The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Bea says: Last night our plan was to see a film at the wonderful, restored Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Virginia and any film would have done. The Sorcerer's Apprentice wouldn't have been amongst our usual choice of films, but it did well enough, despite being a clear second to the whole experience.

Settled into our plush red seats, we gaped in wonder at the intricate decoration and enormous chandelier (which changed colour regularly - a nice touch!). The evening show got off to a great start with Bob Gulledge at the mighty Wurlitzer, rising up through the floor to play 15 minutes of nostalgic movie tunes (Somewhere Over the Rainbow etc). Patrons clapped, whistled and stamped their feet - it was a fantastic atmosphere.

The film itself was nothing out of the ordinary - a non-animated remake (although I'm not sure how true to the original - except for the famous mop scene) of the animated Sorcerer's Apprentice from many years ago, with some Arthurian legends thrown in and the general gist heavily borrowed from Harry Potter, and with much use made of computer technology.

It was entertaining enough, however, although the car chase scenes were too long for me. I like Nicholas Cage, so was happy enough to watch him play Balthazar, and in classic Disney fashion it all turned out all right in the end (world saved, and both Balthazar and the apprentice got their girl).

It was, rather like the Harry Potter sequence, perhaps a little more dark and violent than I expected and rather scary for some of the younger members of the audience!
If you find yourself in or near Richmond, Virgina, go to this theatre - especially on Saturday nights to catch Bob's playing.

Cecil says: This has got to be one of the most extraordinary cinemas in the world - http://www.byrdtheatre.com/.

And a great policy of charging just $1.99 per seat meant whole families turned up for the show we watched. About 300 in the audience for an early evening showing. If that was repeated for all 5 Saturday showings, it makes a pretty penny for the cinema and something other pricier and modern cinemas might want to think about.

As Bea says, the wurlitzer was fantastic; worth $1.99 just hear and see that; and the audience lapped it up. Cries of 'We love you, Bob', as he disappeared below stage, followed by the spotlight down to the last visible hair on his head. A fantastic spectacle.

We also learnt that Ralph Dolby, son of THE Dolby sound system family, had Dolby sound set up in the Byrd at way below cost, such was his love of the cinema. And the sound is good. A bit too good for my older ears in such a fantasy film with loads of special effects (I'm never quite sure why film makers think that audiences want to be assaulted by crash, bang wallop every 20 seconds; and the computer-generated special effects just seem to accentuate this).

I actually enjoyed Alfred Molina playing the evil sorcerer more than Nicholas Cage. He's one of those actors you see around in films but you can never remember which was his top role; actually he has done so many films over the years, and he has more to come in 2011 already if Wikipedia is to be believed.

As Bea said, it didn't matter to us what film showed - it was the cinema we went to see, so for star rating, I can only give ** to the film but ***** to the cinema. Another example of the community saving a local icon - bravo Richmond, Virginia.