 Review by Patrick Hodges When it comes to family action/adventure movies, you can usually count on Disney to provide a lot of harmless fun, and Race to Witch Mountain is no exception. It’s certainly not the greatest film in the studio’s long history, but neither is it the worst. It’s good, solid, harmless entertainment. It’s been interesting to follow Dwayne Johnson’s career. From star college football player to becoming the immensely popular wrestler known as “The Rock”, to one of the more bankable go-to guys for action entertainment. Two years ago, he proved he could lead a Disney family comedy to success with The Game Plan, and his turn as The Scorpion King certainly proved that he was no slouch at action. In this film, Johnson (who has officially dropped “The Rock” from his on-screen credit name) plays The kids, as he comes to find out, are actually aliens, who are on Earth to retrieve some information vital to the survival of their home planet, as well as their spacecraft, which has been seized by the government and is being held at a secret military base underneath the mysterious The film is basically a series of chases and escapes. Running from the government, Jack’s former cohorts and an intergalactic super-soldier known as Siphon (though I prefer to call him, given his body armor and quiet demeanor, the “Predanator”), who was sent to (lethally) prevent the kids from completing their mission. Along the way, they pick up a disgraced astrophysicist (Carla Gugino), who has been relegated to lecturing to the lunatic fringe at UFO conventions. Johnson does a decent enough job in the role, mixing brotherly concern with exasperation in just the right measure. Robb (one of my favorite rising young actresses) and Ludwig are also decent, though playing “mostly emotionless alien” is not really that difficult. Gugino’s character, I felt, was mostly window dressing, but her presence still lent a balance to the film. It’s Disney, so you’ll probably not be surprised to hear that movie ends predictably, with definite room for a sequel. If you have kids, they’ll probably enjoy this film. Good, clean, harmless fun, and not burdened with a lengthy run-time. This being a Disney film, were you really expecting anything less? 3 ½ / 5 stars |
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