Now You See Me 2013

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Director Louis Leterrier has the energy but not the visual grace to match the elegant malefactions of his characters. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: The scatterbrained story loses its thread and becomes a dull, frenetic chase movie ... Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: Boasting a terrific cast and a flimsy plot whose logic disappears faster than a rabbit in a hat, Now struggles to pull off its cinematic sleights of hand. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: "Now You See Me," despite some compelling moments, is one of those movies you watch while thinking about other movies that you're not watching. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: This would-be "Ocean's Eleven" of the magic world remains watchable throughout, even as it plods along without ever quite fulfilling its potential. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Moving so quickly its flaws barely register -- the blockbuster equivalent of sleight-of-hand -- Now You See Me fares best when simply relying on the no-illusions chemistry between its leads. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "Now You See Me" is a movie about magic, but its most astonishing trick is how little mileage it gets out of a stellar cast. Read more

Mark Feeney, Boston Globe: Big, noisy, slick, and empty. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This is one of those mystery thrillers that are supposed to culminate in a big shocker ending, though the script piles up so many implausibilities that by the time the ending arrives, nothing is surprising anymore. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: One of those movies with a terrific premise and a less-than-terrific follow-through. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Ultimately "Now You See Me" promises more than it delivers, though its cast is always fun to watch and the pace never lags. It has the magic for a while ... and then it disappears. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The actors, including Morgan Freeman as an anti-showman devoted to revealing the magicians' secrets, look like they're having so much fun that you can forgive the periodic arbitrariness of it all. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: The whole of it is made of flash paper, intended to burn brightly for an instant before vanishing from your memory without a trace. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Now You See Me is a superficially diverting but substance-free concoction, a would-be thriller as evanescent as a magic trick and one that develops no suspense or rooting interest because the characters possess all the substance of invisible ink. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: For all the talent up on the screen - and one can't fault the performances - the movie just doesn't deliver. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Complicated nonsense about four professional magicians caught up in an elaborate revenge plot. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The movie may think it's pulling a rabbit out of a hat. But it's more like a turkey. Read more

Joel Arnold, NPR: Exudes self-importance and can't help but make promises it can't deliver on. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: You want famous faces? Flirtations? Heists, thrills, car chases, explosions, disappearing bunny rabbits? All here, and all designed to distract us from the emptiness at the show's core. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: Perhaps the requisite summer-film explosion scene is just classic misdirection, per every magician's handbook. Look over here, and maybe you won't notice this movie doesn't make any sense! Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The movie wants to be Ocean's Eleven with top hats and wands, but the rapport between Now You See Me's principals doesn't come close to approximating Clooney and company's (or Sinatra and company's) cool. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: With Now You See Me, director Louis Leterrier has taken a page out of the book of his characters: use sleight-of-hand so viewers are distracted from some rather obvious screenplay deficiencies. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, Chicago Sun-Times: Much of what makes "Now You See Me" so entertaining - in a gaudy, disposable, Vegas act sort of way - is its ever-escalating ridiculousness. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: It takes a certain dark magic to make the talent of a top cast disappear right before your eyes. Now You See Me does just that. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: All too quickly ... the smoke clears and Now You See Me proves to be less than meets the eye. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The more you see of the movie and the more elaborate the tricks get, the less you are inclined to believe that humans rather than machines are in charge of the illusions. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: If you're OK with the film playing you for a sap, you'll laugh and clap and wonder how that bird got into that hat. But if you think there's a difference between being tricked and being cheated, you may feel swindled. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Bustling, glittery, uninvolving. Read more

Zachary Wigon, Village Voice: When functioning like a magic trick, this breathlessly entertaining picture delights in its showmanship, but the more entertaining the trickery, the tougher the explanation, and when the truth is revealed the answer can't help but fail to satisfy. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: Leterrier also tries to pack an extraordinary amount of story and twists into a fairly ordinary running time, resulting in editing so choppy that sometimes even the easy parts are hard to follow. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: The outrageous setup more than suffices, and the film gets a lift from offbeat characters. Read more