Cheeky, ludicrous, and undeniably fun, the magical action-heist thriller Now You See Me, Now You Don’t continues in the same vein as its equally silly predecessors. Although the franchise – which kicked off in 2013 and delivers its first new instalment in almost a decade – positions itself as “Ocean’s 11, but with Magicians,” the heightened, patently unbelievable tone is really closer to “The Fast and the Furious, but with Magicians.” And I for one am still all for that proposition. It’s amazing the kind of things I can buy into on screen if someone would just come out and say that the most implausible scenarios are possible strictly thanks to the power of magical illusions. While this kind of bait and switch might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I appreciate Now You See Me, Now You Don’t for always being up front about how its dynamics will never play totally fair, always letting the viewer in on the gag. I’m sure there will come a point when these films start to lose their lustre with me, but for now, pass the popcorn.
The fabled, thieving, and charitable minded Four Horsemen of magic – sleight of hand master J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), mentalist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), dextrous card manipulator Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), and escape artist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher, back after sitting out the second film) – have disbanded and remained out of sight for years. They’re coaxed out of hiding when a trio of young and similarly minded upstarts – masterful planner and magic history nerd Charlie (Justice Smith), egotistical impressionist Bosco (Dominic Sessa), and acrobatic Jill-of-all-trades June (Arianna Greenblatt) – start making waves with Horseman themed heists of their own. Although the original Horsemen still have unresolved issues with each other, they all agree to team up to take down South African diamond mining magnate Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), who’s so evil they’re described as a woman who “makes the world’s worst people possible.” In addition to laundering the money of various n’er-do-wells via her wares, Vanderberg is in possession of the fabled and enormous Heart Diamond, which is normally housed in a vault seventy stories under the Arabian Desert, but is going to be on display at a special event in Antwerp, where it will be ripe for the stealing.
OR SO YOU THINK! DUN DUN DUN! It wouldn’t be much of a movie if our heroes got away with everything with relative ease, so Now You See Me, Now You Don’t (which really should’ve been titled Now You Three Me) carries on with a globetrotting mission pitting charming, anarchic, wealth redistributing magical thieves against Pike’s gloriously, memorably over-the-top take on a Bond villain. Old friends of the Horsemen will reemerge along the way, new friends will be made, and it will all build once again to a grand stage show in an unusual location where all will be revealed and the viewer will be let in on the inner workings of the elaborate plan. Now You See Me, Now You Don’t requires a high suspension of disbelief and a deep love for mainstream blockbuster campiness.
Directed this time out by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, Venom, Uncharted) and scripted by Rhett Reese (Zombieland, Deadpool), Michael Leslie (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), and Seth Grahame-Smith (author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Now You See Me, Now You Don’t is made by people who are fully capable of crafting large scale silliness and making it work. The script is filled with snappy retorts and banter or purposefully lugubrious expository dialogue that attempts to explain how any of this is remotely possible or plausible (and admittedly doesn’t always succeed). Despite its overwhelmingly obvious message about holding the ultra-wealthy accountable for their actions, Now You See Me, Now You Don’t – like its predecessors – is a patently unserious movie that seeks to deliver nothing more than fist pumping, fast moving entertainment in a handsome looking package.
The cast (or at least the characters that they’re playing) look like they’re having the time of their lives goofing around with Fleischer’s stacked decks of cards and magic kits. Eisenberg uses his talent for understatement and cutting wit to great use once again. Harrelson gets good mileage out of being the fun loving old timer who’s simply killing time here before he can get back to damaging his liver on a beach somewhere. Fisher leans nicely into the fact that her character was ostracized in the storyline for going off to start a family, and Franco remains charming as the one member of the team who has demeaned themselves by taking on gigs that are beneath their talents. As the OG’s counterparts, Smith brings a nerdy likability to the introvert who prefers to stay behind the scenes, Greenblatt bring a lot of physical capability and confidence, and rising star Sessa shows a lot of swagger as the guy who thinks he’s brilliant, playing wonderfully off Eisenberg’s similarly minded control freak. Everyone here knows the assignment and they work wonderfully together.
Now You See Me, Now You Don’t has a whimsical and infectious love for magic and its history that reflects how closely the art is related to cinema. A key set piece that finds our heroes at a French estate built to celebrate famous illusuonists pulls out all the stops to make the connection between magic and cinematic visual effects, utilizing a hall of mirrors, rotating rooms, M.C. Escher production design, forced perspectives, and any number of other tricks. There are plenty of costume changes on the fly, disguises, silly accents, and high tech illusions to be seen, but Fleischer and company still show a lot of love for the practical ways that movie magic comes to life on screen.
Sure, all of this is bombastic and kind of laughable, but the viewer is always in on the joke. The only way to not get any enjoyment out of one of these film is to resist the allure of said joke. There’s great fun to be had in watching a lot of talented people going out in front of an audience with the express purpose to entertain, and few franchises are still capable of creating the kind of giddy excitement one gets from these movies. I watched Now You See Me, Now You Don’t with an ear-to-ear grin on my face the entire time, giving myself over to the amusement fully and completely; loving every moment of watching how a trick is done, even if the whole thing doesn’t totally add up by the end and logic/the laws of physics are constantly being thrown out the window. I can see why some critics could be averse to this sort of thing, and maybe they aren’t completely wrong in their misgivings, but there’s a welcome level of honesty with the audience in these movies that sets them apart. They tell you that there’s magic afoot. And what you get is magic.
Now You See Me, Now You Don’t opens in theatres everywhere on Friday, November 14, 2025.
