Movie Review - Now You See Me

So what do you get when The Incredible Hulk tries to team up with God to take on zombie fighters Tallahassee and Columbus with occasional appearances by Alfred via Summer Bay?  Well, nothing like what you expect... or is it...

Now You See Me sees a group of four different magicians, J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merrit McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Hanley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), brought together by an anonymous hooded figure in order to stage performances where they appear to magically pull major bank heists and then give the audience the money.  They are stage managed by Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine), trying to be debunked by Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) and being chased by a duo consisting of FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and Interpol representative Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent).  You may have guessed that this isn't a detailed character piece.

Right from the outset this movie is, well, silly.  Everything is played as big as possible, as fast as possible and as busy as possible.  Terrible for any sense of believability or character development, but great for making sure you don't notice.

The main players certainly do a good job with their roles.  You can tell that they are enjoying themselves and no one takes their part too seriously which is a big plus for this movie.  As the action cuts from one group to another the actors make sure they get the most out of their parts.

As this is a movie at least partially about magic there is much discussion about misdirection and the phrase "the closer you look, the less you see" is used constantly throughout proceedings.  It is apparent that they wanted to apply this to the movie itself but it seems the makers were worried people might miss subtle hints and red herrings so we end up with a very ham fisted version.  The movie is continually going look at this, but what about that, hey can we really trust her or him or them, well these are the good guys or are they, etc.  The plot twists come thick and fast and this helps the final big reveal to carry some weight even after it is virtually shouted from the rooftops in the lead up.

Where Now You See Me shines is it's ability to have all of the above problems but still be a straight up, highly enjoyable romp.  It lays its cards on the table very early on and it is safe to say that those who enjoy the opening character montages (Woody Harrelson's being the highlight) can expect to have a good, if very silly, time.

I have decided to scrap the "in a word" finale and build on something I used in my World War Z review...

Alternative title - "Now You See Me/That/Him/Her/Them/This/The Other Thing Over There"

Movie Review - Olympus Has Fallen

With White House Down starting it's run in Australian cinemas pretty soon I thought it would be only fair to see the other recent "invade the White House" movie.  I can't do a direct comparison just yet but perhaps Olympus Has Fallen can give us a taste of what to expect, or put us off the idea entirely.

Olympus Has Fallen sees our hero Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) leave the secret service after a mishap causes tragedy for President Benjamin Asher's (Aaron Eckhart) family.  It looks like he is destined to be a paper pusher but this all changes when a mysterious force takes on, then takes out, the defences of the White House (codenamed Olympus) and takes the President and a number of his staff hostage.  With global tensions mounting and God... sorry Speaker Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) as the acting president can Banning fight the army, rescue the president and save the day?  I'm sure you can guess.

First up, this movie takes itself immensely seriously and goes to great lengths to show you every bit of suffering in as much macabre detail as possible.  Quite early in proceedings literally hundreds of innocent bystanders get mowed down and the camera lingers on as many as possible.  We even get extra slaughter victim close ups as Banning's wife, Leah (Radha Mitchell), happens to be a nurse at the only hospital in Washington that seems to be receiving the injured.  This is a movie full of stern faces and ruthless cruelty.

Imagine if you will that all the actors have been replaced by the seven dwarves and their clones, and that all the other dwarves have been replaced with Grumpy and you should get a good idea about the performances in this movie.  Given the excessive cruelty on display any snappy one liners would just seem crass so it's lucky the makers of this film obviously decided against including any.  And don't think it's just the baddies being cruel, Gerard Butler (hereby renamed Grumpy Butface in honour of his performance in this movie) is just as ruthless in his dealings with the invading force.

Another issue is the invading force itself.  The initial push on the White House comprises of a huge force of baddies, but once inside and secured 90% of them just seem to disappear, leaving Grumpy Buttface a small handful of groups and several lone sentries to take out in a suitably gruesome fashion.

Besides that we have a number of cliches.  The chilling emotionless bad guy, the surprisingly attractive evil computer genius, the precocious child (who initially seemed to be set up to play a big role in proceedings, but ended up being rescued quite early and never mentioned again), and the wise old janitor... sorry, Morgan Freeman.

Despite all of the above you certainly can't discount that this is a quintessential action movie with spectacular action, fist fights and lots of military weaponry being waved about the place.  It's the action that saves the film from becoming a depressing slaughter fest.

I really find it hard to recommend Olympus Has Fallen, but if you are a fan of military hardware and lone wolf action played completely seriously well you should find something to satisfy you here.

In two words - Grumpy Butface