An FBI agent and an Interpol detective track a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and reward their audiences with the money.
A summer movie not about superheroes is to be welcomed, even if Now You See Me offers the mindless showmanship of a David Copperfield, rather than a real master like Ricky Jay.
Director Louis Leterrier and co-writer Boaz Yakin shift characters around like a game of Find the Lady, but this flashy, flat, dispiritingly personality-free drama is more likely to make audiences disappear.
Magicians as criminals is a marvellous conceit and Louis Leterrier gets a great deal of entertainment out of it, but it can’t disguise a weak end with smoke and mirrors.
The sizzle starts to go out of the picture as the focus shifts from the characters to the trickeries of an increasingly preposterous plot. But it entertains.
Old-timers Morgan Freeman (an embittered magician) and Michael Caine (a business mogul) lend the film what little gravitas it has.
The magicians themselves have to be interesting characters, quite aside from their supposed skills. That trick doesn't come off.
A fairly unmagical couple of hours at the cinema.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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