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Ten years or so between installments of a successful 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 some Louvre museum heist energy. We didn’t need the F1 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 — most 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 some seasoning. Intergenerational bickering keeps the movie alive.
There’s a quick stop at a French chateau where some 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 steps 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-13 by the Motion Picture Association for some strong language, violence and suggestive references. Running time: 112 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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