When I picked this out, I did not know that it had a threequel coming this year. I just wanted something rather different from what else I'd been watching lately. This one has been moderately popular among the general viewership, but critics are almost evenly split on it.
An anonymous, faceless source assembles four magicians -- famous card trickster Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), backmailing mentalist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), escape artist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), and pocket- and lock-picking prestidigitator Jack Wilder (Dave Wilder) -- to pull off a series of heists in exchange for membership in an elite society. They're actually quite open about parts of it, working robbery into their stage shows and winning mass approval as Robin Hood types by paying the live audience; the authorities can't easily prosecute them without insinuating a belief in real magic. FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is assigned to catch them somehow, with help from INTERPOL's Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent) and possibly from long-time debunker Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman).
Basically, it's Ocean's Eleven or The Thomas Crown Affair meets The Illusionist or The Prestige. It even has Michael Caine as the magicians' sponsor -- until he learns what they're really about. Alas, I have difficulty rooting for screen criminals who don't target only the deserving, especially when they resort to assaulting law enforcement. It doesn't help that Merritt looks so smarmy I kept wishing someone would punch him. Still, at least these crooks aren't Fast Five-level bad.
Of greater concern is that they may be Fast Five-level unrealistic. Not all tricks are fully explained, and I'm not convinced they're all doable in RL; I almost added "fantasy" or "sci-fi" to the review tags. Most of all, hypnosis shouldn't work that well.
As befits this sort of movie, there's a big twist that contributes significantly to polarized reactions. For my part, I respect it, but it doesn't make me want to watch the whole thing again with enlightened eyes. I might not even find any clues.
NYSM certainly gets the brain chugging along. I'm just not sure it's sensible enough to call smart. One outing was fresh enough for me; I'll pass on both sequels.
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