THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE ***½

Jon Turteltaub directed this Adventure/Comedy. Watch Preview Cast: Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Monica Bellucci, Toby Kebbell and Alice Krige. Rated PG for fantasy action violence, some mild rude humor and brief language. Running time is one hour and fifty minutes.

A sorcerer (Cage) and his hapless apprentice (Baruchel) are swept into the center of an ancient conflict between good and evil as an evil sorcerer (Molina) attempts to release sorceress Morgana (Krige) from imprisonment and aid in her plan to rule the world. Distracting the apprentice from his training is a long time love interest (Palmer).

Featuring almost perfectly proportioned elements of action, humor, computer graphics wizardry, and romance this family friendly film has something for everyone and should be a major summer hit. Strongly reminiscent of the National Treasure films it has the potential to be the start of another winning series for Cage, which is definitely alluded  to if you wait until the very end of the credits. Fans of Disney films will appreciate the homage to Fantasia with an updated version of the Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence from that classic. Cage has this kind of role perfected and Molina and Krige are as good as they always are as villains. Australian beauty Palmer and relatively unknown Baruchel are perfectly adequate. There's nothing too scary for the kids so the whole family can enjoy this one together.Theatres/Times.