The Four Horsemen resurface, and are forcibly recruited by a tech genius to pull off their most impossible heist yet. One year after outwitting the FBI and winning the public's adulation with their Robin Hood-style magic spectacles, The Four Horsemen resurface for a comeback performance in hopes of exposing the unethical practices of a tech magnate. The man behind their vanishing act is none other than Walter Mabry, a tech prodigy who threatens the Horsemen into pulling off their most impossible heist yet. Their only hope is to perform one last unprecedented stunt to clear their names and reveal the mastermind behind it all. I really wanted to like 2013's Now You See Me. I love a good fun movie and I love being bluffed by clever magic, hence why I enjoy The Prestige to this day, but Louis Leterrier's financially successful and well-liked film was a dumb, daft and overblown experience that was neither as smart, sassy or suave as it thought it was, and I found myself thoroughly disappointed with the box office hit.<br/><br/>Fast forward to 2016 and Australia's Isla Fisher has jumped the magic ship along with Leterrier, who has passed the directional baton to Jem and the Holograms and Step Up 3D mastermind Jon M. Chu, who has enlisted the comedic workings of Lizzy Caplin to fill in for Fisher and added a double dosing of Woody Harrelson and the world's most famous wizard Daniel Radcliffe to help enliven proceedings with this unwanted sequel, but while there's just as many flashing lights, colourful characters and ADHD storytelling as the first film, Now You See Me 2 is not surprisingly an even poorer attempt at movie magic than its throwaway forefather.<br/><br/>To talk much about Now You See Me 2's plot would be giving too much credit to an event that pays near on zero attention to detail in trying to even make a miniscule attempt at making logical sense, and while it's fine for a film to look to entertain rather than adhere to logical rules of our existence in this universe, Chu's film doesn't even entertain throughout its overdrawn runtime.<br/><br/>From incredible feats of card manoeuvring, manipulation of the weather or conference interrupting shenanigans, Now You See Me 2 certainly tries to be cool and its able cast that all look incredibly bored with their lot in sequellife (#showmethemoney) are pretty "hip", this experience feels tired and devoid of life, not something you want when what you've signed up for is supposedly a magical joy ride that will shock us with its reveals and make us gasp at its twists.<br/><br/>The addition of Radcliffe adds a sprinkling of life to this rather dead-on-arrival and much too self-confident follow up, but this series that started out sounding promising, only to deliver a forgettable first entry and now this even more lacklustre sequel, is a one that needs to be laid to rest in the magicians coffin quickly, which sadly will be put on hold as the unappealing third entry to the franchise is brought to life over the coming years.<br/><br/>1 ½ bouncing playing cards out of 5 Review: Although this movie is supposed to be about magicians, there actually isn't that much magic in it. After enjoying the first movie, it was good to see the Four Horsemen back in action, with there new recruit, Lula (Lizzy Caplan) but there was a lot of random scenes which spoilt the flow of the film. After stealing money from some important people in the first movie, J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) are forced into hiding, with the help of FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) but there past soon catches up with them, and they are forced to steal a priceless chip, which can hack into every computer, and uncover important information. Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe) is also in hiding, and he lost money when the Four Horsemen performed the heist in the first movie, so he knows that they are the best candidates to retrieve the chip, even though he is still upset with them about the money he lost. Whilst retrieving the chip, Dylan asks for help from another person who lost money from the original heist, Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), who points him in the right direction to find his friends, who have gone underground to plan the heist. Walter also recruits Merritt's brother, to make sure that the Four Horsemen do everything above board but once Walter's true plan comes to light, the whole plan turns pretty dark. Right from the beginning of the film, it's quite fast paced and there is something new happening in every scene but the director chose to show how they done a lot of there tricks, so it lacked the WOW! factor, which was what made the first movie so unique. There is loads of fast hand action which was quite impressive but apart from that, it's more of an Mission Impossible, type of movie, without the action. The cast was great and each character brought something different to the project but the plot was a bit weak and unbelievable. The main problem was that everyone was supposed to be in hiding but they seemed to be walking around without a care about getting caught. Also, some of them was supposed to be dead so that element didn't really make sense. Anyway, it's worth a watch but the original was better. Watchable!<br/><br/>Round-Up: With both Now You See Me movies making around the same amount of money at the box office, audiences around the world obviously enjoy watching movies about magic, which is why I was surprised that there wasn't that much magic in this movie. The director Jon M. Church, 37, chose to stick with the heist element, and with the many different characters involved in the film, it seemed a bit of a mess in parts. His previous projects include Step Up 2: The Streets, Step Up 3D, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never & Believe, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Jem and the Holograms, so he has covered different genres in his career. There is a third movie in the pipeline, which isn't surprising because the cast seemed to have fun whilst making the movie but the director needs to add some more magical moments. <br/><br/>Budget: $90million Worldwide Gross: $335million<br/><br/>I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/adventure/comedies, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Radcliffe, Jay Chou, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, David Warshofsky and Sanaa Lathan. 5/10 Now You See Me 2 gets giddy on its own unreality. That sense of freewheeling excess extends from the chip heist — set in a metal-free clean room — to the nonstop contrivances and coincidences to the cast.
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