I enjoyed it. Very cool and stylish, very engaging cast. The plotting was pretty poor, the key plot twists were quite predictable, and there was a sense of diminishing returns in the three main defined chapters of the movie, but it was very entertaining. A film best seen if you disengage your brain before viewing.
Watched this earlier and was hoping for something as epic as The Prestige but found it glossy and naff, bar a few amusing one-liners by Woody Harrelson' character. Basically felt like a bad blend of Ocean's Eleven meets The Da Vinci Code plus a couple of other recent Hollywood blockbusters. - 4/10
I saw it yesterday and was a bit disappointed with the ending
The magic tricks were entertaining, but the characters had little or no development. The ending was stupid in my opinion and didn't really add anything to the story
This was one of the biggest surprises of the year so far for me. I never expected to enjoy a film that I knew hardly anything about, thus hadn't really been looking forward to seeing. I read a bit about in a magazine last month, and had seen the fairly interesting trailer a couple of times. But, other than maybe Iron Man 3, I think that it probably entertained me more than any of this years movies so far.
The story of The Four Horseman, magicians who are brought together to do three shows, is told in a flashy, bold, and funny way. The four are a very unlikely team, but they are all great in their roles - Isla Fisher is brilliant, obviously, Jesse Eisenberg plays the lead well in a smart performance, Woody Harrleson is funny, and Dave Franco is perhaps underused a bit but the combination of the four of them works really well. The way they are introduced at the start, all showing off their respective tricks and shows, is a great opening. The rest of the cast is good too, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine doing what they always do, and a brilliantly grumpy showing from Mark Ruffalo, who plays the cop chasing down the Horsemen.
The shows the horsemen do are all well shot and, as with all magic, the "how did they do that?" factor is high, especially in a stunning sequence where it appears a man has transported to Paris to rob a bank. Morgan Freeman's character pops up from time to time to explain how these tricks have been achieved, and it's cleverly done. There are many great moments throughout, and the Four Horsemen interact together very well. They sort of vanish for about a twenty minute period (from the film, not as in magicly), and there is one chase sequence which seems like it's from a different movie - which is also the films weakest part I think.
There's a probably controversial ending, where in one moment the film becomes something you didn't expect, and the bit with The Eye is still baffling me somewhat - what actually happened to them in the end? The twist ending is one that sort of works, without actually making much sense, but I dread to think what a rewatch will do to it. In fact, it's probably not rewatchable, which is what might not put this quite up with my favourite movies of the last few years, (Inception, Super 8, Hot Fuzz, Cloverfield - all very rewatchable), but I'm looking forward to finding out. Very entertaining stuff.
From the trailers i thought this was going to be a seriously cool movie and whilst enjoyable and watchable, overall i just found it dumb, silly, confusing and very very messy. The end result didn't really make a lot of sense. Too many plotholes and THAT ending. WTF?
So Ruffalo was the son of the two-bit magician who drowned and becomes a cop and hires these 4 people to do all these stunts? That was it? It was HIM all along and he goes along with the charade for all that time? I don't understand what the beef was with Morgan Freeman's character. Freeman wasn't the enemy was he? Caine was the Big Bad. So what did Freeman do to Ruffalo to piss him off so much and send Freeman to jail? Then you have The Eye? What's that meant to do?
I just felt it was trying to be too clever for its own good. Style over substance basically and not enough of it was grounded in reality.
I saw this this evening and I did enjoy it - but its best not to think too deeply about it and forget about the plotholes.
Why would a French bank get so excited about losing 3million euro when they have lost trillions - and why on earth would they just have the cash left out in piles in the safe?
Wouldn't the banks simply have reversed the transfer from Michael Caine's bank account to the audience the next day - and how on earth did they manage to get the bank account details of the entire audience anyway in advance?
How did Ruffalo's character totally change his identity - and get into the FBI. Dont they do background checks?:D
Why did Morgan Freeman try to suggest the French interpol lady was part of the scam?
Why did Ruffalo's character fight so hard to stop the pretty boy horseman from escaping - and nearly risk getting killed trying to extract a piece of paper before the car blew up
What was the significance of the playground attraction at the end - it wasn't an eye?
If the real money was in the car - would they just have returned it to the dodgy people who made the safe. So frame Morgan Freeman - yes he wasn't nice - but let off the company that made the defective safe that caused your dad's death?
And why did the Michael Caine character disappear half way through - he wanted revenge but was never mentioned again?! He sort of reminded me of Lord Sugar!:D
I could list half a dozen more anomalies/oddities - but that will do for now! Still it was bold and brash - and the first 30 minutes was great entertainment!
From the trailers i thought this was going to be a seriously cool movie and whilst enjoyable and watchable, overall i just found it dumb, silly, confusing and very very messy. The end result didn't really make a lot of sense. Too many plotholes and THAT ending. WTF?
So Ruffalo was the son of the two-bit magician who drowned and becomes a cop and hires these 4 people to do all these stunts? That was it? It was HIM all along and he goes along with the charade for all that time? I don't understand what the beef was with Morgan Freeman's character. Freeman wasn't the enemy was he? Caine was the Big Bad. So what did Freeman do to Ruffalo to piss him off so much and send Freeman to jail? Then you have The Eye? What's that meant to do?
I just felt it was trying to be too clever for its own good. Style over substance basically and not enough of it was grounded in reality.
Iirc...
Morgan Freeman' character revealed to the public how Ruffalo' father did his magic tricks, that forced him to attempt the high risk safe escape which resulted in his death.
As for The Eye, I think the writers must've watched The Da Vinci Code one time too many... and the lame attempt at a Usual Suspects style baddie reveal at the end, perhaps the DVD extras / inevitable Extended edition will explain those daft plot devices...
From the trailers i thought this was going to be a seriously cool movie and whilst enjoyable and watchable, overall i just found it dumb, silly, confusing and very very messy. The end result didn't really make a lot of sense. Too many plotholes and THAT ending. WTF?
So Ruffalo was the son of the two-bit magician who drowned and becomes a cop and hires these 4 people to do all these stunts? That was it? It was HIM all along and he goes along with the charade for all that time? I don't understand what the beef was with Morgan Freeman's character. Freeman wasn't the enemy was he? Caine was the Big Bad. So what did Freeman do to Ruffalo to piss him off so much and send Freeman to jail? Then you have The Eye? What's that meant to do?
I just felt it was trying to be too clever for its own good. Style over substance basically and not enough of it was grounded in reality.
Morgan Freeman was the guy who revealed all the tricks of Magicians, he did it to the father and this resulted in him trying to do more daring and trickier illusions and ended with his death. It was explained quite early on in the film.
The Eye although was pretty pointless overall to the story, it was supposedly a mythical ancient secret society of magicians and to be accepted into this guild would be the ultimate honour for any magician to be accepted into, so what better way to get four magicians to do what you want to do. In the end it is revealed that this society exists and they have been accepted.
Morgan Freeman' character revealed to the public how Ruffalo's father did his magic tricks, that forced him to attempt the high risk safe escape which resulted in his death....
I get it now, thanks. Must have missed that bit. Makes a lot of sense now. Cheers.
Just got back from the cinema and me and my friend had to walk out after an hour. It was just so utterly, utterly tediously boring it just did us in. To be honest, the film lost me after about 20 minutes - I found myself getting increasingly irritated with the characters and that feeling only increased.
If it had been a 80-90 minute film then i'd most likely have stuck it out to the end, but when I realised we had another 56 minutes to go, we had to bail out.
Watched it last night and would have to agree. Really poor, too self-consciously "cool" (ie. it wasn't) and over long. Sad as we sort of expected an Ocean's Eleven but with magicians. This was miles away from that.
I've got to agree with all the previous points. Although there was a lot that was good about the film I spent the entire time being bugged about plot holes and CGI magic set up. At the end I felt as though no one actually deserved the bad things that the 4 horseman did to them, and most of those things were completely reservible.
Comments
7/10
The magic tricks were entertaining, but the characters had little or no development. The ending was stupid in my opinion and didn't really add anything to the story
6/10 being generous
This was one of the biggest surprises of the year so far for me. I never expected to enjoy a film that I knew hardly anything about, thus hadn't really been looking forward to seeing. I read a bit about in a magazine last month, and had seen the fairly interesting trailer a couple of times. But, other than maybe Iron Man 3, I think that it probably entertained me more than any of this years movies so far.
The story of The Four Horseman, magicians who are brought together to do three shows, is told in a flashy, bold, and funny way. The four are a very unlikely team, but they are all great in their roles - Isla Fisher is brilliant, obviously, Jesse Eisenberg plays the lead well in a smart performance, Woody Harrleson is funny, and Dave Franco is perhaps underused a bit but the combination of the four of them works really well. The way they are introduced at the start, all showing off their respective tricks and shows, is a great opening. The rest of the cast is good too, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine doing what they always do, and a brilliantly grumpy showing from Mark Ruffalo, who plays the cop chasing down the Horsemen.
The shows the horsemen do are all well shot and, as with all magic, the "how did they do that?" factor is high, especially in a stunning sequence where it appears a man has transported to Paris to rob a bank. Morgan Freeman's character pops up from time to time to explain how these tricks have been achieved, and it's cleverly done. There are many great moments throughout, and the Four Horsemen interact together very well. They sort of vanish for about a twenty minute period (from the film, not as in magicly), and there is one chase sequence which seems like it's from a different movie - which is also the films weakest part I think.
There's a probably controversial ending, where in one moment the film becomes something you didn't expect, and the bit with The Eye is still baffling me somewhat - what actually happened to them in the end? The twist ending is one that sort of works, without actually making much sense, but I dread to think what a rewatch will do to it. In fact, it's probably not rewatchable, which is what might not put this quite up with my favourite movies of the last few years, (Inception, Super 8, Hot Fuzz, Cloverfield - all very rewatchable), but I'm looking forward to finding out. Very entertaining stuff.
From the trailers i thought this was going to be a seriously cool movie and whilst enjoyable and watchable, overall i just found it dumb, silly, confusing and very very messy. The end result didn't really make a lot of sense. Too many plotholes and THAT ending. WTF?
I just felt it was trying to be too clever for its own good. Style over substance basically and not enough of it was grounded in reality.
Wouldn't the banks simply have reversed the transfer from Michael Caine's bank account to the audience the next day - and how on earth did they manage to get the bank account details of the entire audience anyway in advance?
How did Ruffalo's character totally change his identity - and get into the FBI. Dont they do background checks?:D
Why did Morgan Freeman try to suggest the French interpol lady was part of the scam?
Why did Ruffalo's character fight so hard to stop the pretty boy horseman from escaping - and nearly risk getting killed trying to extract a piece of paper before the car blew up
What was the significance of the playground attraction at the end - it wasn't an eye?
If the real money was in the car - would they just have returned it to the dodgy people who made the safe. So frame Morgan Freeman - yes he wasn't nice - but let off the company that made the defective safe that caused your dad's death?
And why did the Michael Caine character disappear half way through - he wanted revenge but was never mentioned again?! He sort of reminded me of Lord Sugar!:D
I could list half a dozen more anomalies/oddities - but that will do for now! Still it was bold and brash - and the first 30 minutes was great entertainment!
Iirc...
As for The Eye, I think the writers must've watched The Da Vinci Code one time too many... and the lame attempt at a Usual Suspects style baddie reveal at the end, perhaps the DVD extras / inevitable Extended edition will explain those daft plot devices...
The Eye although was pretty pointless overall to the story, it was supposedly a mythical ancient secret society of magicians and to be accepted into this guild would be the ultimate honour for any magician to be accepted into, so what better way to get four magicians to do what you want to do. In the end it is revealed that this society exists and they have been accepted.
I get it now, thanks. Must have missed that bit. Makes a lot of sense now. Cheers.
Watched it last night and would have to agree. Really poor, too self-consciously "cool" (ie. it wasn't) and over long. Sad as we sort of expected an Ocean's Eleven but with magicians. This was miles away from that.