17 Awesome Movie Concepts That Were Totally Botched

15. Now You See Me

The Pitch: A team of illusionists pull off daring bank heists with mind-bogglingly epic sleights of hand, with the authorities hot on their heels at every turn.

What Happened?: The cast does fine work here, but the main problem with Now You See Me is that it won't fully commit to the absurdity of its concept.

The film would've been so much more fun if it treated magic as real, and the heists weren't purporting to be "realistic", but instead allowed director Louis Leterrier to bombard the audience with stylish trickery that didn't need some rooting in our own world.

The most complained-about aspect by far, though, is the wildly unnecessary, totally unconvincing twist ending, the exclusion of which would've immediately improved the film considerably.

If it chilled out trying to constantly out-think the audience and just focused on a charming cast performing insane feats of death-defying action, it would've been a much smoother ride.