Ben, der Zauberlehrling

This is a very nice little family film - suitable for the whole family. And, with the current popularity of fantasy films - should prove popular. The highpoint of the film is the presence of the great Robert Davi in the role of Merlin. He makes a perfect wizard - both in the flashback sequences and in Merlin's modern incarnation. If you are looking for a pleasant evening with the family - this would be a great choice.

This movie should prove enjoyable for the pre-teen set, but there's nothing much here to appeal to adults or older young people. Acting is so-so, effects are pretty bad and story has plenty of holes. Older viewers will be interested to see once-famous actors like Robert Davi and Kelly Lebrock in major roles. I guess this is the kind of movie you do when your career is in a slump and/or you need the money. Families can watch this one with no qualms: there is no objectionable material other than occult elements (as you would expect with a movie called The Sorcerer's Apprentice).

This film definitely was brought to us by the same South African country that gave us such whimsical fare as The Fairy King of Ar and The Little Unicorn about the biggest little unicorn ever! This one features Merlin and the exact same house used in The Little Unicorn to bring us a film about a kid moving into a new place and magic! Not much magic mind you, but there is a bit on display here if you consider the ability to make a bully dump a strawberry milkshake on himself a super magical event!

The story, a boy who may be bi-polar moves to a large estate cause his dad got a new job as a curator. Why do I say he is bi-polar? Because, he constantly yells at people that he hates them, doesn't want anything to do with him and then he is back within minutes saying he is sorry and didn't mean it. He tries to become friends with the neighbor who has the exact same problem and we are fraught with a movie full of go away! I'm sorry! Let me teach you magic! No, I will not teach you magic! Meanwhile, Kelly LeBrock who I hadn't seen since Hard To Kill is the villain.

The cast of these films always feature a star of note or two as the fairy king had Corbin Bernson and Malcolm McDowell and the unicorn one had George Hamilton and a couple of others. This one gives us Kelly LeBrock and Ray Davi, so it apparently had a smaller budget than the other two. Ray best known as one of the gang in Goonies and the big time cocaine dealer from License to Kill and Kelly Weird Science and Hard To Kill and being a model. Still, Ray does a fairly good job, I just wish he did not feel the need to sing in this one...

So we get bullying and the boy trying to make it with the local cutie while Merlin shows the kid like two spells that any magician can do and we have our movie with two action pieces to bookend the movie. Of the three films I have seen from this company, this is the weakest; however, it is not exactly like the others were way better or anything.

I'm quite sure that there are people that would like this movie. I am not one of them. 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' is really bad. The effects are alright for a low-budget film like this, but the script, props, acting, and characterisation are all truly shocking.

Luckily, this makes for quite an entertaining ride as you can laugh at all the rubbish acting and ridiculous plot points. The concept isn't totally ridiculous, but it's executed poorly and there seems to be no real point to why anyone is doing anything and then everything just starts to get a bit silly. Which is funny.

Some kids will probably love it. The problem though is that its probably aimed at children who will be intelligent enough to know that it is badly-made movie. The only good thing I can say about this movie is that it's not very memorable so it won't stay with you for too long (except for one disturbing scene involving a milkshake).

If you want a decent movie, try and stay away from this. If you like to point and laugh at things, then this may prove itself a worthy target - especially if you already know about the legend of Merlin.

He had a stink attitude. I didn't like him so it's hard for me to enjoy the movie the boy need a 👋