(From IMDb.com)

The Four Horseman are back, sort of, to tease the world with their powers and make things right as rain.

Of course, as audiences discovered, mostly to their delight in the 2013 illusion-meets-magic-turns-into-caper eyebrow-lifter Now You See Me, don’t be so certain that what you believe one moment will be remotely close to what you think the next.

So right near the start of the sequel directed by Jon M. Chu and co-written by Ed Solomon and Peter Chiarelli, we discover that actress Isla Fisher decided not to come back as Henley. So the male Horsemen are joined by a character played quite joyfully by Lizzy Caplan. We meet her when she breaks into J. Daniel Atlas’ apartment and loses her head, talking away like the trickster she is. This allows Jesse Eisenberg to show how Atlas has grown more confident since the Horsemen have gone into hiding. This woman’s name is quite appropriately Lula.

And so it goes with Woody Harrelson again using his hypnotic powers as sardonic Merritt McKinney, Dave Franco impishly displaying sleight of hand as Jack Wilder, and Mark Ruffalo tying them all together as two-faced FBI agent Dylan Rhodes. Morgan Freeman is back as the jailed framee from Movie One, and for the foils we have Daniel Radcliffe as a bad boy tycoon, paired with mentor/illegitimate dad played by Michael Caine and another hypnotist master also played by Harrelson. A long- and happily-lost twin. Yeah, twists.

The gang is always ready. Or not. (From IMDb.com)

So for 129 rolling minutes, my dear wife Karen and I sat in the living room of A Bitty Better and watched the Blu-Ray on our flat screen as they all attempt to pull things over each others eyes. And ours, of course. Trying to figure out who’s who and what’s what is always the fun in magic and illusion shows, after all. Add in the mystery portion of this plot stew – they jump into a tube after their show is thwarted stateside and wake up in China – and you’ve got a head-scratcher of the tallest order.

If you like these sort of things.

I do. And did.

Are you a fan of magic and illusion, and why? Who is your favorite magician/illusionist, and why? Which of this batch is your favorite actor, and why?