NOW YOU SEE ME 2    1.8****

          Picking up a year after last year's heist in “Now You See Me”, this sequel finds the 3 remaining members of The Four Horsemen–illusionist J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), hypnotist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) and street magician Jack Wilder (Dave Franco)–laying low and awaiting further instructions from The Eye, the secret society of magicians they've been recruited into. F.B.I. mole/ringleader Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) regroups them  to expose a corrupt businessman planning to launch a device that is claimed to be the "key to hacking every computer system on the planet." Meanwhile, tech mogul Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe) wants the device for himself and bends the will of our rogue tricksters to pull off their toughest stunt yet in exchange for their freedom. Clueless as to his team's whereabouts, Dylan is left with no choice but to ask for the help of Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), a scheming magic debunker who was framed in the first film and who also happens to be plotting his revenge against the horsemen in ways they couldn't expect.

Lizzy Caplan replaces the beautiful Isla Fisher as the 4^th Horseman and the movie is all the more awkward for it. The twin role by Woody Harrelson is at times funny, but ultimately it has no pay off and seems like a useless subplot. Michael Caine reprises his role from the sequel and he seems to be tired and not enjoying himself at all. Daniel Radcliff is severely miscast in his role as the evil villain and comes across as Harry Potter acting like he was a megalomaniac. This role needed a serious creep factor and unfortunately Radcliff fails miserably.                    

Director Jon Chu mistakenly chooses to, showcase  the heists and chases rather  than the magic. Here, the magicians seem to have graduated from being Robin Hoods showering cash to their audiences (1^st film) to being corporate whistleblowers using their illusions for a greater purpose. The convoluted plot  involves more infiltration and theft than can be found in a Mission Impossible film, making the lack of real-life magic more glaring. This shift away from magic as the main theme hurts the film's credibility and betrays the mystery of the magic by using Hollywood special effects and CGI. That being said, there are two kinds of magic tricks here: tricks they don't try to explain and tricks they agonizingly try to explain and you wish they haven't.

Rated PG-13

Clark