A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Date Viewed: 7/20/10

Details:

Nicolas Cage

Jay Baruchel

Alfred Molina

Teresa Palmer

Toby Kebbell

Monica Bellucci

Director: Jon Turteltaub

Score: +

The Review: Check your brain at the door and have an enjoyable time.

You knew it had to happen, considering that the entire concept for this movie seems to have arisen from the snippet of Paul Dukas music played in the eponymous Disney animated segment inFantasia.So you're waiting for the scene -- and in the best sense of plot timing, it comes at the worst possible moment. Clever, funny, well-done -- now we can get on with the rest of the movie.

...which is an excuse for Nicolas Cage to have fun. He's apparently one of three sorcerers who originally trained together under Merlin, but each of whom have traveled very different paths in the centuries since. One may be dead, but the other is certainly still kicking, and the antagonist of the movie -- played quite broadly by Molina.

The nebbish in the works is Dave (Baruchel), a local New York geek whom we see both as a young grade school student and then later as a college physics freshman. He's recruited by Balthazar because of multiple omens -- omens that Dave may be the most intriguing and powerful wizard since Merlin himself. But you cannot see this potential in a bumbling, reluctant student -- until the finale.

The symmetry in side-kicks is balanced, tenuously, by Kebbell -- possibly a dark wizard -- but with both an rampantly unchecked ego and a strange career as a stage magician. You get the feeling the character was brought in only as a red herring, but his over-the-top role gets a lot of groans.

There's nothing serious about this movie, so simply sit back and enjoy.

(25-Jul-10)

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