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Film Review: Now You See Me 2

Film Review: Now You See Me 2

Jesse Eisenberg and company are back in a sequel to the 2013 magician heist thriller, and it’s an even more high-flying lark, a roller-coaster of teases, fake-outs, and jaw-drops.

(Image from LIONSGATE)  “Now You See Me 2” is the kind of sequel that has all but gone out of fashion: a follow-up to a blockbuster so flaky and off-center that even those who made the original probably never expected it to spawn a second chapter. The new film is an even wilder lark—a madly spinning top of a movie, powered by an eagerness to please that somehow comes off as more innocent than calculated. The film knows that it’s playing you, and in almost every scene invites the audience to embrace the fact that it’s being played. It now feels downright retro, and maybe even a little exotic — in a good way — to encounter a sequel that isn’t all about setting up a five-year plan of franchise plot points. “Now You See Me 2” is more like a giddy piece of cheese from the ’80s, a chance to spend two more hours with characters we like, doing variations on the things that made us like them in the first place. The revisit, in this case, is well-earned, and fans of the original — as well as new converts — are likely to turn out in droves.  Read more at:

http://variety.com/2016/music/reviews/now-you-see-me-2-jesse-eisenberg-mark-ruffalo-woody-harrelson-1201785586/

Poverty has many faces but few are as colourful as Kathputli in India – the artists’ colony..

Poverty has many faces but few are as colourful as Kathputli in India – the artists’ colony..

The narrow alleyways teem with creativity – fire-breathers, acrobats, snake charmers, puppeteers and musicians call this slum in West Delhi home.

The thousands of people who live in Kathputli have “art in their blood”, according to local resident, Davinder Bhatt.

“I feel very glad that I was born in this colony, really! We are from the very low community, but I feel very glad,” says the 23-year-old smiling broadly.

Mr Bhatt is a teacher at the performing arts school that sits in the middle of the colony. He was once, he confesses with a cheeky grin, one of the school’s naughtiest pupils. Read more.. (photo SBS News)

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/05/22/magicians-ghetto-indian-slum-under-threat

Penn Jillette on Magicians, Intelligence and Now You See Me 2 ..

Penn Jillette on Magicians, Intelligence and Now You See Me 2 ..

The most famous magician of 21st century America is Harry Houdiniand he’s been dead for almost 100 years. Houdini named himself after Robert-Houdin, the 19th century French magician. Robert-Houdin thought a magician should dress like his audience, not in a conical hat and robes like a wizard or a witch. In 19th century Paris, that meant Robert-Houdin dressed in top hat and tails. Stupid magicians continued to copy his wardrobe long after audiences started wearing jeans—they missed the point.

Robert-Houdin said that a magician was an actor playing the part of a magician. So Jesse Eisenberg, in Now You See Me and Now You See Me 2, is an actor playing the part of an actor playing the part of a magician. Jesse has a harder job than Robert-Houdin, Houdini or me. (I wrote that last sentence just so there would be one sentence on record where I’m included with those two geniuses.)

http://parade.com/478682/pennjillette/penn-jillette-magicians-intelligence-now-you-see-me-2/

Our own Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Las Vegas?..

Our own Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Las Vegas?..

Harry Potter attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry — for free. Now thanks to the Las Vegas-headquartered Institute for Magic Education Inc., students of magic performance will have the same advantage.

The institute is the brainchild of President Dr. Lynn Miner along with magic stars Mac King from Harrah’s and Jeff McBride, founder of the McBride Magic & Mystery School in Henderson.. Read more… 

https://lasvegassun.com/vegasdeluxe/2016/may/16/our-own-hogwarts-school-of-witchcraft-and-wizardry/