Race to Witch Mountain

I must admit that I don't have any real memories of 1975's Escape to Witch Mountain, or its sequel that came a couple years later. I remember seeing one of the movies on TV once when I was a kid, but I'll be darned if I know which one it was, or what happened in it. So, I walked into Disney's modern day revamp/reimagining, Race to Witch Mountain, with pretty much a clean slate. Kids are sure to fall in love with this movie. It's fast-paced with a lot of action, features a lot of special effects (not great special effects mind you, just special effects), and a likable lead performance from Dwayne Johnson. Adults will be less enthused, but at least they won't find it torturous to sit through.

We're first introduced to Johnson's character, a Las Vegas cab driver named Jack Bruno. He's an ex-con trying to go straight, although his former criminal employers won't let him forget his past and always seem to be following him. For a former pro wrestler, Dwayne Johnson has been building a respectable action movie career for himself, and he certainly brings a certain amount of humanity and charm to his character and the film itself with his screen presence. The action kicks off when a pair of strange kids named Sara (AnnaSophia Robb from Bridge to Terabithia) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig from The Seeker: The Dark is Rising) seemingly materialize in the back seat of his cab. They offer him a large sum of money to drive them to a certain point in the desert far outside of the city. The kids are being pursued by government agents (whom Jack initially mistakes for mobsters from his former crime boss) and an alien bounty hunter who bears more than a little resemblance to the creature from the Predator films. As they try to stay ahead of the various pursuers, Jack eventually learns that the kids he's transporting are actually aliens themselves, on a mission to save their dying home planet. With the aid of a noted UFO expert named Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino, who can also be seen in the recent Watchmen), Jack must help the two kids complete their mission and retrieve their spaceship, which is currently locked away in a government bunker deep underneath the mysterious Witch Mountain.

Race to Witch Mountain has been criticized by some as being too violent for a family Disney film, and indeed, there is a surprising amount of action sequences, fighting, and explosions. No deaths are actually depicted on camera or implied too much, however, and I can't imagine any kid really being traumatized by the experience. The character of Jack Bruno has a quick sarcastic wit, and keeps on reminding us that we're not really supposed to be taking the whole thing seriously to begin with. As a fast-paced action movie for kids, the movie works. The movie hardly ever seems to slow down, which is good, since it doesn't give adults much time to consider the logic holes in the plot before the movie goes on to the next one. This movie wasn't made for adults anyway. And it's commendable that despite the film's rapid pace, the movie is edited in such a way that we can clearly see what is happening at all times. The film is energetic as well, and kids are sure to enjoy the fact that the two child leads in the movie have paranormal powers that they can use to play pranks on and fight back against the more evil adult figures.

And the accompanying adults in the audience? They'll chuckle at some of Johnson's one-liners, and find the whole thing easy enough to take, but nothing special. The movie obviously wants to be a spectacle, but the special effects are never quite convincing enough for anyone over the lower double digits to truly get lost in the story. It's not that they're bad or laughable, they just lack any real imagination and seem to be inspired by other sci-fi films. Director Andy Fickman (who directed Dwayne Johnson's last Disney film, The Game Plan) keeps everything moving like he should, but doesn't really do anything that stands out. At least the movie brings us some likable performances, especially from Johnson and Gugino as the adult heroes. As for the kids, AnnaSophia Robb gets some good moments, but young Alexander Ludwig seems to have taken the fact that he's playing an alien a little too literally, and comes across as very stiff and not very personable. Still, they fill the roles well enough, and nothing really offends.

That's really all there is to this movie. Race to Witch Mountain never offends, you smile a couple times, then you go on with your life. This is a strictly average movie that may find some fans with the 10 and under set, but will most likely be forgotten by both kids and adults when the glitzy and heavily hyped CG cartoon Monsters vs. Aliens hits theaters in a couple weeks. If Disney had hoped to reboot the franchise and get some sequels out of this, they should have tried a little harder, because the movie seems constantly on the verge of working. It works enough, but not quite enough for it to be memorable.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

0 comments