JiGerJag Speaks : The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Fresh from "She's Out of My League" and the voice of Hiccup in HTTYD, Jay Baruchel is set to be 2010's Michael Cera. To seal his status transition from an Apatow film B Lister to "A" Lister, Baruchel stars as David Stutler in this summer's "distraction from Inception" film, The Sorceror's Apprentice.

Helmed by Disney and guided by a stringy haired Nicolas "My Uncle is a Coppola" Cage and Alfred "Couldn't Find Work" Molina, Baruchel plays the underdog-geek-who-gets-the-blonde with aplomb. The story starts with a climatic fight scene backflash ala Xena the Warrior Princess, Hercules and other made-for-TV Greco myth-legend types, or in this case, the Middle Ages, with Merlin and his 3 apprentices at the crux of the story.

HODOUKEN!!

Nic Cage, plays Balthazar Blake, who along with Alfred Molina (Maxim Horvath) and Monica Bellucci (say wut??) who plays the beautiful Veronica, gets embroiled in a 1000 year battle between good and evil (Morgana). Balthazar and Maxim both falls in love with Veronica, which is a no-no for any practitioner of the ART. I refer to sorcery and not self-pleasure. Maxim then switches alliance to Morgana who kills Merlin. To thwart her evil plan of the destruction of the human race (which is no big deal really in the Middle Ages, imho), Veronica sacrifices herself by trapping Morgana in her body and then imprisoning both of them, along with all of Morgana's apprentices in a magical Russian Doll type prison. Balthazar has to scour the earth for centuries to find THE ONE who will wear Merlin's Dragon Ring, the ultimate Merlinite, front page material of Sorcery World digest.... who turns out to be the geeky, never-gonna-look-at-you-twice-in-real-life-ain't-dissing-just-keeping-it-real-yo Physics major student, Baruchel. Balthazar and David must then embark on a quest to destroy Morgana for good. Along the way, they meet Maxim, Becky (David's childhood crush) and Drake Stone, a celebrity magician who becomes Maxim's aide, undoubtedly, a jibe at modern day "illusionists".

Day 1 and he's already forgotten his owl

It's a simple enough story, with predictable one-liners (surely, you saw that one coming) and 2 dimensional characters. There were classic master-apprentice moments between Balthazar and David, though the chemistry between them was like watching Nic Cage make out with Angelina Jolie... or anyone for that matter. There was so much that could have been done given the expanse of technology when it comes to magic and sorcery (case in point, Harry Potter types) that the film came across as being lazy with the laughs and cheap with the gimmicks. Of course there was a love interest for David. And of course she was blonde and hot. And of course if David was not a sorceror, she would NEVER look twice at him. And of course there's a pivotal scene where she goes "You seem different." after David undergoes training and gains self-confidence. No hints how it's all going to end. Did Spain win the World Cup? Uh-huh.

Excusez-moi

If you are hungry for kul es ais magic tricks and effects, this film did have its finer moments. Being a Disney studio production, a nostalgic scene of the original Sorceror's Apprentice,does make an appearance. Also, look out for the Hungarian Mirror Trap which is pretty kul es ais in my books. Other than that, waiting for The Sorceror's Apprentice to astound you is like trying to find that elusive sweet kernel of popcorn that somehow made its way into your large bag of salted.

JiGerJag's rating - 2.5/5

Special MobieDick thanks to JiGerJag for her contribution. Some of her other reviews can also be found on this site and when entering the state of Limbo.

Trailer : Tron Legacy

Been an exciting month with the mind blowing Inception confusing everyone across the world. A masterpiece but where does this leave us for the rest of the year? It can only be downhill from here folks. Or is it?

Here's the latest trailer of Tron Legacy and it really is a visual delight. The movie will be in 3D and some may have already caught the trailer during some Disney 3D cartoons. Expected out in the States around December this year so i suppose it'll be a while till we see it here.

Special shoutout to Aprilsky who is the REAL trailer king. Nice.

A Mel Melons Moment : Inception

Need not hold your breath any longer movie fanatics coz “The” summer blockbuster of the year and arrived and is set to knock the socks off your feet. Christopher Nolan’s latest brainchild, ‘Inception’ promises everything you’d expect; a fast-paced action thriller boosted by a strong yet simple storyline that tackles basic human emotions.

TOTEM-ham Hotspurs

The movie is about protagonist Dom Cobb (Leo), a man who makes a living by extracting information from a subject’s subconscious on the premise that the reality as you know it can be easily replicated in your dreams. Cobb is tasked by power mogul Saito (Ken Watanabe) to plant an idea in his rival, Robert Fisher Jr.’s (Cillian Murphy) mind that would see the Fisher empire collapse and in return Cobb would be reunited with his children. Cobb seeks assistance from several ‘industry’ talents including dream architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page) and Jack-of-all-trades Eames (Tom Hardy) and alongside good friend and partner, Arthur (JGL), they devise an extremely complicated but subtle con ala ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ but stumble across many obstacles along the way.

Like... OMG..

Now, if you’re the kind of person who would rather not know much about a movie before catching it, you might feel slightly lost in the beginning as we are immediately thrown a scene where the movie introduces us to the concept of ‘entering dream world’ but you are eased into it when Cobb (Nolan) introduces Ariadne (audience) to the idea.

Special Scenes requires Special People

No obstacle was larger than Mal (Marion Cotillard), Cobb’s dead wife and main antagonist in the movie. Cobb’s overbearing guilt for her death has manifested into the group’s worst nightmare and only Cobb can stop her – signifying parallelism of man’s struggle to overcome his greatest fear. While it is very easy to find that the movie is centered around Cobb, Mal and to a certain extent, Ariadne, the other supporting cast plays a significant role that helped shape the movie. Pay close attention to Saito, whose role is somewhat marginalised midway through the movie as just the benefactor of the con becomes questionable at the end of the movie. Makes you think whether Cobb was really the mastermind behind the whole plot.

Everybody knew you started with the salad fork first

With a budget of 180m buckaroos, don’t expect Avatar-like special effects but that’s not to say it was insufficient, rather anymore added effect would distract the audience from the Nolan’s intentions.

‘Inception’, unlike most sci-fi movies, eases us to accept the possibility of an alternate world(s) without impairing men’s tendency to be rationale. The 2hour Freudian adventure ends in a classic open-ended interpretation that never gets old. You might find it easy to draw similarities from movies like ‘The Butterfly Effect’ or Christopher Nolan’s own 2000 psychological thriller, ‘Memento’, I think a cross between Cameron Crowe’s 2001 ‘Vanilla Sky’ with a little edge is a snugger fit.

One thing that is still bugging me though is, why was Ariadne portrayed as Cobb’s voice of reason rather than good bud, Arthur. I don’t buy the idea that Ariadne’s naïveté made her a suitable candidate. To be honest, she kinda annoyed me after awhile; wouldn’t JGL be a better choice? I think he should’ve played a much bigger role instead of the much cooler version of himself in ‘3^rd Rock from the Sun’ – unjustified. The anti-gravity fight scene was off the hook! Just something about that guy that makes you wanna have a closet full of suits. Anyways, any views or comments are most welcomed; I would love to hear them.

Rating 4.8/5 - a freakin’ MUST WATCH!

Mel Melons is a progressive writer and is known for his stinging attacks on popcorn films, the diminishing state of the country and the yellow fruit - the banana.

A special MobieDick thanks for his contribution.

Trailer : Inception

If you didn't know already, Inception is latest Summer Blockbuster for this year and it promises to be out of the ordinary. It tells the tale of Cobb who is in the business of stealing information in dreams. In his latest project Cobb has to put together a team but not to steal information but to plant an idea in a dream. Strange? Weird? The Heimlich Maneuver? Inception will test your mind on what you think is a dream or reality.



We saw the movie on Thursday night and strongly urge everyone to see it! This has to be our movie pick of the year so far. Watch it as soon as you can before people start to blurt out things or decide to post spoilers on their social networking site. A review of the movie and Q&A will come up not too soon from this post.

Ratings - 4.5/5

Trailer : Predators

The latest installment in the Predator series tells of a gang of mercenaries brought to the Predator world for some more fun filled cat and mouse game. Loving the fact that it returns to some classic Man vs Predator environment just like how it was in the first film. We'll be catching it this Thursday so hopefully it starts with a high and ends with a high.

MobieDick Pre-rating = 3/5