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It was about 15 years ago that Nicolas Cage won his Oscar for his portrayal as an alcoholic who’s going to drink himself to death. After a serious role getting such a reward there was only one way he could go: become an action star! He teamed up with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay to star in the successful The Rock. After that many movies followed of which many of them were flops with a capital F. But every now and then Bruckheimer puts him in a movie that performs better than most of his stuff; National Treasure, Con Air etc.
Now they team up again to bring us Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in which he’s a sorcerer who gets an, surprise-surprise, apprentice.
The apprentice here is played by Jay Baruchel who seems to becoming this generation’s Rick Moranis. Always playing a kind of nerdy character, insecure about himself but who does get the girl in the end. He has done this this year in She’s Out Of My League and even as an animated character in How To Train You Dragon. I’m wondering how his career will go, whether he will be typecast forever or show some range in future movies.
I didn’t have my hopes up high actually for this movie, but it pleasantly surprised me I must say. Maybe that was because of my low expectations but the movie is well made. It’s not a movie that excels in original story telling, but there are some memorable scenes and characters, like an epic battle with a real dragon in China Town for instance.
Cage has fun with his character, but then again Cage has fun with all his characters no matter how shitty the movie he’s in is. Baruchel does his nerd shtick, this time a nerd who knows everything of electro magnetism. He even owns a couple of Tesla Coils. What girl doesn’t want a guy that owns a couple of Tesla Coils.
Alfred Molina plays Horvath, the evil wizard to oppose Cage’s good wizard. He’s a reliable actor and his character here is a lot like his Dr. Octopus in Spider-man 2, only without depth. Doesn’t matter though, his role is just meant to give the heroes a reason to exist and motivate them.
Overall this is not a great movie, not an epic master piece and the Academy won’t be rewarding this movie with awards, but it really is a funny fast-paced piece of entertaining fluff. And I need my fluff from time to time.
