Review Rating: 8 Self-Sweeping Brooms

To stop Witch Morgana from being released from her thousand-year-old prison, Balthasar Blake gets himself a sorcerer’s apprentice in modern day Manhattan.

This will be an oddly flipped review, simply because of one thing: unlike most fans, I really enjoyed Nicholas Cage’s character Balthasar, and didn’t much care for the apprentice, Dave. I’m sorry, so sorry, but I just can’t stand the whole Seth Rogen-style awkward white guy routine, and that’s exactly what Dave here has – he’s such a huge nerd! Even when the huge nerd finally does something that could be considered even semi-cool, where he shows the would-be hot chick girlfriend his total nerd-y project of huge Tesla coils that actually make music, he still totally spoils it by nerding out as he talks! Sad.

Alfred Molina, of Spiderman 2 and lots of others fame, stars as the main big bad, Horvath. I’ve always liked Molina, and he looks great in old-world suits and a fedora. Of course Nicholas Cage gets to run around Manhattan with long curly hair and a leather duster, nice. Jay Baruchel of How To Train Your Dragon and She’s Out Of My League fame stars as the pivotal role of Dave, the apprentice.

It’s cute, it’s very cute. The magic training, the fight scenes in downtown Manhattan, there’s even the iconic scene from the original Sorcerer’s Apprentice, where Mickey Mouse didn’t want to clean and brought the cleaning supplies to life so they could and they made a mess, remember that? It’s in this movie, that would have to be, and even has Paul Dukas’ musical score for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Worth an afternoon of perusal, this new and updated version of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice gets a rating of 8 self-sweeping brooms!