Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Radcliffe, Sanaa Lathan, Michael Caine, Jay Chou, Morgan Freeman
Director: Jon M. Chu
Genre: Thriller
Duration: 129 minutes
Showing: Cinema Magic, Metroplex Mall Naalya, Century Cinemax Acacia Mall, Cineplex Cinema, Oasis Mall and Numax Cinema, Entebbe.
The magic and sleight of hand in the first Now You See Me was so impressive that it is hard to imagine a follow up act. Yet the four horsemen are back and promise to be even more cunning than they were when we first met them.
Now You See Me 2 is set three years later so there are a few changes. Most notably is that Lula (Caplan) has replaced Henley as the fourth horseman. Isler Fisher who played Henley didn’t reprise her role since she was pregnant at the time the movie was shot. That aside, the gang is still up to its magic tricks. However, the stunt they pulled in the first movie comes back to bite them indirectly. The bite comes by way of Walter Mabry (Radcliffe), a tech guy who puts the horsemen in trouble with the law. In turn, Danny (Eisenberg) and his team must outwit him with a play of illusion that should be more mindboggling than the first one did, all while clearing their name. Mabry is no easy mark though, especially given his connection to Arthur Tressler (Caine). Remember the insurance guy whose business they must up in the first movie? Looks like he really believes in serving a cold dish of revenge.
Getting audiences to appreciate what are essentially magic tricks more than once requires a little magic. And that is just what the cast went through, attending classes where they learnt card tricks and the like. And Radcliffe brought along his wand from the Harry Potter movies. I kid. As the actor has said in the past, it is going to take a while for us to see Radcliffe and not think Harry Potter.
Apart from immersing the cast in what they were going to act, the movie gets credit for good direction. There are few bits that seemed to need a clearer explanation but they are not so bad that they mess up with the plot. So they can be overlooked and filed under what adds a little mystery to the movie.