2/10
I thought this looked fun when I saw the previews, so I recorded it off the movie channel the other day. I was very wrong. In fact, it's kind of shocking just how not fun Now You See Me is, considering its premise and cast. In the course of plotting its con-artist magicians versus its FBI agents, it somehow leaves the human element entirely by the wayside and strands you without a single character on either side to cheer for. The FBI agents (featuring a truly horrible performance by Mark Ruffalo) are stubborn and unlikeable, and its four magicians were probably sketched as anti-heroes on paper, but just come off as smug jerks, to a man. And Morgan Freeman is around to play the wry old man caught in the middle in a shtick you got tired of fifteen years ago.
So with no rooting interest on either side, we have to look to the plotting of the story to find some entertainment, but even that's a dud. The movie doesn't so much deceive the audience with a series of clever illusions to keep them on their toes as much as it outright insults them and jerks them around with one groan inducing twist (or lie) after another. It seems to be desperately struggling to justify its own existence but just becomes progressively more ludicrous and unlikeable.
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