The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

  So, looks like Nic Cage's hair landed another starring role at Disney. Must have given one hell of an interview. 

 
The movie isn't bad.  Could they have replaced Nicholas Cage with almost anybody else?  Sure.  It wouldn't have changed anything.  Now if they had tried replacing Alfred Molina, the movie would have tanked.

It's supposed to be based on the classic 1940 animated short from Fantasia but there's only one scene that vaguely resembles Mickey's adventure in personal responsibility.  Here's the rundown:  Nicholas Cage, Alfred Molina, and Monica Belluci are Merlin's apprentices way back in the day.  Merlin gets ganked by the Borg Queen with a little help from Molina and passes on his sorcerer ring to Nicholas Cage's hair.  Meanwhile, Monica assimilates with the Borg Queen and traps her in a nesting doll.  Various evil bastards get added to the doll over the years, forming the layers.  Like a malevolent onion.

Fast-forward a bazillion years.  Nicholas Cage's hair has been trying to find a worthy successor for Merlin's ring with absolutely no luck until a random nerdy 10-year-old named Dave blunders into his magic shop (cringe-worthily named Arcana Cabana).  Nerdy Kid takes possession of the ring and immediately manages to free Alfred Molina from the evil doll of doom.  Almost as quickly, Nicholas Cage's hair manages to re-trap him in a Chinese urn but gets stuck in there with him for ten years.

Fast-forward another ten years.  Nerdy Kid has grown up to become Nerdy Physics Guy.  His ambition is to use his amazing physics powers to woo Hot Blonde Girl by turning a Tesla coil into a Daft Punk concert.  Because nothing wins the ladies' hearts like the risk of 250,000 volts.  Nicholas Cage's hair convinces Nerdy Physics Guy that he is the Prime Merlinian (again, /cringe) and makes him his apprentice.  Adventures happen.

Visually, the movie is very good.  The CGI is crisp, the colors are vivid, nothing looks muddy or blurred.  Alfred Molina and Jay Baruchel are good in their respective roles of bad guy and good.  Everybody else is probably interchangeable.  I could have stood more Alice Krige to be honest.  She's badass and criminally underused here as Morgana leFay.  Story-wise, there are no surprises.  It's suitable for a wide-range of viewers, from small children through parents.  I specify parents, because if you don't have kids there's really no reason to be watching The Sorcerer's Apprentice when you could watch pretty much anything else.