Summit Entertainment/Lionsgate
Release date: September 3rd, 2013
I’m a sucker for caper films and when you add the element of having a group of magicians pulling the caper, well I’m all in. The movie opens with a series of quick vignettes showing each of the four illusionists doing what they do best and each time there is a mysterious person in a hooded sweat shirt watching. Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, and Dave Franco each have a different specialty and as the film jumps a year forward we see them working together billed as “The Four Horsemen” and performing in Vegas. Their big stunt is robbing a bank, in Paris, from Vegas. The bank is actually robbed and the FBI (Including lead agent played by Mark Ruffalo) and an Interpol agent are now pursuing the magicians. They are being funded by a millionaire played by Michael Caine, and they are being watched by a former magician turned magic de-bunker played by Morgan Freeman.
It’s a fun film that moves fast and the illusions are pretty entertaining. It isn’t really a huge stretch to guess where some of this may be going and there are some parts that could have been stronger, but it is so fun it doesn’t really matter. Some of the illusions are easy to figure out, some are just improbable, and it doesn’t matter because they are great to watch. Harrelson in particular was really great in this. It may not be award winning caliber but it is a damn fun ride. And something I’ll enjoy watching a few more times.
Jon Jordan