NOW YOU SEE ME : NOW YOU DON'T : Tuesday 25th November 2025

I saw the M Rated 'NOW YOU SEE ME : NOW YOU DON'T' earlier this week, and this American heist film is Directed by Ruben Fleischer, and is the sequel to 2016's 'Now You See Me 2' which was Directed by Jon M. Chu and is the third instalment in the 'Now You See Me' film franchise. Those first two films in the series grossed worldwide US$687M off the back of combined production budgets of US$165M. Ruben Fleischer's prior feature film output takes in his 2009 debut with 'Zombieland' which he would follow up with the likes of 'Gangster Squad' in 2013, 'Venom' in 2018, 'Zombieland : Double Tap' in 2019, 'Venom : Let There Be Carnage' in 2021 and 'Uncharted' in 2022. The film was released here in Australia and the US on 13th and 14th of this month respectively, has so far grossed US$150M off the back of a US$90M production budget and has generated mixed critical reviews. It has been reported that a fourth film is already in development, and is set to be Directed by a returning Ruben Fleischer.  

Set some ten years after the events of the second film, a trio of young magicians - Charlie (Jutice Smith), Bosco LeRoy (Dominic Sessa), and June Rouclere (Ariana Greenblatt) put on a fake Four Horsemen magic show via deepfakes and holograms, where they drain the mobile phone wallets of the corrupt owners of a cryptocurrency exchange and distribute the stolen funds among the attendees. After the show when they have decamped back to their secret loft apartment, they are unexpectedly approached by J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), one of the original Horsemen. He recruits them in a plot apparently given to him by the Eye, the secret magic society, via a tarot card. Their mission, simply to steal 'the Heart', the largest diamond in the world. The diamond is in the possession of Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), the ruthless head of a South African diamond company started by her father, a former Nazi who uses the business to launder money for war criminals. Soon after, while preparing for a private viewing and auction of the diamond in Antwerp, Veronika receives a phone call from an unknown man using a voice changer, who threatens to expose her company's illegal activities if she does not give him the diamond. Needless to say she brushes him off but is nonetheless left a little rattled.

At that private party in Antwerp, Daniel and the three recently recruited young magicians execute the heist through a combination of disguises, switching props, and misdirection to seize the diamond from Veronika. Her security and Police fail to pursue them as Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), and Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), the remaining members of the original Four Horsemen, arrive to assist them in evading capture by the local Police and Veronika's own security team. Having escaped capture by exiting from the roof via a zip line down to a waiting boat, the other three Horsemen explain that they have also received messages on tarot cards from the Eye. The Horsemen later reveal that a heist had gone wrong that resulted in their leader, Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), being arrested and held in a Russian prison, resulting in the group's split and subsequent disappearance until now.

The group travels on to an estate owned by the Eye in France, where they meet Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), the former grandmaster of the Eye, who also received a card telling him to assist the Horsemen. Thaddeus says that Veronika's secrets were hidden within the estate and implores them to find it. The Police, who are on Veronika's payroll, arrive to raid the estate, forcing the group to split up and use the illusory rooms within the estate to disorient and take down the Police. Charlie and Bosco manage to find a set of seemingly secret documents exposing Veronika's client list and her company's illegal activities, and escape with Daniel and Henley, while Merritt, Jack, and June are captured by the Police. While trying to escape, Thaddeus is fatally shot and dies inside the escape tunnel with Charlie, Bosco, Daniel and Henley bidding him a tearful farewell before fleeing the scene.

Inside the local Police station, Veronika questions Merritt, who turns the tables and rattles her by deducing that, after her father's affair with their housekeeper resulted in her mother's suicide, Veronika planned the murder of her housekeeper and half-brother. Lula May (Lizzy Caplan), another Horseman, arrives heavily disguised and helps Jack and June escape, but Merritt is recaptured. The group, now reunited, begins planning to rescue Merritt, as Veronika receives another phone call from the unknown man, pressuring her to retrieve the diamond.

Veronika and the Horsemen agree to arrange a meet in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marina Circuit, where a party is being held for the Formula 1 team Veronika owns. During the swap - the Heart Diamond in exchange for Merritt, Bosco and Charlie create a distraction by stealing the F1 car on display at the party and driving off, starting a Police chase. Meanwhile, having swapped Merritt for the diamond, Veronika traps the Horsemen in a completely sealed glass cube. Veronika reveals her plans to bury them alive as sand fills up the cube. Veronika leaves with the diamond and arranges to meet with the unknown man in her vault, located out in the depths of the desert. The Horsemen manage to escape by breaking a water pipe directly above the cube and flooding it, and using Henley's diamond ring to ultimately shatter the glass. 

Veronika arrives at her vault and takes a gun from a guard. Upon entering, she learns that the unknown caller is Charlie, who is actually Veronika's long-lost half-brother, and that his mother saved him from the drowning orchestrated by her some fifteen years ago. A tearful Veronika apologises and hands Charlie the diamond, then walks away a few paces, turns and shoots him. As Charlie lays on the ground seemingly dead, she motions to take the diamond, but as she does so, Charlie moves, rises to his feet uninjured, revealing a bullet caught in his teeth. Veronika attempts to shoot again, only to discover that she was firing blanks. The vault walls open, revealing that Veronika is actually on the Horsemen stage with a live audience back at the Yas Marina Circuit. It is revealed that the car Veronika got in was driven by Charlie, the security guard whom she took the gun from was Bosco, the car went into the rear of a truck driven by June, and that the elevator ride in the vault was actually the Horsemen rolling a box onto the stage. 

Charlie tells the gathered audience that he in fact orchestrated and planned every aspect of the heist, including bringing the Horsemen together in the first place. He also admits that he created every clue to exact revenge on Veronika, ultimately leading to her arrest. Charlie tells the crowd that every client of the Vanderberg company involved in its illegal activities will be arrested, and that the proceeds of the diamond mining and the Heart itself will be given back to the people of South Africa. Some time later, the Horsemen gather at Charlie, June, and Bosco's hideout. A package arrives at the door containing a hologram of Dylan, having faked his imprisonment, who officially inducts Charlie, Bosco, and June to the Eye, and tells the group that there is more to be done. 

You really have to go in to this film having suspended all belief in the magicians art, and by that I mean the ability to pull of such intricate heists, misdirections, and illusions in just a matter of a couple of days as is the case here, in what would otherwise take months for any other self respecting magician to pull off with such aplomb. And, who's funding these guys that they can afford to pull of these amazing feats, and travel from France to the UAE in a private Lear Jet. That said, 'Now You See Me : Now You Don't' is an enjoyable and entertaining enough romp back into the world of the Four Horsemen, that is made memorable by the strong cast, in which it is good to see three new young fresh faces join The Horsemen so paving the way for more of them in instalment #4. However, the film is let down by the heavy reliance on CGI spectacle, and a silly and convoluted plot that has so much going on on screen that you need to really lean into it to keep track. You can leave your brain at the front door of your local cinema, and just go along for the ride and be entertained for a couple of hours.

'Now You See Me : Now You Don't' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS : HONOUR AMONG THIEVES - Tuesday 4th April 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'DUNGEONS & DRAGONS : HONOUR AMONG THIEVES' this week, and this American fantasy heist action comedy film is Directed and Co-Written by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, based on the tabletop role-playing game 'Dungeons & Dragons'. This film bears no connection to the original trilogy of films that launched with the feature film 'Dungeons & Dragons' in 2000, then the made for TV 'Dungeons & Dragons : Wrath of the Dragon God' in 2005 and the direct to video third film 'Dungeons & Dragons 3 : The Book of Vile Darkness' in 2012. The film was originally set to be released on 23rd July 2021 but due to scheduling conflicts, the COVID-19 pandemic, and various other studio delays a release date of two weeks ago in the US and last week in Australia was finally set upon, having seen its World Premier screening at SXSW earlier in March. It has garnered positive critical reviews, and cost US$150M to produce, and has so far grossed US$83M in Box Office receipts.

The film opens up in Revel's End arctic prison where Bard Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine) and his barbarian accomplice Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez) have been holed up for the past two years. Edgin stands before a panel of three judges explaining his back story and the reasons why he and Holga should be pardoned for their past crimes and released. Edgin spent years as a member of the Harpers, an order of peacekeepers, until a Red Wizard he had antagonised killed his wife. Accompanied by Holga, Edgin attempted to make a new life for himself and his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) by turning to theft, teaming with amateur sorcerer Simon Aumar (Justice Smith) and rogue Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant), along with the latter's mysterious acquaintance, Sofina (Daisy Head). While robbing a Harper stronghold, Edgin attempted to steal a 'Tablet of Reawakening' to bring his wife back to life, but he and Holga were captured, while their accomplices escaped with the Tablet.

We then come back to Edgin's plea for release, as he and Holga manage to escape from the prison by clinging onto a human sized bird, Chancellor Jarnathan (Clayton Grover), as he smashes through a window high up in the prison tower and glides the pair some distance away to safety as Chancellor Anderton (Nicholas Blane) cries after them that he had approved their release. And so the pair escape to Neverwinter and learn that Forge has become Lord there, after its prior Lord was stricken down by some mysterious illness. Forge has been taking care of Kira during the last two years, and has convinced her that Edgin's greed and selfishness led to his imprisonment. Sofina is revealed to be a Red Wizard, and she and Forge deliberately orchestrated the capture of Edgin and Holga.

Sofina tries, unsuccessfully, to dispense with Edgin and Holga, but they escape and decide to rob Forge's vault and bring Kira home with them during the upcoming High Sun Games at the stadium, needing the Tablet to prove their innocence. The gladiatorial games had previously been banned, but Forge resurrected them, promising the locals that the games would bring in tourists and money, and it's what the people want anyhow. Edgin and Holga track down Simon to help and he suggests also recruiting Doric (Sophia Lillis), a druid, whose forest community is battling against the forced logging handed down by Forge.

Doric gains access to Forge's castle by shapeshifting into various animal forms and finds the vault has magical defences which Simon says he lacks power to disable. Simon suggests that a magic relic, 'The Helm of Disjunction' could disable them. They travel to an old graveyard to ask Holga's ancestors where to find it. Simon resurrects the dead with a talisman long enough for them to answer five questions, with the corpses revealing they gave the Helm to Xenk Yandar (Rege-Jean Page), a paladin who fled his country, Thay, when Red Wizards turned his people into an army of the undead.

After getting to know each other Xenk, forces Edgin to swear to distribute any gained treasures to the people, leads the group through a vast subterranean network of tunnels and caverns known as the Underdark where the Helm has been secretly stashed away. With the help of a teleportation staff obtained from Holga's halfling ex-husband Marlamin (Bradley Cooper), they find the relic, but are attacked by Thayan assassins ordered by Sofina. Xenk fights off the assassins and helps the group escape from an overweight and less than agile red dragon, before exiting.

Simon is unable to master the Helm's power, so they decide to use the teleportation staff to enter the vault during the games. Simon and Holga are able to enter the magically-sealed door after Simon is able to master the Helm's power, but find the room behind it empty except for a magical trap. The whole group is captured and instead of death on the spot choose to participate in the games, but are able to escape after successfully negotiating several challenges and obstacles. Doric discovers that Forge has loaded the treasure onto a boat and is preparing to flee, so the group steals the boat for themselves and rescues Kira from Forge, who threatened Kira's life.

About a mile out to sea, the group realise that Sofina organised the games to draw a massive crowd and turn them into an army of the undead using the same curse that destroyed Thay. The group returns and transports Forge's stolen riches out of the boat with the teleportation staff and scatters them across the city, as Edgin had promised Xenk, so drawing the people out of the stadium before Sofina's spell can take effect.

Angered by her defeat, Sofina attacks the group, but Simon is able to master his magic and reverse Sofina's time-stop spell, allowing Kira to use an invisibility pendant Edgin and Holga had given her as a child to place an anti-magic bracelet on Sofina. Sofina is subsequently killed when attacked by Doric in her shapeshifting owlbear form and is then crushed by falling rubble from a building she was slammed into. However, Holga is fatally injured in the battle and dies in Kira's arms with Edgin looking on. Edgin uses the Tablet (which can only be used once) to bring her back to life, as he accepts that he wanted to bring back his wife only for his own sake while Holga had become a true part of their family. Now fully recovered from his mystery illness, the old Lord of Neverwinter declares the team heroes of the realm and Forge is sent to Revel's End, where he is seen one year into his sentence pleading with the Chancellor's for his early release, which they reject. 

'Dungeons & Dragons : Honour Among Thieves' is an OK movie, but that's as far as I would go with my praise for this fantasy action comedy offering. I didn't love it and I also didn't hate it either. It's a very simple story that unfolds well enough, but it's also quite silly in places and at times it meanders along at a snails pace before lurching into the next action set piece with barely any real impact on the storyline other than padding. Chris Pine is on good form here as the charming happy-go-lucky bard Edgin; as is Michelle Rodriquez as the type cast tough-as-nails ass-kicking heroine; with more than admirable turns from Justice Smith, Rege-Jean Page, Sophie Lillis and Hugh Grant to round out the principle cast and who all bring a not too serious light hearted tone to the picture, although I'm not sure I would rush out to see further instalments should this become a franchise.

'Dungeons & Dragons : Honour Among Thieves' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-