China Entertainment 1997

The protagonists of "Now You See Me" performed a total of three large-scale magic tricks in the movie.

The first one is to empty the bank, and the second one is to send the balance of a rich man from a black-hearted insurance company to all the victims who were hacked by this company.

This magic is very simple, and it has been foreshadowed in previous movies. The Four Horsemen pretended to bet with the rich man on the plane, kept telling tricks, and the hypnotist read the mind, and finally got the security question of the rich man's account, that is, the secret.

Knowing the secret, the rich man's account is equivalent to opening the door to the Four Horsemen, who can deal with it at will.

The part about cheating the rich also highlights that the Thieves are doing justice for heaven, robbing the rich and giving to the poor, which consolidates the concept and tone of the entire movie.

After all, if it is just stealing, many countries may not allow the movie to be released, but if it is combined with robbing the rich and giving to the poor, and using evil to fight evil, the review conditions will be much looser and it will not arouse the disgust of the audience.

Also after the second magic trick, the Now You See Me gang and police detective Mark Ruffalo and policewoman Gal Gadot officially began to confront each other.

The former gave the police detective a warning. Previously, when the magician played by Cao Xuan was flirting with the police, he secretly changed his mobile phone to a mobile phone with a locator installed that had all the same information to monitor the other party's movements.

So after the second magic show, they calmly retreated when faced with the arrests of police detectives and policewomen.

But soon, the police detective and the policewoman also discovered the trick of the mobile phone. They used the trick to follow the reverse direction and found out the stronghold of the Four Horsemen.

The FBI immediately launched an arrest operation, and the four knights fled in a hurry. During the arrest, the unlocking king (Captain America) accidentally crashed his car and died in a sea of ​​fire.

However, the police detectives still obtained the information and learned the Four Horsemen's next plan to rob a safe warehouse containing 500 million in cash.

The first two magic tricks made the Four Horsemen famous and made the FBI lose face. No mistakes could be made no matter what.

The police detective immediately took action to protect the safe and arrived at the destination in a very short time. However, it was still a step too late and the warehouse was already empty.

At this time, they discovered a truck pulling a safe and left. They rushed to arrest it and finally forced the truck to stop in a parking lot.

As a result, they found that the person who came to pick up the truck was an old black man, and the truck was not filled with banknotes, but a bunch of balloons.

Faced with the detective's suspicion, the old black man said he was here to help the police.

At this time, the remaining three knights continued to perform the last magic trick. In front of the FBI, they jumped from the tall building, turned into a rain of money, and left calmly again, a perfect curtain call.

The FBI also discovered that the rain of banknotes was not real, and soon found a large amount of banknotes in the old black man's car.

Appearing at the "joint" location, there was dirt in the car. The old black man could not explain himself and was formally arrested.

The old black man insisted that he was framed and said that there was another mastermind behind the Four Horsemen who had been helping them from the side.

The FBI was eager to find a scapegoat and didn't care what the old black man said. Only the police detective was willing to talk to him alone.

The old black man said that he had been thinking about it in prison for the past few days and finally discovered how the Knights stole the banknotes.

After all, the time from when the warehouse was ready to load the truck to when they discovered the Knights' plan and rushed to support them was very short. Even if the Knights could hypnotize the warehouse staff, they would not be able to transfer 500 million banknotes without any trouble. Get away.

The old black man revealed the methods of the Knights and also reversed the previous plot.

First of all, there is really no way for the Knights to get rid of 500 million banknotes in such a short period of time.

So they hypnotized the warehouse employees and then built a huge reflector to make the warehouse empty. In fact, the safe was hidden behind the reflector.

This cover-up method is very risky. If the detective checks carefully, he will easily find flaws.

But they were shocked that the safe was stolen. They subconsciously believed that the safe was not in the warehouse and did not think of checking the warehouse.

On the other hand, he was busy chatting with the hypnotized employees, and his attention was attracted. Then he immediately discovered the escaped truck and hurriedly chased it.

They were led through a series of steps, and no abnormalities in the warehouse were discovered at all.

And when they discovered that the truck was fake, they saw the three knights preparing a magic trick, and everyone's attention was once again attracted.

At this time, the reversal happened again. The unlocking king who had been hiding in the sea of ​​​​fire was not dead at all.

Among the Four Horsemen, there is the escapee, a master of escape magic. It is not difficult to fish people out on a busy road and then cause a car accident and explosion.

As for the corpse, with the skills of the Four Horsemen, it was easy to get one from the morgue.

When the attention of the FBI and the old black man was all attracted to the truck and the Three Knights, the dead unlocking king was "resurrected", came to the empty warehouse, opened the safe, and calmly removed the banknotes inside. And stuffed into the old black man's car.

Perfect crime and frame-up!

The old black man had no evidence to prove his innocence, so he hoped that the only police detective who believed in him would help him clear his suspicions.

At this moment, the biggest twist in the entire movie comes.

The old black man who had been analyzing the case just now suddenly appeared outside the cell and looked at him calmly.

The old man was confused at first, then gradually came to his senses and smiled desperately: "Are you the fifth person?"

The detective was silent, then nodded.

Then the entire theater exploded. Except for a few smart viewers who had some vague guesses, most of the other viewers were stunned by this reversal.

"Fuck!"

"Fuck, Infernal Affairs."

No wonder everyone is making such a fuss, because the one who fought the Four Horsemen most fiercely before was the police detective. He tried every means to arrest the other party and was completely fooled by the lights.

And at this time many mysteries were solved.

For example, why the four horsemen of the apocalypse can exchange for an identical mobile phone? It must have been provided by the police detective.

The FBI's various actions are controlled not only because of the exquisite layout of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but also because the commander is the boss.

As the detective confesses, the camera flashes back and tells the story of all the cause and effect.

It turns out that the detective's father is a magician, and he was a partner with an old black man in his early years. Later, in order to become famous, the old black man became the first one to do the work of revealing secrets, and he attacked his old partner.

Because he was so good at it and basically cleaned up all the work, the detective father could only think of new magic tricks, but he died due to technical errors.

It can be said that the old black man was the murderer who indirectly killed the detective's father.

Not only the revenge for killing his father, but also the revenge for killing his mother.

Because the police detective's father had an accident, the police detective's mother wanted to ask for compensation from the insurance company, but the boss of the insurance company took advantage of the loophole, so that she lost hope and committed suicide.

And this insurance company boss is the rich man who was robbed by the Four Horsemen before and helped the poor, and the bank in Paris that was stolen was not an innocent person, it was the guarantee institution of this rich insurance company.

The police detective's family was ruined. He devoted himself to research for many years and found his friend the magician played by Cao Xuan. The two cooperated to organize the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and launch a revenge plan.

The camera now reaches the very beginning, which is the figure outside the magician's window. He takes off his hood and it is the police detective.

The old black man is in trouble!

The detective thanks the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and resigns to join the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The last scene of the movie is when the policewoman appears on a bridge, and Cao Xuankou goes to tease her. The policewoman angrily expresses that she will bring him to justice next time.

"I look forward to that day coming soon."

Cao Xuan waved his hands and left gracefully. As soon as the policewoman turned around, there was an extra card in his hand. On it was a pattern of Cupid, the God of Love, and the two words "Thank you". The policewoman smiled, put away the card, and left the bridge.

This is the end of the "Now You See Me" movie.

The audience left one after another, and many people were discussing the plot just now, and Liu Tianxian was no exception.

"What does the thank you at the end mean? Is the female police officer also with them?"

"It's not the same group, but I should have noticed something, but didn't interfere, so I thank him."

"Does this mean you're going to make the next one?"

"It's hard to say, but from the plot setting and logic, it is indeed possible to make a second part."

When Liu Tianxian said this, he couldn't help but sigh. Although looking at the scenes and emotional lines, the policewoman is more like the heroine, but the level of brilliance is indeed better than that of Da Mi Mi. The only weakness may be that there are slightly less single scenes and group scenes. More drama.

But this character is really lovable. Whether it's his magic ability, bickering with Cao Xuan brother and sister, or teasing the other two teammates, he gives the audience an excellent impression.

At least Liu Tianxian asked herself, after watching this movie, compared to the policewoman who has more scenes, the character she remembers most is the role of Damimi.

"This is trouble."

Liu Tianxian knows his stuff. It doesn't matter how many scenes there are in a movie. What matters is whether the character is outstanding or not. This is the biggest gain for an actor.

In the movie "Now You See Me", Cao Xuan, the leader of the knights, and the old black man, the villain, should be the most prominent. The role of the police detective was originally quite satisfactory, but the big twist at the end added a lot of highlights.

After these three characters, they should be Damimi and Juan Fu. Considering that Damimi is also a few flowers in the green bush, the ranking is a little ahead of Juan Fu.

A supporting role in a big production is nothing, but it's hard to say if it's a success.

Especially in China, several other actors can't get any credit at all. Leaving aside Cao Xuan, there is Damimi, who is performing well now and is likely to get the benefits of the protagonist as a supporting role.

Liu Tianxian doesn't know which one has the biggest gain between his "Girls We Chased Together in Those Years" and Damimi's "Now You See Me".

But what she could expect was that she had finally accumulated these advantages, and now she was being quickly caught up and wiped out by Damimi.

Now, the only hope is that "Now You See Me" is a success but not a box office hit, with a mediocre box office.

But soon, Liu Tianxian's hope was dashed.

The release dates of "Now You See Me" and "Transformers 3" are staggered. They are almost 20 days apart. They are basically completely offset from the peak period.

The only movies that are comparable to "Now You See Me" are "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and "On the Road 2".

The former is the final chapter of the "Harry Potter" series, which is still somewhat threatening considering its popularity accumulated over the years.

As for "Overheard 2", it is not within the scope of consideration for "Now You See Me".

After all, the box office of the first part of "Overheard" has not exceeded 100 million yuan. Although Principal Gu and Liu Qingwan are gradually becoming representatives of the Mesozoic generation in Hong Kong, their box office appeal is only so much.

At this time, Principal Gu's philanthropy has just started. Well, it's not to the point where everyone owes him a movie ticket.

And if you really want to use this marketing, it would be okay if you touch other people, but you will be humiliating yourself if you face Cao Xuan.

Given Cao Xuan's philanthropic stature, it is estimated that many people still "owe" him several movie theater reservations.

However, Cao Xuan is unwilling to receive similar publicity. To be honest, he doesn't like it very much.

If it can be justified to say that Xingye played this way, many people did watch pirated copies back then. With money, there was nothing wrong with supporting their childhood feelings.

Even so, it aroused the disgust of many people, and it could only be used once. Later, Cheng Long followed suit and was ridiculed.

It's even more ridiculous to use charity as a cover. Let's not talk about whether there is any problem with the donation. Even if it is donated to the school, it is not donated to the audience. Why should people owe you votes?

As for watching movies to support charity, you must know that this movie ticket needs to be divided into many aspects. Even if the producer takes the whole thing, it will only be a little more than 1/3.

In this case, why go through a few more hands? Why not open an account and everyone can donate money directly.

So this thing is very simple. Charity is charity, and movies are movies. Don’t confuse them.

Because of your charity, you gain a lot of popularity, and many people like it and are willing to support it. This is no problem. However, if your morality kidnaps other people, or even rises to a certain height, you have to consider suffering the ensuing backlash.

Therefore, Cao Xuan would not consider using charity as a publicity stunt, nor would he use other off-market tactics such as selling out.

Regardless of whether you lose your share or not, the key is to overdraw your own credit. It may work in a short time, but if you suffer a loss, it will be more difficult to get support next time.

However, as of 2011, "Overheard 2" is indeed a good drama, but due to its size and appeal, it is destined to survive between two blockbusters.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" was released in the first few days, with a box office of nearly 40 million on the first day and a little over 200 million in the first week. The figures are quite good.

However, this movie was quite popular with fans, and after its initial box office success, it crashed badly.

The box office in the first three days was nearly 140 million, with an average box office of 46 million per day. On the fourth and fifth days, the average box office dropped to 25 million in a single day, which was cut in half.

On the seventh day, the box office dropped to 14 million. Of course, this was due to working days, but the trend can hardly be said to be normal.

But even if the trend of this movie is normal, it is probably no match for "Now You See Me".

Because the latter's box office performance was so violent.

Putting aside the previous on-demand and zero-point screenings, the box office on the day of the premiere plus pre-sales totaled 114 million.

Not only did it set a new first-day box office record, it was also the second movie after "Transformers 3" to have a box office of over 100 million in a single day.

The box office fell back to about 70 million, then 50 million, and finally stabilized at 40 million. Although it slowly declined, the trend was still normal and it would pick up again on the weekend.

In the end, "Now You See Me" had a box office of 380 million. Although it was not as good as "Transformers 3" which exceeded 400 million, it was still very impressive.

Although the reputation is not as good as many classic movies, it is pretty good among commercial blockbusters. It scored 7.5 on Time.com and netizens also gave it some objective evaluations.

[A rare and exciting film that cleverly combines magic, crime, and plot development. It is very exciting to watch]

[Bright rhythm, almost no peeing spots, constant climax reversal, I personally give it 8.5 points]

[Thieves also have a way, a very good idea, the magic is very exciting]

[Although some of the magic tricks are a bit outrageous, I also watched Cao Xuan’s interviews beforehand. Considering that it is a film and television creation after all, it is understandable]

[The last reversal made me confused, I really didn’t expect it]

[It is recommended to watch it in theaters, do not read movie reviews, as it may lead to spoilers]

[The Knights of the Apocalypse are so handsome, with beautiful men and beautiful women, and temperament. They appear together with the BGM, which is particularly touching]

[The plot and magic are well combined. Although there are some flaws in some parts, as long as you are not particularly demanding about the film, you can watch it]

[Cao Xuan is so naughty and handsome, the playboy magic thief vs. the capable policewoman, I love this CP]

[Isn’t anyone praising Yang Mi? It’s not a vase. What happened this year? Xianmi is about to take off]

[Indeed, I thought it was her who carried Cao Xuan's thigh and went around Hollywood, but I didn't expect that her performance was pretty good, not inferior to the other leading actors]

[I am Da Mi Mi’s body pink, so beautiful and big]

[As a fan of Deyun, when I see the fate of the old black man, I really want to curse him and let you work hard]

[If you watch it without thinking, it's not bad, but I still hope that Cao Xuan will make more in-depth movies like "New World" and "Let the Bullets Fly". Making these entertainment movies is such a waste]

[For a standard commercial film, I am more optimistic about its box office, at least 600 million+]

【……】

Generally speaking, the reputation is not very good, and it is not comparable to those classic movies, but it is still well received and a box office hit.

Not only in the mainland, but also in North America, and the reputation is even better.

After all, Cao Xuan is the number one Chinese actor, and even the number one star in a movie with a zero bad rate. Many viewers have very high demands on him, even to the point of being harsh.

If you want to wear its crown, you must bear its weight!

Cao Xuan can earn hundreds of millions in box office and receive countless attention just by virtue of his name, so naturally he has to face doubled criticism and scrutiny.

For the same movie, other actors might get 80 or 90 points, but he might get a pass or an above-average score. If the quality is slightly worse, Cao Xuan is useless.

To be honest, Cao Xuan would not be able to withstand such a huge pressure if his peers set him off well.

In North America, Cao Xuan's box office appeal is small, and the expectation threshold is naturally lower than in the mainland.

The reputation of "Now You See Me" in mainland China is barely above average, while in North America, the number of positive reviews has increased significantly, with an IMDb score of 7.3.

It is relatively high among several summer movies, such as "Captain America" ​​with a score of only 6.9, "The Hangover 2" with a score of 6.4, "Thor" with a score of 7.0, and "Transformers 3" with a score of 6.2.

On the other hand, the direct competitor "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" has a score of 8.2. Not only did its score reach an all-time high during the summer, it also had a dominant performance at the box office.

The box office in the first weekend was US$170 million, and the box office in the first week was close to US$220 million, which is ridiculously strong.

And "Now You See Me", which was suppressing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in mainland China, came to North America, and the situation was completely reversed. I turned around and was beaten by others.

The first weekend's box office was only US$36 million. Counting the remaining four days, the total box office for the whole week was US$54 million.

The gap between the two sides is almost four times!

But again, the "Harry Potter" series has fans, both in China and in North America.

Although the stamina is stronger than that in China, the downward trend is still stronger than that of "Now You See Me", and the gap is getting smaller little by little, at least not as exaggerated as four times.

Although "Now Now" was beaten by "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", it still firmly occupied the second position compared to the same period.

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes," "Cowboys and Aliens" and "Crazy, Stupid, Love" are all firmly held down.

According to estimates given by North American theaters, the North American box office of "Now You See Me" is expected to be between 160 million and 200 million US dollars.

This data can even compete for the top ten in North America's annual box office list...