K-SCORE: 28
Directors: Louis Leterrier, Jon Chu
Writers: Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Lizzy Caplan, Melanie Laurent
Spoiler Level: Minor
“Please, can someone explain the success of Mark Ruffalo to me?”
Before I had this website, I used to write reviews just for myself in my journal. I was making even less of an attempt to be entertaining than I am now, and far less of an attempt to develop readership. Yet sometimes my old journals prove fruitful resources. Here’s what I wrote about Now You See Me back on September 7th, 2013.
Before bed, Graham, Mom, and I watched Now You See Me, the Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher magic movie. The film has no successful character development, which might have been fine were the plot been well thought out. It isn’t. Like most films with a big twist, at the end you want to know how and why the characters did what they did. There are no answers to those things in Now You See Me. And instead of spending time with the charismatic magician ensemble cast, getting to know them, watching them perform illusions, sleight of hand tricks, escape artistry, and hypnotism in their daily lives, you instead watch Mark Ruffalo flounder around like a moron with a French girl that really does work for Interpol and has about as much personality as a potato. Such a howdydodat. Compelling trailer, bad film.
I watched Now You See Me 2, which tragically isn’t called Now You Don’t, just a few days ago. I’ve decided the review basically still applies completely except it’s no longer an Isla Fisher movie (because she almost drowned filming the first one) and the trailer isn’t compelling. In 2006, Christopher Nolan proved you can make a fantastic film about magicians, despite the obvious barriers to the performance elements of magic. In 2017, Hollywood is still baffled by what he did. I like to think Michael Caine is just laughing his ass off on set of these things.
We have here another good example of The Fast Phenomenon, you know, where they make sequels to films that were terrible to begin with. I’m going to use the Now You See Me franchise as a cry for help. Please, can someone explain the success of Mark Ruffalo to me? What do people see in that guy? We have so many middle-aged white actors. What niche does he fill?