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For people who wonder what the Harry Potter films would have been like if Nic Cage got cast as Professor Snape over Alan Rickman: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

It’s awfully weird for a whole month to go by without Nic Cage starring in some big Hollywood movie. At first, you blame the uneasiness on the change in seasons, or something going on with daylight savings or anything else outside your control. And then truth sets in when you realize, “Hey! Nic Cage didn’t globetrot the world decoding the Declaration of Independence… nor did he ride around on a motorcycle emblazoned in fire. Never mind that my friend won’t speak to me – Nic Cage just needs work!”

Thank god for Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer. Elsewise we wouldn’t have gems like The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a flick starring Cage as the titular trick charmer who faces off against Alfred Molina when Doc Ock himself threatens to take over the world. Alongside Cage is the uber scrawny Jay Baruchel, a geeky physics student – “geeky” is redundant here, I know – who, unbeknownst to him, is poised to inherit Merlin’s powers. It’s all rather crazy and outlandish, but I wouldn’t want it any other way when talkin’ Nic Cage movies. I mean, have you seen this? (Eric Hughes/BOP Staff)

Disc includes: Magic in the City featurette, The Science of Sorcery featurette, Making Magic Real featurette, Fantasia: Reinventing a Classic featurette, The World’s Coolest Car featurette, deleted scenes, outtakes, The Making Of featurette

For people who are really good at suspending belief: Knight and Day

So Knight and Day did so poorly at the box office that it happened to rank as Tom Cruise’s worst outing in an action movie in two decades. My first question, of course, is: Wait, Tom Cruise is still making action movies?

I suspect that one of the main things that went wrong here, in hindsight, is in casting. Cameron Diaz and the couch jumper, combined, total 86 years. Right? At 38, Diaz is far from old, yet she’s far from her Tina Carlyle or Mary Jensen days, too. A way to alleviate the stress of it would have been to cast Betty White as equal parts Cruise and Diaz and be done with it. Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Grace, who are actually in this movie, probably would have been suitable replacements. (Eric Hughes/BOP Staff)

Disc includes: Wilder Knights and Crazier Days featurette, Boston Days and Spanish Knights featurette, Knight and Someday featuring The Black Eyed Peas featurette, Knight and Day: Story featurette, Knight and Day: Scope featurette

For people who are proud students of Hollywood University: Going the Distance

Can I just say Drew Barrymore is so much better than Going the Distance that’s it’s disgusting? Not that Drew has always been a barometer for quality (item: Duplex). Yet we only seem to get one new Drew movie a year anymore, and her last one, Whip It, was fantastic. Maybe she should direct more. Or, pass on anything that doesn’t include at least one good roller derby scene. Or, insist on being credited as Smashly Simpson… always.

This column took an odd turn.

Anyway, I’m reading over the synopsis to Going the Distance and it’s about as bland as I imagined. Anybody who saw this one in theaters and liked it, please see me. I know a great therapist. The studio behind Going the Distance – about, yes, long distance relationships – is the same that did the Step Up movies, that pre-Blind Side Bullock movie, Premonition, and, um, The Last Song. So yes, Going the Distance is one of those. (Eric Hughes/BOP Staff)

Disc includes: How to Have a Perfect Date featurette, A Guide to Long-Distance Dating featurette, The Cast of Going the Distance: Off the Cuff featurette, audio commentary, “If You Run” music video by The Boxer Rebellion, Behind the Scenes of The Going the Distance Soundtrack featurette, deleted scenes

November 30, 2010

Blu-ray
Bee Movie
Cairo Time
The Fantasia Anthology (Special Edition)
Going the Distance
Kill Zone
Knight and Day
Madagascar
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Make Out with Violence
Meet The Fockers
Meet The Parents
Monsters vs. Aliens
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Space 1999: Complete Season 1
Vampires Suck
The Wiz

DVD
Cairo Time
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Ultimate Collector's Edition)
The Fantasia Anthology (Special Edition)
Going the Distance
Knight and Day
The Lucy Show: Seasons 1-3 (Set)
The Lucy Show: The Official Third Season
Parks & Recreation: Season Two
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Space 1999: Complete Season 1
The Special Relationship
UFOs: The Secret History (Special Edition)
Vampires Suck

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