The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

This Bruckheimer-produced Apprentice pays homage to Mickey’s dancing brooms but draws more from modern, road-tested blockbuster elements: Spidey’s nerd-turned-superhero wish fulfillment and Harry Potter’s boy wizardry. Nicolas Cage plays Balthazar Blake, a 1,300-year-old understudy of Merlin who finds his long-sought Chosen One in the unlikely form of skinny NYU physics student Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel). The movie at least has fun with New York City: Dave’s massive Tesla coils fill his dungeon lab, an abandoned subway turnabout; a Chinatown New Year’s dragon, the Wall Street bull, and the stainless-steel eagles from the Chrysler Building all come to life. Cage will likely not earn a second Oscar here, but he and director Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) make leftovers into fine, prankish PG malarkey.