'Sorcerer's Apprentice' conjures up family fun
If toys, video games, comics and TV cartoon specials can serve as sources for Hollywood action flicks, why not Mickey Mouse?
Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," as "suggested by the animated short" of the same name starring Mickey, might not work any bedazzling magic. Yet the family fantasy that reunites Cage with his "National Treasure" producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub stirs up a pleasant-enough potion whose effects, action and comedy should send parents and children home happy.
They will have to put up with the whine of Baruchel's voice, but the often stodgy Cage, fresh from a couple of deliriously manic performances, has rediscovered his inner goof, hamming it up as a 1,500-year-old sorcerer who can claim Merlin the magician as a mentor.
He's still a bit stiff and self-serious, but then, centuries of futile searching for some chosen kid called the Prime Merlinian will do that to you. The story, developed by a team of five writers from the Mickey Mouse short — part of Walt Disney's 1940 collection "Fantasia" and itself inspired by a Goethe poem — essentially is a variation of the King Arthur Chosen One tale told with wizards.
The effects and action are fine, and Baruchel and Cage forge an engaging student-teacher relationship, while Alfred Molina's dapper villain routine adds some class. Monica Bellucci's role is little more than a walk-on, but Toby Kebbell grabs some laughs as a stagey protégé to Maxim.
Are there big laughs and great action in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"? No, but it's a fairly fun time for families, and Hollywood can — and continually does — build franchises out of far worse concoctions than this.
<B>TITLE: </B>“The Sorcerer's Apprentice”<B>CAST: </B>Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Monica Bellucci, Alfred Molina, Alice Krige<B>DIRECTOR: </B>Jon Turteltaub<B>RATED: </B>PG for fantasy action violence, some rude humor and brief language<B>GRADE: </B>3 STARS (out of 5)
