Puntabulous

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Review

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When faced with four movie options. 1. Leonardo DiCaprio being all “Look at me, I’m so dramatic all the time”, 2. Adrien Brody being all butterface, 3. The Last Airbender being all not at all Avatar-like, and 4. Nicolas Cage being all Nicolas Cage because all Nicolas Cage is capable of being is Nicolas Cage, sometimes you just need to go with Nicolas Cage. Unless it’s Ghost Rider, then just, no. So yes, I saw The Sorcerer’s Apprentice this weekend.

Believe it or not, this movie is based on the 1940 Mickey Mouse cartoon from Fantasia. Well, I say “believe it or not” because I didn’t know that until a week or so ago, and unless you’re smarter than me (puh-lease) I’ll assume you didn’t know that either. So anyway, the movie is about Nicolas Cage finding a new apprentice in the wonderfully quirky Jay Baruchel and attempting to dispose of an evil sorcerer and rival to Nicolas Cage’s character who is trying to release an even more powerful sorcerer who wants to destroy the world by raising an army of evil dead sorcerers.

I pretty much fell in love with the movie right away when they started with a prologue taking place in the days of Camelot, which I found totally unexpected and helped weave a richer history throughout the course of the movie that I thoroughly enjoyed. I really liked the backstory they gave the movie and the way they incorporated sorcerers from all different places and times, connecting dots that were unexpected, but didn’t feel forced.

Another thing I really liked about the movie was the way they incorporated science into explaining the way sorcery works and using scientific as well as sorcerific (totally a word) means of reaching their goals. There’s also a wonderful bit where Nicolas Cage gives his apprentice a pair of “old man shoes” so that the rubber soles protect him from electrocuting himself when he shoots off plasma bolts. Yeah, the science wasn’t perfect, but at least they tried and did their best to bring sorcery to the real world.

The humor and action were really good as well, with smaller pieces of action pretty much throughout the entire movie rather than long stretches of story, then a huge action setpiece, which was a welcome change from typical blockbusters that try and sell a huge piece of action and seem to build up to it forever. Of course Jay Baruchel is adorable and funny and his relationship with Nicolas Cage was charming and funny, but there was also Toby Kebbell who played a Criss Angel type character who was almost as ridiculous as Criss Angel himself, which added a lot of humor as well.

Unfortunately the movie only opened in 3rd place this weekend and has only grossed $24M so far. It would really be a shame if they couldn’t continue the franchise, because the movie really was fantastic and there are a ton of things they could do from here. Go see it!

MOVIES, REVIEWS | Craig | July 19, 2010 7:43 am

25 Comments

By Tam, July 19, 2010 @ 8:25 am

Huh. Sounds interesting but I doubt we have time to see it before vacation. I did go and see Leonardo being all dramatic. Kid’s choice. It was pretty good as well, I liked the special effects even if I was a bit confused at times.
By Adam, July 19, 2010 @ 8:26 am

EW! — you should have seen Inception.
By Polt, July 19, 2010 @ 8:26 am

If I can find someone to see this with me, I totally plan on seeing it. Mainly, cause I like Jay Baruchel. Have since his “Undeclared” days. Loved him in “Rules Of Attraction” even though he had a bit part. He is indeed, in a geeky, quirky way, quite adorable.

AND, since you gave this a positive review, I now HAVE to see it, as your reviews are always spot on (Iron Man 2, notwithstanding).

HUGS…
By Polt, July 19, 2010 @ 8:27 am

PLUS, you actually liked a Nicholas Cage movie, so that says a LOT about it! Oh, and let’s not forget, in addition to everything else, Jay’s Canadian, yet another plus.

HUGS>…
By Craig, July 19, 2010 @ 8:40 am

Tam: Yay vacation!

Adam: Did you just EW me? Plus I plan on seeing Inception next weekend, so simma da na.

Polt: I actually tend to really enjoy Nicolas Cage movies. The National Treasure movies are fun and Kick Ass was amazing. It’s just him I’m not crazy about.
By Kári, July 19, 2010 @ 9:06 am

I can’t wait to see it. Sounds fun. I don’t know what to think about The Last Airbender. I just finished watching the tv-series and the movie looks totally off.
By Tam, July 19, 2010 @ 9:31 am

I have issues with the title of Inception. I keep wanting to call it Insertion. Which sounds way dirtier and perhaps more interesting. Insertion would work as a title though.
By Craig, July 19, 2010 @ 9:38 am

Did you enjoy the series Kári? My brother got me hooked on it, and he hated the movie. I trust his judgment so I’m gonna wait till it’s out on video.
By M. Nicodemus, July 19, 2010 @ 9:40 am

Hmm… I am not the biggest Nicolas Cage fan, although I do like it when he plays that bumbling geek character he does (The Rock, National Treasure) which seems to be the one he is using in this movie. I will probably see it when it comes to the local theater, six months from now
By M. Nicodemus, July 19, 2010 @ 9:45 am

So sad about all the negative reviews of The Last Airbendet, although completely expected of M. Night. Seriously, who is still green lighting him to make movies?
By Kári, July 19, 2010 @ 10:07 am

Yeah, I loved it. I watched all three seasons in a week. It had that perfect combination of serious/not serious at all. I also loved that even though it’s a fantasy, they don’t speak some pseudo-mediæval English. The movie seems to be doing three things wrong: The characters (besides Zuko) are not remotely Asian, the tone of the movie seems to be all serious, no fun, and they speak that darned pseudo-mediæval English.
By John S., July 19, 2010 @ 10:51 am

I actually enjoyed the Airbender movie. The non-Asian thing didn’t bother me as much as it might have, since it wasn’t entirely clear to me what race the cartoon characters were, I mean other than the obvious Anime aspects. It certainly could have been more fun, since it was darker than the Nickelodeon series (which is saying something). I don’t think it had as much pulp flavor as the animated series did, which might partly be the lack of fun.

Still, I liked it. Although I wish Zuko’s uncle (whose name I can never remember) was jollier in the movie, so it was more of surprise when he pulls out the bad-ass-ness. (Totally not a spoiler!)
By The Ryan with the Cupcake, July 19, 2010 @ 10:57 am

Tam: It could be the title of the porn parody.
By Craig, July 19, 2010 @ 11:12 am

“I’d like to insert myself into your dreams.”

“Just my dreams?”

BAUM CHICKA BAUM BAUM
By Tam, July 19, 2010 @ 1:16 pm

Thank you Ryan. Thank you for taking it where I, as a lady, tried so hard to avoid. (On paper anyway, in my mind was a whole nother story.)
By The Ryan with the Cupcake, July 19, 2010 @ 3:11 pm

Tam: You teed it up. There was no way that it wasn’t going to go there.
By M. Nicodemus, July 20, 2010 @ 10:07 am

Ugh! A porno with Leo in it? I’ll pass thanks.
By Justin, July 20, 2010 @ 12:35 pm

Hahaha.

Yeah, I’m not a Leonardo di Caprio fan. Except Catch Me if you Can, where he was awesome. He’s actually quite good in Inception IMHO. Now that nobody can pretend he’ spretty (IMHO he never was, or, as I like to put it when someone says “he isn’t aging well”, I respond “he didn’t YOUNG well”) he’s actually tolerable.

I used to love Nick Cage as a young man. He was great in Valley Girl and in Moonstruck. And Leaving Las Vegas. I haven’t been able to stand him for years. He, Tom Cruise, and John Travolta are all equally unbearable to me.

But I’ll probably see Sorcerer’s Apprentice. And yes, Craig, sorry, but I knew from the title that it was based on the Disney short from Fantasia which itself of course was based on the musical piece by Dukas which was based on a poem by Goethe. And the only part of that I needed to google was the spelling of Dukas’ name

Now that the puntabuperversity has been duly acted upon, Inception is a weird name for the title. The word means “beginning”, not “insertion”. I guess given that it’s about making it seem like an idea “began” in the mind of the subject, it might make some sense, but I think they only picked it because the word sounds cool and most people don’t have any idea what it means…
By josh, July 20, 2010 @ 9:47 pm

N. Cage is almost as bad as Keanu Reeves! The only thing he was good in was “City Of Angels” which I didn’t actually see, but since the Goo Goo Dolls got all mad famoso from the soundtrack, it winz some pointz in my book.

I do LOVE the nerdy kid in this Sorcerer movie! He’s funny/cute/endearing!

And what’s “butterface” and why does it detract from Adrien Brody being gorgeously handsome?
By M. Nicodemus, July 21, 2010 @ 1:01 am

Josh: his body is totally hot but-her-face (or his as the case may be) is totally gag worthy.
By Justin, July 21, 2010 @ 8:26 am

M.N. – so basically Taylor Lautner is a butterface?
By josh, July 21, 2010 @ 9:49 pm

WHAT?! I LOVE HIS FACE [feat. monster nose]! CUTE!
By Matt, July 24, 2010 @ 12:22 pm

I went to see it all by my lonesome last Sunday afternoon and it was pretty fun. I can’t imagine re-watching it, but I agree with all the points you mentioned. Know what bugged me the most though? Waiting till after the credits for a bonus scene, which was really quite pointless. I was like, “WHY?? WHYYY!!?!?!?!?”
By David, July 28, 2010 @ 1:50 pm

“this movie is based on the 1940 Mickey Mouse cartoon from Fantasia.”

Well, duh!
By Justin, July 28, 2010 @ 2:43 pm

Haven’t you learned anything from your bf, David? I believe the proper spelling is “duhhrrzz”