The Sorcerer's Apprentice

First Hit: The story isn’t terribly new nor is the dialogue particularly interesting but it has its charm.

The name of the film brings up fantasies of the enormously beautiful and powerful 1940’s film "Fantasia" by Walt Disney.

I didn’t sleep for days after watching "Fantasia" because of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” segment where Mickey gets in trouble with the magic broom. Those brooms popping out of nowhere and multiplying as Mickey tried to stop them with his hatchet is unforgettable.

Alas, here we are with Nicolas Cage as Balthazar Blake a man who is a direct apprentice of Merlin. He is here to find the next in line to Merlin’s throne and the person who will keep the evil wizards, who are stuck in a Russian doll, from coming back to life and destroying the world.

Balthazar finds Dave (played by Jay Baruchel) who fits the bill when the special ring left by Merlin fits him. Being skeptical, Dave finds Balthazar a bit eccentric but soon learns that he’s on to something big.

The film takes us through Dave’s disbelief, acceptance, promotion, and finally conquering the evil forces within himself and the ones trying to destroy the world. Much of the film is overdone, the dialogue trite, but there are nice and fun segments including a tip of the hat to Mickey’s magic broom sequence.

Cage is very dramatic adding fun and life to the character and the film. Baruchel is good enough to make his character work and geeky enough to be believable. Teresa Palmer as Becky Barnes is OK but I couldn’t buy her caring about Baruchel’s character. Alfred Molina as head evil apprentice, Maxim Horvath, full of life and fun to watch. His scenes are entertaining to say the least. Director Jon Turteltaub spent too much time giving Producer Jerry Bruckheimer big effects. I think there was a better film somewhere than what was produced.

Overall: This film is entertaining, has some nice, if not overdone, special effects, and keeps one minimally satisfied throughout its 109 minutes.

Toy Story 3: 3D

First Hit: An outstanding film. Creative and thoughtful story executed with perfection.

The animation of both the toys and humans was wonderful. The subtle distinction between human characters and toy characters was incredible.

The story line was sweet and thoughtful. It was aimed at a level which was accessible to both young and old alike. In essence, the toy’s human, Andy, is too old to play with toys and is going off to college. It's time for him to move on from playing with toys and possibly get rid of them.

He decides to take one (Andy) with him to college and put the others in the attic. However, the bag with the attic headed toys gets thrown out and ends up in a day care center. At first the toys think it’s going to be good but they soon find out it is toy hell on earth. Andy finds them and they plot a course to break out of the center.

Director Lee Unkrich did a fantastic job of putting this story together. Writers Michael Arndt and John Lasseter did a great job of creating an adult and young person accessible story.

Overall: This film could very well be nominated for a best picture Oscar.

Knight and Day

First Hit: Fun and exciting to watch most of the way but the same jokes got tiring as the film progressed and it needed to be trimmed.

Tom Cruise plays Roy a supposed rogue FBI agent who seems just a bit off center. We pick up him up scouting people with roller carry-on luggage at the airport.

He runs into June (played by Cameron Diaz) who is transporting car parts for a GTO so that she can finish rebuilding the car as a gift to her sister. He slips a world changing battery in her bag so that he can get it through security. He runs into her again to get the battery back and heads off to catch his plane.

Unbeknownst to him she gets on the same plane which is now filled with people who want to kill him for the battery. She gets caught up in the story and from there the film goers take a ride with her and him through various plots of people trying to get this battery.

When things get to a point where Roy thinks June won’t handle a situation he drugs her. When she wakes up she is somewhere else and safe. This goes on and on. Whole scenes could have been cut to keep the laughter and crispness of the plot in check, but they weren't so we see the same type of jokes over and over again. 

The writers and director added unneeded layers to make the film more complex but there wasn't a good reason to do this. If Director James Mangold had left the film a bit more simple, I would have enjoyed it more knowing it was ride of thrills, spills and fun fluff.

Cruise is very good and convincing at being a slightly off kilter FBI agent that’s got skills galore, a funny intelligence and a hidden reason for doing what he is doing. Here he is fun to watch. Diaz is actually a perfect complement to Cruise. She is open, fully exposed, down to earth, and funny. Some of their scenes together are out loud funny and there was a fluidity of their roles which really worked. Peter Sarsgaard plays the villain FBI agent and he fulfills this small role effectively. He carries just the right amount of sinister-ism. Mangold, for the most part, did a good job of keeping the film moving, but the scenes became predictable and therefore trimming would have helped this film to become crisper and more watchable.

Overall: Not a bad film and definitely fun to watch Cruise and Diaz have fun together.

The A-Team

First Hit: Overly long, failed to be interestingly complex, but the characters and explosions were fun to watch.

I admired that this film didn’t fall into the trap of trying to be its namesake television show.

To set up the characters and their relationship there is a long (Okay real long) opening segment prior to the film title appearing on the screen.

This set up tells us that B.A. Baracus (played by Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson) is the newest member of the group and that included Hannibal (played by Liam Neeson), Faceman (played by Bradley Cooper), and Murdock (played by Sharlto Copley).

Each team member has a special skill and we get to experience their skills as the film moves along. After the opening segment, there is a short interlude where the team works together in Iraq. After distinguishing themselves as the only team to deliver in Iraq, they get themselves involved in a job to steal back some US currency printing plates.

However, this job is a partial setup between the CIA, top Army intelligence, the regular Army and a group of private security people.

This is the main story for the film; however the writers don’t believe we think they're capable enough so we’re shown their will, strength, and skills again, by being wrongly thrown in prison so that we can see them escape.

The film drags on with a bunch of effects, like surviving their plane being blown up by parachuting down inside a tank which was in the cargo area and as it falls to earth it loses two of its three chutes, therefore to slow their descent they fire the tank gun at the ground while they fall. Who thought of that for the script?

BTW: Best shot, the aerial view of the wreckage of the container ship after being blown up.

Neeson, plays smart rugged and gruff well. Cooper plays I’m pretty and tough reasonably well. Jackson plays brutish and compassionate adequately, Copley plays psychopathic really well. Jessica Biel plays Army intelligence in a way that wasn’t believable. Patrick Wilson plays a CIA honcho like he had earned his stripes through years of good work but it appears on the screen as simplistic arrogance.

Overall: Some of the characters were amusing and there were occasional out loud guffaws, but you’ll have to sit through a lot to get them.

Robin Hood

First Hit: Ridley Scott can stage a fine battle with lots of arrows and fighting but what was the point.

The opening scenes have you read parchment paper to set the whole thing up – twice. Often this is not a good sign when we have to read a couple of written documents to know what the point of the story might be. Some films do this well (Star Wars) others don’t.

This film gives Robin Longstride (aka Robin Hood) (played by Russell Crowe) the mantel of not stealing from the rich to give to the poor, but fighting for a king who bankrupts his country financially and morally bankrupts his soldiers. Robin figures this out and leaves the army when their leader dies. He heads back home to England but under the guise of someone else. It just so happens he takes the place of a Knight (Robin Loxely) who is married to Marion Loxely (played by Cate Blanchett).

Her father in-law Sir Walter Loxely (played by Max von Sydow) wants the charade, Robin being his son, to last because when he dies the new King will get all his land in Nottingham and Marion will get nothing. Robin gets involved with defending the new King against the French because the new King was misled by a spy. Robin makes a fine speech, the English win, but the new King goes back on his word so Robin becomes an outlaw.

Crowe is just Crowe. There is nothing compelling about his performance and it looks just like Gladiator but in a new uniform. Blanchett is always good and is one of the reasons I enjoyed some of the film. The other reason was von Sydow who was excellent as Sir Walter. Scott probably makes a lot of money from making war and action films, but quite frankly it is the same thing over and over again and it comes off as old.

Overall: Rent the DVD if you want to watch this, because it certainly isn’t worth the price of admission.