Saturday, July 17, 2010

Movie Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Exactly what it sounds like: lightweight summer fare from Disney, lots of special effects, starting with an ironically pseudo-epic sweep of legendary history.  What makes it fun are the actors: Nicholas Cage does his usual "no really, it's cool and all, but you'd better take this shit seriously" act as the Sorcerer, Jay Baruchel stumbles through as the emotionally scarred Apprentice, and the rest of the cast does their part to keep the sinister action rolling.  But despite all the sinister action, it never gets any heavier than say, Ghostbusters (which it may have cribbed just a little from).  Some of the interactions with non-sorcerer folk inject occasional relief humor to keep things light.  Bonus: enough boy-girl stuff to make it work as a date movie, but it doesn't wallow in it; it's OK to just take the kids or go with friends.  Your ten year old nephew won't go "yuck" too often.
A tad predictable?  Of course!  We know the good guys will win in the end, the bad guys will all be sucked into the Steaming Vortex of Doom or whatever, and the Apprentice will win the girl of his dreams.  This is a Disney movie released in July named The Sorcerer's Apprentice.  What the heck do you expect?  Foreign film angst?
The perfect summer movie: my world view was not rocked, I didn't leave the theater a better man, but I was completely entertained.  Three Stars.

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