Magic is still kind of lame

 

No offense, but magic is kind of lame.

I respect those who practice it, but if you are really (really) into Magic you probably "aren't getting much tail". Many films have tried to make it cool, and this one tries perhaps a bit too hard. Christopher Nolan's excellent "The Prestige" was just cool because it had David Bowie playing Nikola Tesla. Yep.

"Now You See Me" tries very, very hard, using overblown, swooping camera movement, breathless dialogue breathlessly spoken by a, well, breathless cast. And some seemingly clever tricks that -- spoiler alert -- get explained. And the First Rule of Magic Club is that you never, ever explain the trick.

What almost saves "Now You See Me" is a pretty clever plot which, wait for it, is kind of a magic trick itself. See how I did that? Some unseen force has brought together a group of street magicians to form a lamely named group called The Four Horseman, which is mildly micro-aggressive because one of those men is a woman, played by Isla Fisher. This group includes characters played by Jesse Eisenberg (whose young-ish, brash sleight-of-hand artist is pretty much the epitome of "no really, magic IS cool" uncool), Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco, and is slated to perform three progressively more impossible acts, culminating in a complex, Apocalyptic bit performed on the rooftop of an abandoned building in, what, Queens?

Yep, that pretty much sums it up. What further saves the film is the presence of Adults in the room, in the form of Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Wait, weren’t they together in a couple of Christopher Nolan films? The scene in the Voodoo Shop in New Orleans where Caine and Freeman have it out is an example of what happens when two great actors have pretty good material to work with.

Look, if you love Magic, you have to see “Now You See Me”. If you don’t love Magic, you should still see it, as it is entertaining and has, as they say in the Magic world, a “Turn” and then a “Big Reveal” at the end. If all of that is just tiresome to you, then pass this one by.

Serviceable "True Life" Thriller

 

I mainly watched this because it had Josh Hartnett, who I have loved in Penny Dreadful (yes, I was a bit late to that party), and also Jim Gaffigan. Also, I have been watching the great Canuck crime drama, "Cardinal" so I am a bit obsessed with finding out how things aren't always so peaceful in the Great White North.

Main plot of this "Based on True Events" story is a poor sucker junkie gets ensnared in what is basically one of the most ludicrous cases of Entrapment in history - or at least in Canadian History. This kid is just looking to get high, and the Jim Gaffigan character convinces him to fly to Thailand to score ten kilos of "H" as they so uncooly call it. This, all financed and supported by the Canuck version of the DEA, masterminded on the Government side by a rail-thin, specter of an agent, played by Stephen McHattie (who all of you X Files fans will recognize).

If it sounds implausible, it probably is, because the notes at the end confusingly indicate that maybe this all happened, maybe it didn't. Mainly, because apparently the Canadian Government has sought for years to suppress the truth. Except, the film was financed, in part, by Provencal bucks from the Government of Quebec. Oh, right, Quebec has been trying to secede from Canada for decades.

OK, back to the film. Everything here is pretty effective, pretty well-written and well-acted. Only problem is the time shift narrative only becomes apparent about a third of the way through, when you realize that you are watching a retrospective of historical events, and a current timeline of our pitiful junk getting ready to rot in a horrible Thai prison.

You'll have to watch to find out what really happens.