Deftones

It beat it for the weekend as it got 2nd overall. It opened higher than most projections.

dvdjunkie32

I enjoyed it. Great popcorn flick. The first act was basically a throwaway as you saw most of it in the trailer. The second act had me on the edge of my seat wondering what they would pull off, and how they did it.


Parts that didn't work for me:

csant

Movie was pretty interesting till the ending. Blah, they were better off leaving it unexplained.

movieking

Thoughts:



Overall a mild recommendation but expect to be disappointed in the ending.

DJariya

Saw this today.

Basically this was like a 2 hour version of the TNT series Leverage except with magicians.

For the most part I enjoyed it. It was a light caper flick with lots of good actors and some decent action.

I was kind of lukewarm on the big twist at the end.



Overall, if your bored and need something to see it's a decent matinee if you can see it for under $10. But, I wouldn't go out of my way to see this. Without all the A-list actors, this could have been an episode of Leverage.

I would give this a B- mainly because of the cast.

filmerp

Orbi-Wan Techno

Haven't seen this yet, but just saw the Arrested Development episode where GOB says "everyone loves magicians" then there's a flash to a newscast "A recent survey shows that magicians are the number one most hated performers..." LOL.

Mr. Cinema

I liked the idea and the concept, and the tricks were well done. But I agree with many here in that the twist ruined the movie for me.

movieking

I did but it was easy to see why everyone would. It appeared on the screen longer than the other cards, a good beat or two extra. Just by the length of it on the screen I knew it would be the card he called out.

Goldberg74

Funny, but... (Man of Steel spoiler ahead...)


I'm only saying 'cause I saw a double feature on Saturday, MoS then NYSM.

RichC2

I give kudos to Leterrier, I'm not a fan of his but even though the screenplay isn't the greatest, he keeps the tone light and pacing up, and it is a very glossy movie. This is a perfectly good rainy day movie that I think will be very popular on video (past its unexpected box office success - $274m worldwide, $116m domestic).

The cast is uniformly excellent, though they should have focused more on the Four Horsemen, they almost feel like secondary characters.

TomOpus

This movie made way more than I would've predicted. I liked the movie but would've enjoyed it more if the tricks weren't so obviously CGI.

Why So Blu?

Saw this last night and it was entertaining, but a few things distracted the hell out of me. Eisenberg was obviously wearing a retainer or had dental work done during filming, because when he would talk he'd sound like Daffy Duck in a few instances.

I don't like Dave Franco. He comes off as a smug twerp thinking he's all hard and shit. I figured that shtick was just for the 21 Jump Street movie but can now see that that's how he really is in everything. He's a jagoff.

Laurent was great and I didn't mind the final payoff.

Noonan

I'm looking forward to this one hitting disc so I can watch it again. I'm sure I missed stuff the first time in the theater. Regarding the twist:

RocShemp

Just got this as a Redbox rental. Really enjoyed the flick and didn't hate the twist ending (mainly because I started to suspect it towards the tail end). Also, it was weird that Elias Koteas appeared in a picture but not the actual movie. I wonder if he appears in any deleted scenes (the rental disc has no special features).

ANyhoo, I might pick it up once it's under $20 because it was light breezy fun.

RichC2

He's briefly in a flashback in the Extended version.

RocShemp

Thanks. How was the extended version? Better? Worse? Or pretty much the same?

hanshotfirst1138

Redboxed this last night. Nothing to write home about, one cool set piece when Ruffalo has the showdown with the magician leading into the chase. Mélanie Laurent was luminous, and she and Ruffalo had great chemistry. If Tarantino has given her a start in American movies like Christoph Waltz, then more power to him, whatever you say about the man, he sure can cast. The version I watched was presumably the extended version, it felt a bit long, wonder what was new. Freeman and Caine only had one scene together, but talk about two heavyweights colliding. Freeman explains a bunch of stuff as usual. Busy, noisy, loud, flashy, superficial, lightweight, but fun enough. Last-act twist was kind of stupid and illogical, but made about as much sense as anything else in the movie at that point. Two DPs? Wonder why. Looked good, looks like Leterrier is evidently the one from the Besson stable who'll have the most success after all is said and done, at least commercially. Nothing worth getting excited about, good cast though. Disposable but entertaining.

RichC2

I never saw the theatrical unfortunately so I cannot compare.

Coral

I agree with some of the thoughts on this film.

Some of the tricks were way too far out there. Especially the cars on the bridge. Pulling it off without killing or hurting anyone badly is extremely unlikely and I'd throw their asses in jail just for that.
The twist was dumb - it makes you wonder why that character was so hell-bent on catching them even when no one was around for him to act that way.

And Dave Franco isn't much of an actor. He sounds like he's talking while his jaws are wired shut and he's pretty wooden in his delivery. Surprised they thought he was good enough for that big a role.

devilshalo

Maybe they can explain the stupid secret society and why any magician would care to be a part of it, enough that they blindly do whatever is asked of them in order to join. Then they can all appear on Penn and Teller's Bullshit show.

Original Desmond

Film was great until the last 20 mins which ruined it

Good performances from a likeable cast

davidh777

For some reason this was off my radar during the theatrical window, but in the DVD publicity the big cast caught me eye, and I'm always a sucker for a caper flick. I thought it was light fun, like Ocean's 11 with magic, right down to the music, cast, and stunt explanations (except unlike Ocean's 11, the explanations come multiple times throughout the movie). I didn't see the twist coming and didn't mind it either. I had no idea who Dave Franco was.

The Netflix BD was 116 minutes, so I guess that's not the extended version (which IMDb says runs 125). No special features either. I am interested in seeing what the extra footage entails...

Solid B grade.

Alex Start

Light interesting movie, for one time to watch

JimRochester

I love heist and caper flicks so I knew I'd enjoy this. Had a feeling about the reveal but as someone else said, there were scenes he was alone and still looked confused. Definitely a check your brain at the door kind of movie. As far as the CGI goes. Is there some union requirement that at least a % of a movie has to be done with CGI? It seems they employ it even when they don't need to.

This was a rental but I'd like to see it again some time. I know there was a lot I missed.