Now You See Me 2 (2016) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline: If you think you've seen it all take another look.

The Four Horsemen [Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Lizzy Caplan] return for a second mind-bending adventure, elevating the limits of stage illusion to new heights and taking them around the globe. One year after outwitting the FBI and winning the public's adulation with their Robin Hood-style magic spectacles, the illusionists 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 [Daniel Radcliffe], 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.

Storyline: 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. Written by Production

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, August 27, 2016 Note: It's impossible to discuss this sequel without detailing some aspects of Now You See Me, which some may consider "spoilers".

There may be no quaint mini-tape recorder playing a little reel which features a portentous voice intoning, "Good morning, Mr. Phelps", nor indeed a portfolio of biographies with head shots that a leader pulls from a series of manila envelopes, nor even any questionable latex masks to help transform one person into another, but it occurred to me fairly early on during Now You See Me 2 that this film, along with its precursor Now You See Me (also available as Now You See Me 4K), is for all intents and purposes simply glossy episodes of Mission: Impossible. If the first film cloaked what was in essence a revenge story in any number of "magical" conceits, it still proffered a number of "impossible missions" which its elite team needed to complete in order for vengeance to be achieved. This sequel picks up in the aftermath of the original film's series of sometimes perplexing if also predictable denouements. Agent Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is back on the job, ostensibly on the hunt for the missing Four Horsemen (or at least the remaining Horsemen). The Horsemen, now wanted fugitives, have gone into hiding, though J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) isn't content to simply wait around in hopes that some kind of instructions on what to do next arrive, and so he ferrets out the supposed headquarters of The Eye, the super-secret magical organization into which the Horsemen have been initiated. That leads him to a room in some kind of sewer system where he's accosted by, well, a portentous voice intoning something along the likes of "Good morning, Mr. Atlas," albeit without much other content than instructions will be forthcoming. Meanwhile, Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) is unhappily ensconced in a Federal penitentiary, calming plotting his revenge against the Horsemen whom he blames for his current predicament. Now You See Me 2 has some passingly interesting elements, and it has a playful ambience that helps it to overcome several glaring lapses in logic (a proclivity it shares with the first film), but the sequel is often listless and unfocused, like a magician misdirecting his audience but without any big "reveal" offered as a payoff.

That playful aspect is on display very early in the film, as (once again) portentous voiceover by Freeman gives a bit of context about the Four Horsemen, while some kind of cool visual analogs waft by, including a nice moment where the "interior" of the word believe becomes "lie", and a Tarot card of sorts with the Horsemen emblazoned on it reveals different descriptions of the quartet depending on what perspective it's viewed from. It's a neatly apt metaphor for perception, something that of course magicians rely on in order to flaunt their wares, but unfortunately the main plot of Now You See Me 2 favors the literal over the imaginative quite a bit of the time. That plot, which seems perfunctory at best, involves Rhodes' plan to "out" an entrepreneur named Owen Case (Ben Lamb), a kind of Steve Jobs sort whose new cellphone chip threatens to undermine personal privacy, in a story element which is weirdly reminiscent of something at least tangentially similar in Kingsman: The Secret Service. Of course, not all is as it seems in Now You See It 2, and soon the film tips over into a labyrinth of competing subplots, few of which really add materially to the film's already tenuous grasp on narrative cohesion.

Rhodes' attempt to reveal Case's shenanigans backfires dramatically, leaving Rhodes a fugitive and in one of the film's silliest but also kind of funny conceits the Horsemen stranded in Macau. Atlas, Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) and the "not quite dead yet" Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) have in the meantime been joined by a "new" female recruit, a wisecracking woman named Lula May (Lizzy Caplan), a character whose nonstop sarcasm infuses this sequel with some of its best humor. It turns out Merritt has a twin brother named Chase (also Woody Harrelson), who has "arranged" for the quartet to be abducted to this exotic locale, in order for them to facilitate an "impossible mission" for another guy who (like Jack) is supposedly dead, Owen Case's former partner Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe). The casting of Radcliffe in this role, a character who is out to achieve "real" magic via technology, is obviously meant to play on the actor's long association with the Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection franchise, but this "inside joke" is probably funnier in concept than in actual realization.

Because this burgeoning franchise's conceit requires everyone to "get together", soon enough Rhodes springs Bradley from stir in a completely illogical moment (how can a wanted FBI agent get away with this?), which is immediately subsumed by an even more illogical moment when the two hop on a plane to Macau, suggesting that the TSA is not doing an adequate screening job (considering there are two supposed criminals taking wing, escaping the United States). That sets up the overly convoluted endgame, where a number of competing interests collide as the Horsemen attempt to purloin the top secret chip which will allow whoever controls it to access data anywhere on any platform. It's taking "McGuffin"-ism to a whole new level, and Ed Solomon's screenplay simply doesn't seem to know how to get to The Prestige, to use a term of the magical arts.

My colleague Brian Orndorf wasn't especially enamored of the first Now You See Me, and was evidently only minimally more favorably inclined toward the sequel, as evidenced by his review of it. I was actually entertained if not blown away by the first film and unlike Brian felt this sequel was a step down rather than a step up, but I still got a kick out of Lizzy Caplan as the "new" Horse(wo)man. There's a certain element of sound and fury signifying nothing (or at least not much) in this film, but as an affable time killer, it's if not outright magic at least fitfully appealing. Technical merits are generally strong and with caveats noted, Now You See Me 2 comes Recommended.

[CSW] -2.2- The overall plot, once you understand where it is going, turns out to be kind of hollow. And even the explained tricks stretched credulity most of the time. I did get a kick out of Lula (Lizzy Caplan) as the "new" Horse(wo)man. And as the above reviewer said it is as an affable time killer and at least fitfully appealing.
[V4.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


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