It’s been a year since we last saw our band of illusionists – actually, come to think of it, what did happen in the first film? There was so much sleight-of-hand I myself forget what was real. All we really need know is the situation: four or five (depending on how you count) freakishly good magicians, calling themselves “The Horsemen”, are modern-day Robin Hoods, committing crimes for a good cause. In this next chapter of the story they face both exposure and entanglement with corporate crime, and must once again magic their way in and out of trouble with a series of tricks that are immense fun to watch, and are occasionally even explained.

The sequel has certainly gone all out with its incidental cast: Morgan Freeman returns as the – well, I can’t really say exactly what he is; Daniel Radcliffe is very amusing doing light, casual villainy; and what do you know, here’s Michael Caine, large as life, more or less pulled out of a hat. The main cast is the same except that the female Horseman has been replaced: previously Isla Fisher, it’s now Lizzy Caplan; I was sorry to see the former go, but found myself warming to the latter more.

There’s no doubt these films are utterly preposterous, but that doesn’t mean they’re not also clever, something I don’t think they’re given enough credit for being. I particularly liked a longish voiceover that we hear at the start, which is repeated word-for-word at the end – only this time, we realise it means something completely different.