Who knows what’s going on in the new genre of brain-drain absurdism? But, more to the point, who cares anyway? I remember liking the first NYSM – not that I could tell you much about the storyline – and I have to admit that I enjoyed this one equally, but again without ever getting a proper handle on it. If the plot is intentionally (?) opaque, I think it must be the helter-skelter style, the clever effects, which are not quite overdone, and the extremely charismatic array of actors involved that make the experience such fun.
Woody Harrelson (nobody’s head is as well suited to a pork-pie hat) and Jesse Eisenberg, who were so good together in the rambunctious Zombieland (2009), play off each other again as McKinney and Atlas, two members of the Four Horsemen, a group of magicians who became cult heroes after pulling off an outrageous Robin Hood-type scam. They have been in hiding for a few years, awaiting their next project.
Jack (Dave Franco) is the weird little guy in the gang and Lula (Lizzy Caplan) is the manic chick in ruby-red lippy who has joined them as a replacement for Australia’s Isla Fisher. Dylan (Mark Ruffalo), an FBI agent meant to be on their trail, is in reality their mentor and guide. Morgan Freeman gets a start as his usual mellifluous god-like figure, but Ruffalo is seeking to take revenge on him for an incident in the movie’s opening flashback. The villains are represented by Michael Caine and Daniel Radcliffe (how strange to see Harry Potter with a beard). A lot of the action is set in Macau, and the Horsemen’s arrival there, after sliding down a tunnel from a rooftop in America, typifies the fab wackiness of everything that happens.
Above all else, what is genuinely irresistible about this, and the original, is its refreshing insistence on not taking itself seriously. If you’re suffering election fatigue (and who isn’t?), Jon M Chu’s film is just the tonic you might be looking for.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
