Now You See Me is mostly smoke and mirrors

Movie Title:     Now You See Me 2

  

Grade:   B

Rating:     PG-13, 115 minutes

In a Nutshell:    I loved the first movie, but this sequel just felt more like smoke and mirrors.   

Uplifting theme: 

•  “Seeing is believing, but is it truth?  It depends on your point of view.” – Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman)

Things I liked:

• Lots of twists and turns.  It’s a fun ride, because you never know what's around the corner.
• Funny sleeping scenes.
• I love all of the cast.  Two Woody Harrelsons?  Twice the fun.
• It's always fun to see places around the world.  They spend some time in London, Macau, and New York.
• SPOILER ALERT: I love it when good "bad guys" outsmart real bad guys.
• Lots of action sequences mixed in with some quick wit.

Things I didn’t like:

•  I should have re-watched the first movie so I could remember how everything left off.  There were a lot of comments made that referred to past events, so if you haven’t seen the first one, you’ll be a bit lost.
• Too many villains.
• Everyone is too cool and slick, coming off as smug characters we have a hard time feeling sorry or concern for.
• Do't get me wrong here...I love all of the actors in the film, but they kind of play the same characters they usually do in almost all of their other movies.  Well, except Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter.  Amirite?  For example, Jesse Eisenburg always plays a fast-talking genius.  Morgan Freeman always plays someone wise and mysterious.  Dave Franco always plays a playboy loose cannon.  Lizzy Caplan always plays a snarky chick.  I'm just sayin...
• A lot of things are just too implausible and ridiculous.  If you think really hard to figure it all out, most of it just doesn't make much sense.  
• Most of the lines sound like scripted performance lines, rather than spontaneous conversations.

Funny lines:

•  “Not Chinese food.  I think here it’s just called food.” - Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson)
• “I want to be completely off the Grid and do you know why?” – (Walter Tressler)    “Yeah, because the Grid is for real humans.” – J. Daniel Atlas  (Jesse Eisenberg)
• “Don’t do anything I would enjoy.” – Merritt McKinney
• “Is that weird to have more hair in your ears than on your head?” – Merritt to his twin brother

Interesting lines:

•   “The eye; it can’t lie, but don’t think for a minute it can’t be lied to.” –  Thaddeus Bradley

• Tips for parents:   

• Someone flips the bird at the camera.
• Some profanity and inappropriate language.

As the characters say, “Didja get all that?”