Review: 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't' revives the magician franchise with a fizzy and fun heist caper.

The magician heist movie “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” — the third in the series that started back in 2013 — is nearly as smart as it thinks it is, which is considerable, and delivers a fair amount of fun.

Director Ruben Fleischer starts fast, with a declaration that the original Four Horsemen, the magician supergroup from the earlier films, are reuniting for an underground magic show in New York. And sure enough, he shows illusionist J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), mentalist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), sleight-of-hand expert Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and escape artist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), on stage together.

The trick, which as in the past installments revolves around stealing ill-gotten cash from some white-collar crook, turns out to be an illusion in itself — because the Four Horsemen were never there. Instead, three young magicians have borrowed the old crew’s identity for the big trick: Bosco (Dominic Sessa), the frontman; June (Ariana Greenblatt), the pickpocket; and Charlie (Justice Smith), the behind-the-scenes mastermind.

Back at their secret lair, the three youngsters discover that Atlas himself has found them — and, after threatening them with copyright infringement, gets to business. Atlas has been summoned by The Eye, the mysterious organization that orchestrated the events of the previous movies, to recruit these kids. The target is Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), a ruthless South African diamond tycoon who’s planning to display her prize, a massive diamond called The Heart, to buyers in Antwerp.

Pulling off that trick is pretty cool, but escaping takes some help — in the form of the reunited Merritt, Henley and Jack, who apparently all received the same summons that Atlas did. During this sequence, Fleischer (who directed Eisenberg in two “Zombieland” movies and “30 Minutes or Less”) employs a well-worn trick of his own, by replaying the previous few minutes from angles that show how they did it.

By now, the two groups of magicians have joined forces, and take off for a series of action sequences that hop from France to Abu Dhabi — and reunite them with more figures from the previous films. (No spoilers from me, because seeing them is part of the fun.) 

The script is credited to five different writers, so it’s a bit of a surprise how well the story all holds together in the watching. One might wish for another run through the dialogue to polish the snarky banter, particularly between Eisenberg’s Atlas and Sessa’s Bosco — two sides of the same “smartest person in the room” coin.

Fleischer generates the most pleasure when playing with the mechanics of magic and illusion. There’s an extended sequence in a French chateau where the seven magicians are just messing around, trying to impress each other with their card manipulation and other gags. There’s a joy in those minutes that a less confident director would have cut because they don’t move the plot, instead of realizing that this is where the fun is.

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‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’

★★★

Opens Friday, November 14, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for some strong language, violence and suggestive references. Running time: 112 minutes.