Movie Review: ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’ brings back the magic with new faces and tricks

Ten years or so between installments of a thriving Hollywood franchise is a lifetime When it comes to the third Now You See Me movie poof time doesn t matter These magicians still got it Now You See Me Now You Don t does what sequels apparently must do these days load up the characters return to favorite bits and go global but nails the trick a crowd-pleasing return that already has a fourth in the works It is very good to be back says Jesse Eisenberg as the egotistical perfectionist J Daniel Atlas the brains behind the magician-robber outfit It s hard to argue with that sentiment on the strength of this outing directed with assurance by Ruben Fleischer Now You See Me Now You Don t acts as a sort of pivot bringing back the veterans all of them in various forms as well as introducing three Gen Z eat-the-rich magicians played by Dominic Sessa Justice Smith and Ariana Greenblatt They re clearly the future It s in good sleight of hands The movie starts off with a clever rip-off of nasty crypto bros in Brooklyn and expands to scenes in Belgium the United Arab Emirates France and South Africa It s got Nazis Harry Potter vibes and certain Louvre museum heist force We didn t need the F chase through Abu Dhabi but no one s complaining The original Four Horsemen Eisenberg Woody Harrelson Dave Franco and Isla Fisher are supplemented by Lizzy Caplan who had replaced Fisher in the second installment Morgan Freeman returns as the gravel-voiced mentor The prize at the movie s heart is a diamond but no mere bauble It s the Heart Diamond the largest ever discovered with a price tag of half a billion dollars It s the size of a smoked turkey leg The diamond is owned by a particularly vile South African diamond mine scion who uses her ultra-wealth to launder money for warlords and arms dealers She is played deliciously by Rosamund Pike with a snide disdain and a nifty Afrikaner accent The secretive magic society known as The Eye unites the old Horsemen and the new trio the Three Ponies to steal the diamond stored in one of those multilevel biometric Mission Impossible -style bunkers Capturing it won t enhance their bank statements Remember they re all really anti-capitalist share-the-wealth magicians majority of likely democratic socialists in vogue right now This is a chance to drive a stake through the devil herself Eisenberg s character says Hollywood is funny that way creating a multimillion-dollar franchise on the back of heroic left-wing activist characters and convincing the UAE to set it on their streets At first it s hard with eight heroes rushing around to figure out the primary dynamics The older Horsemen are strangely muted here except for Caplan a hoot and the young need various seasoning Intergenerational bickering keeps the movie alive There s a quick stop at a French chateau where a few real magic takes place literally The last two Now You See Me installments got very green-screen and CGI when it came to effects but the third very refreshingly attempts back into old-fashioned trickery In a single take we see each of the heroes try to top the others with a card trick misdirection or illusion There s also a hall of mirrors an upside-down room an infinity staircase a perspective-warping room and a nifty escape from a chamber filling with sand Kudos to the filmmakers for embracing physical tricks over digital trickery Also cute use of Lady Gaga s Abracadabra All this leads to a huge showdown between the diamond princess and our motley magicians You won t guess who s been pulling the strings all this time Seriously you won t And a new generation of magician-thieves are minted That was a hard trick to pull off Now You See Me Now You Don t a Lionsgate release in theaters Friday is rated PG- by the Motion Picture Association for several strong language violence and suggestive references Running time minutes Three stars out of four Source