Review: "Now You See Me" is baffling and illogical and lacks magic

"Now You See Me" PG 13
     Woody Harrelson is playing a magical mind reader, or cold reader actually, in a strange flick about four magicians who are called together to pull off an elaborate series of heists, from Las Vegas to New Orleans to New York. Mark Raffalo is the secret angent sent to figure out how they pull of the Vegas heist. Morgan Freeman plays a cynical ex magician who debunks magic on his TV show and is following the four magicians. Michael Caine plays their benefactor who they later set up in their second heist. Eisenberg is in it also, playing like he is the same type of smart alec character he played in the Facebook movie, but now he is a magician. The 'four horsemen' as they call their act,  want to work for a secret organization known as the Eye which has some odd ties to Egypt where allegedly Robin Hood type magicians robbed from the rich to give to the poor. The first heist involves stealing from a French bank using bait and switch and a fake transporter device. The second involves somehow hacking the bank account of the rich benefactor and forcing all of his money to go to the audience. The third is a double switch where they stage an FBI chase ending in a staged accident, and a large concert like event, all to switch the safes in a secret warehouse somewhere in Manhattan.
     Suffice it to say, this movie is popcorn flare, not to be taken seriously, so just enjoy the visuals and paper thin plot, because the closer you look, the less you will find. The heists couldn't even be pulled off! The magicians seemed to have hypnotized not just guards at banks and money exchanges, but computer firewalls, masses of people, and the audience, into thinking that they could do what they did, print fake millions, or make more, or send them into a different car or a truck, or make up fake mirror rooms that make it look like it's empty when it's not. This is not how magic works, but okay. It's not going to make sense. Hypnotism doesn't do this either. If it did, anyone could make someone hand over their wallet and car keys randomly, send them all their money, and then smile doing it. Right. And the big reveal wass telegraphed from the opening scene. It was only when the writers appeared, our Transformers and Catwoman guys, Kurtzman and Urichi, that the audience echoed the words of PT Barnum. There's a sucker born every minute. Which Freeman says in the movie.

Review by Adam Browne