulling a groundhog or even a skunk out of the proverbial hat.

 

Well this one isn't exactly a skunk butt it certainly doesn't smell as sweet as the original from 2013. It is, of course, the same old same old and which bad guys are fooled by the elusive Four Horsemen, the famous magical quartet who disappeared at the end of the last film. Well they are back and it seems there are still bad guys to be reckoned with. Because the original cast, well except for the girl who's been replaced by another one, has returned none of the surprises from the ending of the last film matter anymore.

 

We know in the first one Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) was a bad guy, and we thought Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and Thaddeus Bradley (Samuel L Jackson) were bad guys. Has anyone changed his stripes? Wait and see.

 

Now of course in any movie of this genre you realize nothing is what meets the eye, well mostly.

 

So this time around the bad guys have come up with a microchip ironically just about the size of a playing card that can steal information from the internet and use it to screw the public out of billions. (I was under the impression that already existed and they call it Visa but I digress...)

 

Now part of the hook here is that the Four Horsemen, well three Horsemen and Horse chick, find themselves as Justice Warriors against the big evil Corporation.

 

Frankly it doesn't make much difference what the crime is or what wrong they are attempting to right, but more an excuse to showcase a bunch of flashy Illusions and misdirections. I'm up for that, I really am but, as the movie slogs along I was more often confused then fascinated. All these tricks all these Illusions really are more convoluted than they need to be. I'll give you an example. There is a scene in which the horsemen are being checked out by an apparently very thorough security guards while they are stealing this magical card. The scene takes an interminable amount of time and the card itself changes hands about a dozen times being palmed hidden tossed around corners in the fashion of the great Ricky Jay which amounts to a sequence that is not only unbelievable but so long that it actually becomes boring.

 

That's kind of the problem with the whole film, there's no real focus on why the caper is going down in the first place.

 

A couple other annoyances relate directly to Woody Harrelson's character. First of all I didn't ever by the hypnosis gag. I don't really believe in it and certainly don't think it could operate as easily and thoroughly as it does in this flick. Also, possibly as a perk for Harrelson to do this sequel, they've allowed him to play two parts, the hypnotist/hustler and his twin brother. And let me tell you the twin brother role is especially grating and an active distraction every time he's on the screen.

 

I realize that David Copperfield, one of The Producers, knows his way around the giant stage illusions, which are actually pretty cool, but frankly the small con is a lot more fun to watch and I would have certainly preferred this script to have been more clever rather than just bigger.

 

C

 

WSS