The Sorcerer's Apprentice

July 18, 2010 - Nicolas Cage has more than a few tricks up his sleeve in this live-action adaptation of an episode in the 1940 Disney classic Fantasia. Jay Baruchel is the apprentice. Alfred Molina, Monica Bellucci and Alice Krige round out the cast of sorcerers.

Cage, who also served as an executive producer, plays Balthazar, a sorcerer from the ancient days of Merlin. A battle to be Merlin's successor led to Balthazar's love, Veronica (Bellucci), sacrificing herself to stop the evil Morgana le Fay (Krige) from taking over.

Fast forward some 1300 years and Balthazar is in New York City on his quest to find the "prime Merlinian," the true successor to Merlin. When a kid named Dave (Baruchel) walks into his store, he thinks he's found him. It takes a while, but Dave eventually becomes Balthazar's apprentice and the two join forces to defeat Morgana once and for all.

Overall review: *** This film was generally a critical and a box office disappointment. But, I liked it. I liked Nicolas Cage in his role, and Alfred Molina picked up where his role as Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2 left off. I also liked that the film incorporated the dancing brooms from the animated original. Jay Baruchel sounds an awful lot like Christian Slater, but the similarity was not enough to detract from my overall enjoyment of the film.