The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Director: Jon Turtletaub
Writers: Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard, Matt Lopez
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel
Release Date: July 14, 2010
Length: 1 hour 51 minutes

Nicolas Cage teaming back up with the director of National Treasure, Jon Turtletaub in a part-fantasy? Oh no, who will save us now? Well, looks like Jay Baruchel can. Dave (Baruchel) is a geeky NYU student who is obsessed with physics and technology. When he was 10, he had a mysterious encounter with an ominous figure named Balthazar. Now, ten years later, this Balthazar claims he is a sorcerer and that Dave will be his apprentice. Dave learns from him how to be a sorcerer and the two work together against Balthazar’s evil sorcerer enemy, Maxim (Alfred Molina). With this new apprentice job and his blossoming relationship with Becky (Teresa Palmer), a fellow NYU student, Dave starts to have trouble juggling both lives and staying sane. Truth be told, the only reason I had interest seeing this movie was because of Jay Baruchel. I knew even in a terrible film like this, his awkward, geeky persona would make me laugh again like it does in all his films. Every expectation I had of this film came true, and I left the theatre with the same critique of the film that I thought I would. I saw this movie because of Baruchel and I left being satisfied with what he gave to the film, but nothing else. Some parts were cute or giggly, but I knew before watching it that this would be a terrible movie. I obviously take into account that I was not the target audience for this family film and that kids would probably enjoy it a lot more than I did. However, most family films that come out these days have some jokes for the parents or are just likable to any age group. I almost felt like I should have brought a little kid I know to the movie, just so that I could at least be satisfied that they enjoyed it. Usually if Nicolas Cage was attached to a movie, I would probably never consider finding out what the film is about, especially if he was teaming up with the same director of National Treasure again. This last year though, Cage has been slowly gaining back his respect with films like Bad Lieutenant and Kick Ass. When I thought about seeing this film, I remembered how much I loved Kick Ass and that he wasn’t just in a decent film but he performed well in it as well. The tall, blonde, beautiful Teresa Palmer played Becky, Dave’s love interest. There was nothing wrong with her performance; it was the writing between her and Jay Baruchel’s character that bugged me. Here is this beautiful girl who ends up with a geeky, unattractive guy, which was the premise of Baruchel’s last film, She’s Out Of My League. All in all, this film was cheesy and ridiculous, but harmless as well. There would be nothing wrong with renting this film for your kids when it comes out on DVD.