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Reviews > Movie Reviews > Race to Witch…

Race to Witch Mountain Review
06 Apr 2009
Critics rating: 2.5 stars out of 5
Reviewed by Tom Charity , LOVEFiLM
Race to Witch Mountain

It was back in 1975, when Disney made the first movie version of Alexander Key's novel, Escape to Witch Mountain.

Psychic siblings Tony and Tia didn’t know much about where their special powers came from, they were abducted by an evil millionaire (Ray Milland) and aided by a grumpy old man driving a caravan (Eddie Albert).

A third of a century later things are a little different. We’re identifying with Las Vegas taxi driver Jack Bruno for a start, a wheelman for the mob who has decided to go straight. He picks up the spooky blonde kids Seth (Alexander Ludwig) and Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) – or they pick him – and decides to protect his fare when bad guys with guns start to chase them through the desert. At first he assumes it’s his old associates on his case. But when a UFO joins the pursuit he starts to think maybe the kids have some explaining to do. When they start levitating wads of cash, he knows they do.

Say what you like about Dwayne Johnson – he’s probably the only guy in the world who would rather be known as "Dwayne" than "The Rock" – but he’s no Eddie Albert. He’s not even a Vin Diesel. Still, for a bona fide non-actor, Johnson is game enough. He doesn’t dress in a pink tutu or dance ballet like he did in his last movie with director Andy Fickman (The Game Plan) but he’s still playing patsy to a couple of school kids and surprisingly lame-o special effects.

Ah yes, those kids. AnnaSophia Robb is a busy thing these days (she was in Bridge to Terabithia, The Reaping and Jumper), and she’s bright enough to play a superior intelligence – superior to The Rock at any rate – but both she and Alexander Ludwig have been directed to affect a remote, oddly formal syntax as a mark of their extra-terrestrial origins.

That’s asking a lot when the script is so inconsistent about what they understand of human affairs. For instance they know they have to pay Jack Bruno, as Sara always calls him, but they have no idea how much. (Maybe that’s a bad example, there are people who take ten taxis a week who don’t understand what an appropriate tip looks like.)

Race to Witch Mountain: Dwayne Johnson

The nature of their mission here on earth remains rather hazy, at least to me, but it’s something to do with saving us from doom at the hands of their kind. If their kind have hands that is. So it’s good that Jack Bruno helps them escape, not just from the flying saucer, but also from government drone Burke (Ciaran Hinds). They’re also aided and abetted by Dr Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino) who is in town to lecture sci-fi geeks about recent sightings in the cosmos.

Despite the extensive changes from the original, Race to Witch Mountain still feels like an old-fashioned Disney movie. There’s scarcely any vulgarity, the fisticuffs and shoot-em-ups are mild, and the whole thing resembles a tacky Spielberg rip-off in the nicest possible way. What is different is the pacing. It’s a rare scene that ends in the same place it began. There’s constant movement, much of it pushing the speed limit. Just as well, because when it does slow down, the script is so threadbare you can practically see through it.

Race to Witch Mountain still feels like an old-fashioned Disney movie.

Look out, though, for the original Tony and Tia, Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards, in cameo roles (he’s a cop, she’s a waitress), as well as an appearance from author Whitley Strieber, and a larger role for Pretty Woman director Garry Marshall as an UFO-ologist. Touches like these give the movie a spunkiness it badly needs – especially for the older contingent in the family audience. Younger kids will doubtless lap it up.

Race to Witch Mountain Reviews

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