The Sorcerer's Apprentice :: Rogerebert.Com :: Reviews 10-08-18 7:28 PM

Home , Nicolas Cage filmography, Teresa Palmer

The Sorcerer's Apprentice :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews 10-08-18 7:28 PM

movie reviews

Reviews Great Movies Answer Man People Commentary Festivals Oscars Glossary One-Minute Reviews Letters Roger Ebert's Journal Scanners Store

News Sports Business Entertainment Classifieds Columnists

search THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE (PG) Ebert: Users: You: Rate this movie right now

GO Search powered by YAHOO!

You are not logged in.

Subscribe to weekly newsletter »

times & tickets in theaters

Fandango latest reviews Search movie showtimes and buy Vengeance tickets. Nicolas Cage in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." Eat Pray Love The Extra Man about us The Sorcerer's Apprentice more current releases » one-minute movie reviews About the site » BY ROGER EBERT / July 13, 2010

Site FAQs » Having seen "The Last still playing Airbender" gross untold Contact us » millions despite the worst cast & credits The A-Team reviews in many a year, I Accomplices Email the Movie confess myself discouraged Balthazar Nicolas Cage Agora Answer Man » at the prospect of reviewing Dave Jay Baruchel Best Worst Movie "The Sorcerer's Horvath Alfred Molina Apprentice." This is a much Becky Barnes Teresa Palmer Cell 211 on sale now better film than "Airbender," Veronica Monica Bellucci Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky which is faint praise, but it's Morgana Alice Krige Cropsey becoming clear that every Young Dave Jake Cherry Cyrus weekend brings another Merlin James A. Stephens Daddy Longlegs heavily marketed action Despicable Me "comedy" that pounds tens Walt Disney Studios present a film of millions out of Dinner for Schmucks consumers before directed by Jon Turteltaub. Written Dogtooth evaporating. by Matt Lopez, Doug Miro and Eat Pray Love Carlo Bernard. Running time: 108 The Extra Man I use the word "consumer" minutes. Rated PG (for fantasy Buy now » Farewell deliberately. This genre action violence, some mild rude The Father of My Children doesn't require an audience humor and brief language). in the traditional sense. It Get Him to the Greek attracts children and young Printer-friendly » Get Low teenagers with the promise E-mail this to a friend » The Girl Who Played with Fire of cinematic fast food: It's Grown Ups all sugar and caffeine, no Holy Rollers nutrition. In place of a plot, I am Love there's a premise; in place Inception Buy now » of carefully crafted action, there are stupefying exercises in computer-generated imagery, and in place of an ending, there's a Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work hook for the sequel and, if all goes well, a new franchise. Jonah Hex The Karate Kid "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is in small part inspired by the famous The Kids are All Right sequence in Walt Disney's "Fantasia" (1940), where Mickey Mouse The Killer Inside Me

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100713/REVIEWS/100719998 Page 1 of 3 The Sorcerer's Apprentice :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews 10-08-18 7:28 PM

The Killer Inside Me does battle with bewitched brooms and buckets while Leopold Knight and Day Stokowski conducts the famous music by Paul Dukas. Here there's The Last Airbender an amusing sequence involving enchanted mops and such, with music that shares most of the same notes as Dukas but none of Life During Wartime Buy now » Stokowski's conducting flair. No matter. Most consumers have likely Love Ranch never heard of the music -- or of "Fantasia," for that matter. Even Marmaduke this shadow of the original is more charming than anything else in Mercy the film. Micmacs La Mission Nicolas Cage is the star, playing Balthazar, a good magician who 9500 Liberty has long held captive the forces of magical evil. A prologue explains how, 1,300 years ago, the Arthurian magician Merlin (James A. October Country Stephens) warred with the evil witch Morgana Le Fay (Alice Krige) OSS 117: Lost in Rio Buy now » and Horvath (Alfred Molina). Merlin sealed them and their despicable Predators minions in the deepest interior of a nested doll. Mankind will be safe Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as long as they stay there. If Morgana and Horvath escape, the Putty Hill planet will be doomed. They're as bad as BP. Ramona and Beezus Restrepo As the story opens, 10-year-old Dave (Jake Cherry) chases a stray love note as it blows through the mail slot of an ancient curiosity Salt shop in New York. This shop is chock-a-block with weird gimcracks Sex and the City 2 and presided over by Balthazar, who instantly intuits that young A Small Act Dave may have the potential to become the long-awaited Prime A Small Act Buy now » Merlinian: the great magician who can vanquish Morgana's forces Solitary Man once and for all. Something Better Somewhere Else The Sorcerer's Apprentice The purpose of this sequence is crystal clear: It's to establish the protagonist as a kid, before he grows for 10 years and becomes the Splice movie's hero (Jay Baruchel). That way grade-schoolers will identify Spoken Word with 20-year-old Dave. Others can identify with Balthazar, who is Survival of the Dead played by Cage with his usual admirable energy. It gets a chuckle Toy Story 3 early in the movie when young Dave asks Balthazar how he knows The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Buy now » something, and Cage spins and snarls: "Because I can read minds!" The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Next question? Vengeance There's a needless subplot involving Dave's crush on the fragrant Wild Grass Becky Barnes (Teresa Palmer), who in grade school all those many The Wild Hunt years ago was the intended recipient of the love note. Balthazar Winter's Bone informs Dave he is The One, and commands mighty magical more current releases » powers. Balthazar then has to leave his shop briefly and asks Dave to guard the Prison Doll with extreme care. Naturally, Dave manages to open it and release the evil magicians. Balthazar should know on dvd Buy now» better than to ever tell the hero of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie about the one thing he should never, never, ever, ever do. new on dvd

That's it for the story setup. The rest is all centered on special The Conversation (8/17) effects. The director, Jon Turteltaub ("National Treasure"), and his Louie Bluie (8/10) several writers devise some clever set pieces, such as a dragon in a The Joneses (8/10) Chinatown parade that starts breathing smoke and fire, and it's up to The Good Heart (8/10) Balthazar and Dave to vanquish the villains. I also liked it when Crumb (8/10) Balthazar brought to life a steel eagle on top of the Chrysler Building Woodstock (8/3) Spaceballs (8/3) Buy now» and flew around on its back. The Princess Bride (8/3) Kick-Ass (8/3) Cute Becky Barnes, now a college student, takes it pretty well that The Ghost Writer (8/3) this Dave guy who wants to date her is a sorcerer's apprentice. I kept waiting for her to tell Dave she would still be there waiting for more new on dvd » him after he finished annihilating the fiends, so maybe he should focus on saving the planet instead of putting the moves on her. coming on dvd

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is a perfectly typical example of its type, City Island (8/24) professionally made and competently acted. Imagine a graph with Survival of the Dead (8/24) Buy now» one line indicating the consumer's age and the other line Red Riding Trilogy (8/31) representing his degree of enjoyment. These lines would intersect at more coming on dvd » about the age of young Dave. NOW: iPads great movies on dvd for only

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100713/REVIEWS/100719998 Page 2 of 3 The Sorcerer's Apprentice :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews 10-08-18 7:28 PM

for only $13.58? Mortgage Rates Hit 3.25% Vivre sa Vie / My Life to Live (4/20) If you owe less than $729k you probably Viridiana (4/29) Breaking News: www.SeeRefinanceRates.com iPads are being Walkabout (5/18) Come and See (6/16) auctioned at 95% off The Red Shoes (7/20) retail.… Walt Disney World Hotels Fargo (8/3) SwipeBids.com Find affordable hotels in Orlando, Woodstock (8/3) www.Expedia.com/WaltDisney Crumb (8/10) The Conversation (8/17) Can You Really Drivers With No DUI Are Paying Too Much more great movies on dvd » Make Money If you haven't had a DUI you are paying Online? Auto-Insurance-Experts.com Or is it a scam? We investigate a mom that tried it - Read Medical Insurance Companies Free Instant Health Insurance Quotes From Her Story! Insure-Inc.com News13JobsRep… Ads by Yahoo! "Maqui Berry Diet" (EXPOSED) We Investigate America's #1 Diet Craze. Does It Work? News5LA.com

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100713/REVIEWS/100719998 Page 3 of 3