Pod Insights Pop Culture Happy Hour Now You See Me: Now You Don't About this episode In Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, the magical Four Horsemen – played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher – reunite after almost 10 years to fight a cruel diamond heiress played by Rosamund Pike. You’ve got twists and turns, tricks galore, mysterious benefactors… and, just like in the Fast & Furious movies, a fair bit of talk about family.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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0:21 Stephen Thompson? In the Now You See Me movies, a mysterious team of underground magicians pulls off elaborate heists while also doling out karma, Robin Hood style. But after nine and a half years, are we still following the plot? I'm Stephen Thompson, and today we are talking about Now You See Me, Now You Don't on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.
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1:59 Stephen Thompson? Joining me today is Kristin Meinzler. She co-hosts The Knightly on Hatch Plus. Hey, Kristin.
2:04 Speaker 03 Hey, Stephen. Nice to be back. Now you see me.
2:08 Stephen Thompson? Well, I'm glad that I'm still seeing you. You haven't disappeared from my sight. Also with us is Christina Tucker. She's the co-host of the podcast. Wait, is this a date? Hello, Christina.
2:17 Speaker 04 Hello, Stephen. So thrilled to be here.
2:20 Stephen Thompson? I am thrilled to have you both here. The Now You See Me movies focus on magicians who go by the name The Four Horsemen. They're played by Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, and Woody Harrelson.
2:34 Speaker 05 I want you to think of one of these cards, but don't think of the one you think I want you to think of. Got one?
2:41 Speaker 06 Yeah, I got one.
2:44 Speaker 05 What was your card?
2:45 Speaker 06 Four of hearts.
2:48 Speaker 06 Nice one, professor. I'm impressed. I'm impressed.
2:51 Stephen Thompson? The cast has shifted and expanded since the first movie came out back in 2013. And though it's a complicated story, full of lore, the fundamentals are simple. The Four Horsemen use the art of illusion and spectacle to steal from the rich and give to the needy. Now You See Me, Now You Don't comes out nine and a half years after Now You See Me 2, so it has to do some work to catch people up on the story, especially given that this series has always been more popular overseas than in the US. But the new film reunites much of the original cast while adding another team of magicians with their own agenda. They're played by Justice Smith, Ariana Greenblatt, and Dominic Sessa. In the new film, all these folks team up to fight a cruel diamond heiress played by
3:36 Stephen Thompson? Rosamund Pike. She's even got a MacGuffin handy in the form of a fist-sized diamond everyone is trying to steal. You've got twists and turns, tricks galore, mysterious benefactors, and just like in the Fast and the Furious movies, a fair bit of talk about family. Now You See Me, Now You Don't was directed by Ruben Fleischer, who did Zombie Land and Venom, and it's in theaters now. Christina Tucker, I'm gonna start with you. What did you think of the movie?
4:04 Speaker 04 You know, I had a great time. Did I have a ton of thoughts while I was having said good time? No, not really. But I was just kind of vibing with my guys. We were solving magic. We were doing Robin Hood. I'm having a good time. Sure, I'm not thinking about it too deeply post, but it's a rock and roll in good, close to two hours. Let's go.
4:26 Stephen Thompson? Are you familiar with this series? Did you come into this cold?
4:29 Speaker 04 I am familiar with the series. I did not come cold for like last like 10 years. A bunch of friends and I rent a house on New Year's every year. And like last year, our movies were Now You See Me, one and two for New Year's Day. So those are also just like a perfect New Year's Day movie. Can't recommend enough. And so I was thrilled to join the team again, to meet new friends. And I think the third is better than the second, in my opinion. So we can discuss that further, but those are my thoughts.
4:55 Stephen Thompson? I'm just impressed that I was like, are you familiar with the Now You See Me franchise? Cause it's not really big here. And you're like, oh, well, you know, I have a Now You See Me blog.
5:03 Speaker 04 Yeah.
5:05 Speaker 04 Forgot to wear my Now You See Me merch, but.
5:09 Stephen Thompson? All right. So you came down pro with the caveat, not.
5:13 Speaker 04 It's not deep. It's not a thinker, but I had a good time.
5:16 Stephen Thompson? Nice. How about you, Kristin?
5:17 Speaker 03 You know, I don't need to think to enjoy a movie, but I also need a movie to not try and do everything. And I feel like the biggest fault with this movie is it was trying to be all things to all people. And I don't think it succeeded. It wanted to appeal to young fans by bringing in this new squad of 20 somethings. It wanted to retain old fans by having callbacks to prior characters that some of us maybe don't even remember because it's been 15 years.
5:44 Stephen Thompson? There's a lot of callbacks.
5:45 Speaker 03 Yes. And in trying to make everyone happy, I just think they left the staple characters, especially Dave Franco, flailing around without much to do and making them kind of dumb, actually. Like, oh, these old folks don't know how to unlock doors anymore because they don't do escape rooms like 22 year olds do. I mean, what? What's going on here? So they're trying to make the young audience happy by making the old staple characters dumb now, I guess. I don't want my characters to be dumb. Like I said, I don't need to think that deeply, but I was getting distracted by some of the problems here.
6:20 Stephen Thompson? Oh, so you did have a thought in your head?
6:22 Speaker 04 You had a thought.
6:22 Speaker 03 My thought was, I'm confused and distracted. What's with this character inconsistency? But I will say, I really loved Rosamund Pike in this movie. She is absolutely delicious as our diamond mining magnet. She. Is charismatic. She is evil. Every time she's on screen, it lights up. I really enjoyed her. And I also really enjoyed Justice Smith, too. So, there you go. I didn't hate all the young characters. I just thought they could have been folded in better.
6:49 Stephen Thompson? So, in defense of this movie, I think the older characters, it's not that they're dumb, it's that they're rusty. It's kind of trying to explain away like what these people have been doing for the last decade and mostly they've been like living life. And Dave Franco's character is like working on a cruise ship. I'm not sitting here like, no, no, the plot is airtight.
7:08 Speaker 04 No, I hear what you're saying, though. I did kind of have a similar feeling that it was less about them being like old and dumb and more like, guys, it's time to get your head back in the game. We're calling you back for one last mission. You know, that vibe.
7:19 Speaker 03 Okay, but is your head so out of the game now that you walk into a ginormous 80,000 square foot mansion and 10 feet in, you're like, well, it's a dead end because it's a wall of bookcases? We better leave now. And it's like, nobody is that rusty. Of course, you know that wall of bookcases is a trick door. Come on. Spatial awareness, 80,000 square foot mansion, 100 square foot lobby. What?
7:44 Stephen Thompson? I think fully 40% of the dialogue in this movie is exposition.
7:47 Speaker 03 Yes. There's that too.
7:49 Speaker 04 It's not more, honestly.
7:52 Stephen Thompson? This is not a direct quote, but there's a lot of like, as you know, I deal in card magic, you know?
7:57 Speaker 04 There's so much of that. It honestly feels like they're doing it to make me laugh at it because there's so much like, well, you know, when we created magic, the three of us back in.
8:08 Stephen Thompson? I know you have been reluctant to get back into the game.
8:11 Speaker 03 But then on top of the exposition, there's also all these time wasting things trying to prove that they're magicians. Like, do you guys watch Physical 100 where all of the strong men fight against each other on Netflix? There's all this B-roll on that show where in the locker room, they're like, who can do more sit-ups? Look at me lift heavy things. And I feel like there are entire scenes in this movie that are like Physical 100, except it's card tricks instead. Where you're just filling up time with like.
8:38 Speaker 04 Pumping my fist the whole time. I'm saying, yeah, give me the tricks.
8:42 Stephen Thompson? Show me some magic. I'm a howdy do that. I'm sitting there like, I want to see how they did that.
8:45 Speaker 04 That's a different dress than the one she was wearing before.
8:48 Stephen Thompson? Kristin, I also think it's plausible that a bunch of magicians would sit around kind of backstage showing off.
8:56 Speaker 04 That is what I thought, too.
8:57 Stephen Thompson? And a lot of it is just showing off.
8:59 Speaker 03 Yes, but there's also realistically backstage happening things like going to the bathroom and combing their hair. I don't need to see that either. What I want to see is magic used for the sake of heist, Robin Hood heist. And I want to see those tricks to help our plot move along. I don't need a bunch of side stuff. I don't need an out of nowhere F1 car race. I don't need any of that stuff.
9:22 Speaker 04 I do.
9:23 Speaker 03 I want magic for the people, magic to serve the greater good.
9:26 Speaker 04 Okay, I like that.
9:27 Stephen Thompson? Okay. I think the out of nowhere F1 race, if nothing else, that shows to me how this series, and I think this is very deliberate, is slowly morphing into the Fast and Furious franchise.
9:41 Speaker 04 Yeah.
9:41 Stephen Thompson? Like, it's a larger and larger, kind of more unwieldy team of people who can kind of dip in and out. You know, in the Fast and the Furious movies, you're just wanting to get from action set piece to action set piece. And in this movie, I'm mostly wanting to get from bastards getting their comeuppance to bastards getting their comeuppance. And having that be in the form of magic tricks that they will then kind of Penn and Teller style explain, guys, I have to say, I was totally here for it.
10:11 Speaker 04 Yeah, I'm saying, eating it up with a big ol' spoon.
10:15 Stephen Thompson? And, you know, like, I definitely was curious, kind of going into this film, because I was, you know, doing a little Googling, looking at Wikipedia pages, kind of refreshing my memory, because I don't remember movies like these for two weeks, let alone nine and a half years. But I cannot think of a film franchise that I am most here to revisit on my next cross-country flight.
10:37 Speaker 04 Yeah, they are perfect plane movies.
10:39 Stephen Thompson? They should release these movies directly to airplanes.
10:44 Speaker 04 Yeah.
10:44 Stephen Thompson? Because the sensation that I had, I wasn't necessarily sitting there quibbling with it the way Kristin was. And I wasn't necessarily sitting there with no thoughts in my pretty little head.
10:52 Speaker 04 That's me.
10:56 Stephen Thompson? I was sitting there thinking like, oh my God, I'm halfway to Seattle.
11:00 Speaker 03 Fair.
11:01 Speaker 04 That's fair.
11:01 Speaker 03 Fair. And I'll also say that scientifically, it is proven that all films are 80 to 300% better when you're on a plane.
11:09 Speaker 04 Yeah.
11:09 Speaker 03 That's just a fact.
11:10 Stephen Thompson? Oh, yeah.
11:10 Speaker 03 And so you're right, this is a great airplane movie. If you get up to go to the bathroom, you're not going to miss much.
11:16 Stephen Thompson? You're also not going to have that thing that sometimes trips me up on flights, which is I'm a big crier, just in general.
11:22 Speaker 04 Yeah.
11:23 Stephen Thompson? Really big movie crier and a really, really big crying on an airplane because of whatever's going on with the air.
11:29 Speaker 03 Yes.
11:30 Stephen Thompson? This movie will not make you cry.
11:32 Speaker 03 No.
11:32 Stephen Thompson? This movie is just like, want to see another trick?
11:36 Speaker 04 And like, yes, the answer is always yes, I want to see another trick. And I will say like, having seen the second one semi recently, I guess, my issue with that one was a lot of that is like, maybe magic is real? And this kind of pulled back from that in a way that I thought was like helpful because a lot of the second one kind of just relies on like, what if we could actually do real magic? And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, you can't. Like, we have to have a couple of rules.
12:04 Speaker 03 Let's just stick to stealing things.
12:05 Speaker 04 Yes.
12:06 Speaker 03 Okay, we want to steal.
12:07 Speaker 04 So this felt to me like they had a silly and, you know, filled with characters and exposition it was. There was a part of me that was like, kind of tighten this up from two. Interesting.
12:14 Stephen Thompson? Yeah. I think they do make improvements as they go along. You're totally right. Like, I don't want to be like, maybe this is real because magic is not real. You know what else I want to see and that this film serves up with great Ilan and that in general, I think this series gets right, which is I want to see these people rip off jerks.
12:35 Speaker 03 Yes.
12:35 Stephen Thompson? And the opening set piece of this film, I was sitting here like, this is silly. I don't like this. This is dumb. This script is bad. These people are cheesy. And then all of a sudden they rip off a crypto bro? And I was like, nah. I'm the sickos meme in that moment.
12:56 Stephen Thompson? And so to me, like, this is a film, I think, that understands, like, this stuff is a little silly. These people are a little cheesy. This is kind of goofy, but like ultimately it's just kind of serving up delights and like it knows what I want.
13:11 Speaker 04 Yeah.
13:12 Stephen Thompson? Which is magic set pieces and jerks getting their comeuppance.
13:15 Speaker 04 You know, Stephen, you mentioned how it feels like they're doing Fast and the Furious. It feels to me like they're doing Fast and the Furious meets Ocean's Eleven.
13:21 Stephen Thompson? Totally.
13:22 Speaker 04 And like that to me, like, yeah, we could make 18 of these guys. Like, I'm ready to go. Get me in the writers room. Like, I got ideas. And I just love that, like, every single bit of nonsense plot kind of earns itself in the end. I don't know how successfully, you know, your mileage may vary on the final twist.
13:43 Stephen Thompson? Yeah, Kristen kind of tilted her head when you said that.
13:46 Speaker 04 For me, I was kind of like, we pulled that off.
13:49 Speaker 03 You know what? I will say this, though. I did like the final twist. I did. Yeah, the final twist, I was like, all right, yeah, this is working for me. That was fine.
13:57 Speaker 04 I was like, OK, I didn't entirely see it coming in that way. And I was like, OK, I like this. Like, I had a thought at the end. Listen to that. I had a thought, guys.
14:06 Speaker 03 I liked the twist. I liked our central characters. It's not that I hated this movie. There were a lot of things I liked about it. It was just so sloppy and overstuffed. And at the same time, just like, why do we have all this in here? Why? Please. And everything you two, Christina and Stephen, are saying about the Fast and the Furious, and maybe this is the next Ocean's Eleven, I had the same criticisms of those movies. Why do we need more characters?
14:31 Stephen Thompson? Sure.
14:32 Speaker 03 Am I really being forced to keep track of 32 people now? This is too many people. I can't keep track of this many people.
14:37 Speaker 04 Yeah, I mean, look, we've got seven for now. We're under the 11 maximum, so hopefully we stay here for, if they're gonna do a fourth, now you for me, I don't know what that's gonna be.
14:49 Stephen Thompson? I am glad that Kristen brought up Justice Smith. Because I've kind of discovered, I had a recent rewatch of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which is so great, which I love so much. And Justice Smith is in that, and he's terrific. And I kind of realized, I've experienced this accumulation of movies that this guy has been in. I think, starting with Detective Pikachu.
15:13 Speaker 04 Yeah.
15:14 Stephen Thompson? Speaking of movies. That should have been released directly to airplanes. And I have come to find like, he is somebody I specifically look forward to in movies like this. And when he turns up, I'm like, hey, I like this kid.
15:27 Speaker 04 Yeah.
15:27 Stephen Thompson? This kid's good at what he does. And Dominic Sessa, you know, from The Holdovers. Like, that kid's got serious chops.
15:34 Speaker 04 Yeah, he's got some swag and some chops. And I really think like, Justice for me, I felt like, you know, like a 50s movie executive. I was like, this kid has it. I want him in all the pictures. But he really like commands the space in a way that I was kind of like, this is impressive for this kid who's has been working for feels like forever now.
15:51 Stephen Thompson? For a long time.
15:52 Speaker 04 And I'm kind of just like, yeah, whatever you got of him, get him in all the pictures.
15:55 Stephen Thompson? Yeah, and same with Rosamund Pike. You know, when I came home and my partner was like, oh, well, what'd you think of the movie? And I was kind of describing the plot such as it is. And I was like, well, you know, and Rosamund Pike shows up, she is Nicole Kidman.
16:07 Speaker 03 Oh, I'm sorry. She's better than Nicole Kidman. I don't think Nicole Kidman could have done this role like Rosamund.
16:13 Stephen Thompson? Well, but I'm saying the character would have been played by Nicole Kidman. I don't know, 10 or 15 years ago, and she has stepped in seamlessly.
16:21 Speaker 04 It's like Nicole in Paddington was her vibe. That era, that vibe, Nicole.
16:26 Speaker 03 I can see it and love those Paddington movies.
16:28 Stephen Thompson? Oh, my God, put Rosamund Pike in the next Paddington movie and Justice Smith.
16:31 Speaker 04 Yeah, we're on fire today. We've got ideas.
16:36 Speaker 03 Hollywood, are you listening? Listen to us.
16:38 Stephen Thompson? We're solving problems left and right. We have booked your next cross-country viewing.
16:43 Speaker 04 Yep. Direct to Delta coming soon.
16:48 Stephen Thompson? I had a blast. Am I going to remember it in two weeks? Probably not.
16:51 Speaker 03 Are you going to remember it after this taping? Possibly not.
16:54 Stephen Thompson? Possibly not.
16:54 Speaker 04 I mean, I feel like I'm in a carbon date 2025. I'm like, well, what was that was the year that Now You Three Me came out? Okay, great.
17:01 Stephen Thompson? Did you just say Now You Three Me?
17:02 Speaker 04 That's what I've been calling it because Now You See Me, Col and Now You Don't is way too long to say every single time.
17:08 Stephen Thompson? So what is that colon doing there?
17:10 Speaker 04 Simply just been calling it Now You Three Me because I don't have the time. I'm very busy.
17:16 Stephen Thompson? That's how you know they're not confident that they're going to get to make Now You See Me Four. Because they would have used Now You Three Me and would have saved Now You See Me, Now You Don't for Four.
17:26 Speaker 04 I hate to again, out myself as someone who's like in the Now You See Me community. But I do think Now You Three Me has been a joke that I guess we have been making for some time.
17:36 Stephen Thompson? I'm such a Now You See Me tourist. Oh, I gotta get deeper and deeper into the lore.
17:41 Speaker 04 I have to reflect on my own relationship with these movies after we record. Kind of realizing some stuff right now.
17:48 Stephen Thompson? All right, well, we want to know what you think about Now You See Me, Now You Don't. Find us at facebook.com/PCHH and on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/NPRPopCulture. We'll have a link in our episode description. That brings us to the end of our show. Kristin Meiner, Christina Tucker, thanks so much for being here.
18:07 Speaker 03 Thank you.
18:08 Speaker 04 Thank you.
18:10 Stephen Thompson? And just a reminder that signing up for Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus is a great way to support our show and public radio, and you get to listen to all of our episodes sponsor-free. So please go find out more at plus.npr.org/happyhour or visit the link in our show notes. This episode was produced by Carly Rubin, Caleb Latimore, and Mike Katsif, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello, Cummin provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Stephen Thompson, and we will see you all next time.
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