I agree the
comedy was a problemWatched crime-magic caper
Now you See Me Premise: Four magicians are contacted by tarot cards and form the four horsemen: illusionist Danny (Jesse Eisenberg), mentalist Merritt (Woody Harrelson), escapist Henley (Isla Fisher) and street thief Jack Wilder (Dave Franco). A year after forming a group they get a big Vegas show where they use magic to rob a French bank. Fair to say this is a problem for the US and French authorities led by FBI agent Dylon (Mark Ruffalo) and Interpol's Alma (Mélanie Laurent).
From what I have heard and the blurb, I was expecting a movie centred on the four magicians, that isn't the case though. Could well have worked, there is good banter and chemistry between the four, Danny is entertainingly arrogant, Merritt's humour could easily go wrong but they pull it off, Henley and Jack are nice but could use more time. The magic shows are entertaining (though Fisher needs to work on her stage voice) and they do an excellent set up of the four's style of magic before they are lured in.
This more focuses on the investigators attempts to work out how the tricks were done and how to arrest them without embrassment. Dylon and Alma make a good duo with chemistry, tension and sweeter moments, they have good clashes with the magicians whether it be interrogations or attempts to catch (bar one scene that goes on a bit too long). We predicted most of the twists but they tended to be well executed, Morgan Freeman's magic debunker Thaddeus does head towards trope Freeman character but they pull out of it in time.
Nice action, fun characters, humour, magic, good cast, working out how the robberies were done, it made for a good time despite an ending undermined by one cast member's performance being off
Both: 7.0
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Watched action movie
Drive Angry. Premise: Milton (Nicolas Cage) escapes from hell to seek vengeance on cult leader Jonah King (Billy Burke) for what was done to Milton's family. Picking up waitress Piper (Amber Heard) along the way, he also has to worry about those seeking to bring him back to hell.
It has a little bit iffy start as it thinks two things, 1) Serious action Cage is cool. He isn't. 2) the coolest most epic dialogue is one with lots of swears and sex. What is intresting is that the cast generally struggled with it like trying to speak ye olde English can cause actors to sound uncertain and forced. The only figure that was fluent in the language they wanted was waitress Norma with Katy Mixon making it smooth, flirty and natural. So they dropped that aspect and it did improve
It went quite well, Piper is spunky, sometimes action exposes it's cheap effects but goes nicely enough, an alright villain but lacking a bit of spark, an enjoyable sense of humour. It's side characters like Norma, Candy (Charlotte Ross), police chief (Tom Atkins) and Frank (Todd Farmer) tended to make the most of their moment, providing a sense of fun and humour before leaving. It also benefited from "The Accountant" (William Fichtner) who had a slightly otherwordly air and again helped bring humour and a bit of fun.
Me: 6.5 Sis says: 6.5 because fun and ridiculously over the top even if Nicholas Cage didn't seem to get the memo