This New Morgan Freeman Movie Is a Sleeper Hit (One I Highly Recommend Seeing)

I didn’t know what to expect heading into my showing of Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. But now that the film has raked in a whopping $21.3 million this weekend and overtaken The Running Man at the box office, it's clear that the latest Now You See Me installment is a sleeper hit.

Timeline-wise, it’s been nine years since the second film of the franchise, Now You See Me 2, came out, and things have gotten a bit of a revamp. The focus is now on three new young magicians—June (Ariana Greenblatt), Charlie (Justice Smith) and Bosco (Dominic Sessa)—who are inspired by their predecessors, aka the Four Horsemen, to steal from wealthy and powerful individuals who use their resources for…not-so-great things. This new group is certainly an innovative bunch. (For example, they use holograms of the horsemen to steal money from cryptocurrency swindlers.) While brilliant, their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed, catching the attention of J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), who randomly shows up at their warehouse flat one day.

Atlas makes it clear not just that he’s been on to them, but that he knows everything about them. This leads to the trio being invited to join Atlas in his quest to make Veronika Vanderberg, a South African diamond seller, their next target by stealing…the Heart Diamond, which is worth half a billion dollars. From here, the globe-trotting action never stops, and I was thoroughly entertained throughout.

Make no mistake, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is nothing short of ridiculous, but that's exactly what makes it entertaining, as there is never a dull moment. This third installment also pays homage to its two predecessors nicely, taking the best elements of both to become a solid film that carries its own weight.