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The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Stars: Nicholas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Toby Kebbell, Monica Bellucci and Alice Krige Director: Jon Turteltaub Scriptwriters: Matt Lopez, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard Composer: Trevor Rabin Cinematography: Bojan Bazelli Walt Disney Studios Rating: PG for fantasy violence Running Length: 105 minutes Nicholas Cage must like costume drama. Earlier this year, he had The Sign of the Witch and now he is the master wizard Balthazar Blake in an updated version of the story of a sorcerer/wizard’s apprentice who loses control. Jay Baruchel is the hapless apprentice and the delicious villain is Alfred Molina, complete with bugs from “The Mummy.” Fans of Disney’s “Fantasia” will remember the Paul Dukas music as background to a Mickey Mouse sorcerer’s apprentice who uses a broom to carry water and ends up in a flood. Stay tuned, homage to that is in the film. The story has two battles going on between good and evil. One is between the evil Morgana (Alice Krige) and the good Veronica (Monica Bellucci) and the other between the good Blake (Cage) and the evil Horvath (Molina). Morgana and Veronica end up imprisoned in a special vase that Horvath wants to unleash Morgana’s evil power and Blake wants because he loves Veronica. In the meantime, Blake is hunting for the “Prime” with all-powerful wizard power and finds him in today’s world as Dave (Baruchel) a nerd who is severely interested in Tesla coils and all things electrical, even to having a basement lab that resembles Batman’s lair. Most of the fun is in Blake trying to teach Dave the tricks of the trade while Molina, who is accidentally let loose from his imprisonment, gathers his rock star student, Drake (Toby Kebbell who steals his scenes) and goes to work trying to best Blake. The vase containing Veronica and Morgana goes back and forth and if this weren’t enough, we meet Becky (Teresa Palmer) Dave’s girlfriend who likes him because he is “different.” Little does she know. Of course, world domination is at stake as when metal statues come to life (the Wall Street bull for one) and the one-liners are hilarious. This is a sharp script, even if plot coherency is thrown out the window. As far as acting goes, Cage has so much hair flying around his head it is hard to catch his facial expression. Molina on the other hand, makes the most of eye-rolling. Jay Baruchel is a hapless apprentice who manages to do the same thing with water as in the “Fantasia” film. It is a neat remembrance. We don’t see much of Monica Bellucci or Alice Krige and Teresa Palmer does nicely as the girlfriend who goes on leaps of faith. As in “The Last Airbender” there are plenty of hand motions when doing magic things and the car that Blake thinks of as a long lost friend, would give the Batmobile a run for its money. Special effects and fight scenes are well done. All in all, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice offers entertainment and that's what it is all about. The actors seem to be enjoying themselves, the one-liners are tossed off for the audience to latch on to and rock stars are still made fun of. Stay tuned for the finale. If the progress of the film kind of looks familiar, the producer is Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turtletaub who did the National Treasure films, also starring Nicholas Cage. Copyright 2010 Marie Asner
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