Now You See Me: Now You Don't

Twelve years after they dazzled us with their magical skills, the “Four Horsemen” are mysteriously reunited and joined by an enthusiastic young trio who bring some new blood to their most difficult challenge yet. Someone wants them to bring the wealthy “Veronica Vanderberg” (Rosamund Pike) to her knees, but the only way to do that is to pinch her enormous diamond. Needless to say, this is kept in an ultra-secure vault and this one is also buried deep in the Arabian desert. Before they can even think on appropriating this gem, the cocky “Atlas” (Jesse Eisenberg) has to learn to get on with the even more sure of himself newbie “Bosco” (Dominic Sessa) whilst all seven, gradually, proceed to try to work together and decrypt the secrets hidden within a French château that has more than it’s fair share of secret passages and surprise residents. Meanwhile, this infamous stone has another would-be owner, who is attempting to blackmail the money laundering “Veronica” with some information that she might not want public. With no shortage of people trying to steal the thing, what happens next…? It has some moments, this film, when the pace really picks up and the visuals deliver some quickly paced feats of illusion that are quite entertainingly and usually acrobatically presented. In some ways, it also serves to debunk some of the myths of these theatrically deceptive arts, but sadly these scenes are too few and far between. There’s just way too much dialogue, and not enough vanishing. To be fair to Pike, she does look the part and her South African accent just about stays the course; Sessa, Justice Smith and Ariana Greenblatt deliver fine as they breathe new life - and a little map humour - into old props, but Harrelson hams up too annoyingly, Dave Franco just models his beaming smile and small T-shirts and Isla Fisher isn’t really on screen often enough to make very much difference to a story that is dragged out as if it were being paid, scene by scene, by a tourist board or some luxury product placement. It isn’t dull, and the production is way more highly polished than her jewel, but I think the sleight of hand filming techniques that maybe worked in 2013 are less effective now that we all know CGI can render the impossible, possible. Harmless fun.