Customer Reviews

Now You See Him, Now You Don't

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Disney has done an admirable transfer on this movie....something that is sadly lacking on many of its live action features. The picture is beautiful...probably the best I've seen thus far from Disney. (I'm not sure what the other review meant concerning a "fake widescreen", as I found all the original picture information to be there.)

The real negative about this release? NO EXTRAS! Nothing! Not even a trailer. Frankly, this is a movie that begs for explanation of how certain special effects were performed.

But at least I'll give Disney credit on this one for tranferring a picture the right way. Now if they'd only do it for "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes", and other great old movies.

A pleasant little comedy that the entire family can enjoy. Not much violence or sex and absolutely no swearing, makes this a
movie that parents can watch with their children. Mischevious
college students develop an invisibility formula that helps them
to save their cash strapped college. Merely one in a series of
Kurt Russell movies set at Medvale College. A pleasant little
series set in a wholesome America before terrorists, when people
valued integrity more than cash!

To those reviewers who have given this DVD a * rating because it isn't advertised as being in widescreen, rest assured. I have this DVD and I must assure everyone that it IS IN WIDESCREEN, and the DVD transfer print is crisp and technically superior. Believe me, I'm with all of you about Disney blowing it with most new releases, but "Now You See Him, Now You Don't," "Herbie Rides Again," and "Those Calloways" are all available in widescreen, so please buy these up and send a message to the Disney dolts.

As for the film, "Now You See Him..." is the second and best in Disney's college "formula" series starring Kurt Russell as science student Dexter Reilly, the late, great Joe Flynn as hapless Medfield College's hilariously uptight Dean Higgins and the late Cesar Romero (the Joker in the "Batman" TV series) as crooked banker A.J. Arno. In this version, Dexter stumbles (again) into an invisibility formula that Higgins enters into wealthy philanthrophist Forsythe's (the late, great Jim Backus) science contest, whose award money will pay off Medfield's mortgage for another year. Unfortunately, Arno wants the college land to open up a casino, so when he finds out about the formula, he decides to steal it in order to assure the college will go into foreclosure. So, essentially, it's the same plot as the other two films in the series, but the silliness just seems fresher and better paced this time. And the invisibility effects are impressive for the time, although next to "Hollow Man" they're pretty weak (although "Now You See Him..." is ten times better than that horrible Paul Verhoeven botch). Especially engaging is a madcap chase sequence involving an invisible car.

The cast is terrific: Flynn, Romero and Backus give their all to enliven paper-thin characters and Michael McGreevey is memorable as Dexter's dim-witted friend Richard Schuyler. But this is Russell's film the whole way and it's easy to see why he is one of the few former child actors to have a vital and important adult film career: he's charismatic and wonderful in his best-known Disney role, and gives his all to assure a good time is had by all. Special credit also to director Robert Butler and composer Robert F. Brunner, who contributes another of his bouncy '70's Disney scores, which are much more entertaining than a lot of the heavily orchestrated, pretentious (and forgettable) Oscar-winning scores of the era.

"Now You See Him, Now You Don't" isn't representative of the best Disney films, but it is funny and fast-paced and refreshingly free of offensive racial stereotyping, which marred many a Disney film of the time, including the sequel "The Strongest Man in the World." And, finally, one of these films gets a decent DVD treatment, although the other two films in the series, "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" and "Strongest" are only available in tired fullscreen prints.

But at least they got this one right.

Good cheesy Disney 70's live action movie. I grew up watching these so it's nice to see them on DVD finally. The negative is that it's another film dumped on DVD with no extras. Granted, it's probably not worth the time and energy for them to produce an elaborate disc with the works for a film that will not sell near as many copies as their more popular titles, but something as simple as a quick interview with Kurt Russell and others looking back would be nice.

I think Disney needs to start charging half price for these types of releases, like other studios do with their stripped down discs. Nonetheless, the bright side of this one is that it's in Widescreen format.

This is classic Disney at its best, and yes, people, this is in widescreen! Enjoy!

Disney's Dexter Riley, the Medfield college student who repeatedly acquires superpowers by science lab mishaps, is back again in the second film of the original Dexter Riley trilogy, 1972's "Now You See Him, Now You Don't". This time, the tone is even a tad lighter in Disney's first sequel to the family comedy "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" from 1969, but it retains every bit of the Dexter Riley charm that made the first one great. As usual, Medfield needs money and a lucky accident becomes a potential source. That is, if local crook A.J. Arno doesn't get hold of the secret formula to Dexter's new invisibility spray and mess everything up. Kurt Russell stars once again as Dexter Riley, with Cesar Romero back again as the villainous Arno, along with Richard Bakalyan as his nephew/sidekick Cookie, and Joe Flynn as the always hilarious Dean Higgins. Jim Backus also plays a significant role, and Michael McGreevey returns as sidekick Richard Schuyler. Gone are Pete and Annie, the blonde pair who added some seriousness to "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" with their concern for Dexter and his Teen-Wolf like popularity struggles in that film. Instead is added importance to Schuyler's sidekick role and a new female sidekick named Debbie, played by Joyce Menges. Debbie is there with the guys much of the time, but she is unfortunately given little to do besides spraying them with the invisibility spray and looking gorgeous. But she does that well. If you love beautiful females, Debbie is reason enough to get this film. As much as I love the movie itself, I can easily spend the whole time just looking at her; truly my idea of female perfection. But where was I?

The DVD itself is a funny thing. It's the only one of the Dexter Riley trilogy presented in widescreen. However, some have argued that it is a fake widescreen that uses matting over a fullscreen version. I'm not entirely sure this is true, as only a couple of scenes look like they just might be improperly framed, and the rest looks very good indeed. Plus, some reliable sources make no indication that the widescreen is incorrect. Anyway, that issue aside (one that Disney has always had problems with and needs to get up-to-date with), there are no bonus features, which is another Disney problem with much of their live-action catalog, and the menu, well, the menu just looks weird, ha. There's this clearly new image of a T-Shirt with the film's title written on it. Interesting idea rather than using something more directly from the film. Anyway, while the lack of extras is very disappointing and the ratio issue is uncertain, the film still looks great and may be framed correctly, and it is a must own if you are a fan of old Disney live-action, especially from the unique era of the 1970's, definitely Disney's light-comedy decade. And, if you're a Dexter Riley fan, you'll want the whole trilogy, the next film being "The Strongest Man in the World" from 1975. Thankfully, all three have been released to DVD. There is also a made-for-TV remake of Computer Wore Tennis Shoes that starred Kirk Cameron, but this one has never had a release, and there is talk these days that the character of Dexter Riley may make a bigscreen comeback. Here's hoping, though I'd prefer something in the vein of sequels (like Herbie: Fully Loaded and Tron: Legacy) rather than remakes. Son of Dexter Riley? That way, Kurt Russell could play Dexter once again as a dad, and maybe Schuyler could show up too. And maybe Joyce Menges could play Mrs. Riley? Ha, if I had been Dexter, I wouldn't have let Debbie get away, but she sadly didn't appear in "Strongest Man in the World". In the past few years, Dexter was revived in comic form in some issues of the now extinct Disney Adventures magazine (issues which I unfortunately missed, but heard about). Hopefully, there is more Dexter to come in the near future! In the meantime, grab the DVDs of the originals! They are top notch Disney comedy classics!

I really enjoy watching a lot of the old Disney movies. This one is very funny and can be enjoyed by everyone in the family!

With Kurt Russell, Michael McGreevey, Joe Flynn, Cesar Romero and Dick Bakaylan you can't go wrong with these incredible character actors. This is when Disney was great! As far as i'm concerned Disney died after The Rescuers (1978,1979).
Golfers will love this film with greats like Billy Casper
making an appearance.
Have fun and watch the masters at work. I also recommend "The Strongest Man in the World." The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes was the first in the series and it is not worth the watch.

I appreciate the old Disney movies for many reasons--their commitment to family entertainment, their rejection of profanity, vulgarity, sex and graphic violence, their good humor, their often creative ideas, their variety (think of the range of subjects they covered--from natural history and human history to literary classics, slapstick comedy, and international settings. The old Disney studio with their regular studio actors and reliable slate of directors was a treasure. It would be interesting to imagine what they might have accomplished if they had kept Walt's original vision and standards going through to the 21st century. But we'll never know how that might have turned out.

In the meantime, we can still enjoy some of the old titles. "Now You See Him, Now You Don't" is an enjoyable but not always memorable film. But what does stand out is Joe Flynn's performance as Dean Higgins of Medfield College. The scenes of him playing golf are hilarious. In fact, he steals the movie away from the other actors. The entire film is worth watching once, but I could enjoy his golf sequence repeatedly. The movie is three stars in my book, but Joe Flynn is worth five.

LOVED this movie!! Kurt Russell is great as Dexter Riley! :)
Movie for the whole family!!