Race to Witch Mountain (2009) starring Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig, Carla Gugino, Ciarán Hinds, Tom Everett Scott directed by Andy Fickman Movie Review

Race to Witch Mountain (2009)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Dwayne Johnson in Race to Witch Mountain (2009)

Race to a Big Rock

Former criminal Jack Bruno (Dwayne Johnson) is now earning a crust as a taxi driver which must to his annoyance means he has to ferry lost of geeks around for a UFO Convention taking place at Planet Hollywood. But Bruno's former boss wants him back which makes matters complicated especially when out of nowhere he finds himself ferrying around brother and sister Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig) who need taking to a location in the middle of nowhere. What Jack doesn't know is that Sara and Seth are from outer space and are being hunted down by Major Henry Burke (Ciarán Hinds) and his men who of course Jack initially thinks are working for his former boss. But as Jack begins to discover what is really going on he must help Sara and Seth save the Earth, retrieve their spaceship and send them back to where they came from.

Oh to be a child again when my biggest concern was how many days there were till Christmas and when mindless entertainment involving children, adventure and special effects would be more than enough to keep me transfixed to the screen for 90 minutes or so. But as I sat watching "Race to Witch Mountain" my thoughts were not to the fact that Christmas was in less than 24 hours but more to the fact I hoped the Turkey defrosted in time so that I could prep it tonight rather than have to do it in the morning. That isn't to say that "Race to Witch Mountain" is a bad movie just one which is made for kids and leaves adults struggling to watch.

The trouble is that the storyline going on in "Race to Witch Mountain" whilst can be simplified to hero taxi driver, two alien kids, an alien expert helping them and then men in black chasing them but when you try to follow the intricate detail of it, it becomes a struggle as it flits all over the place and doesn't make a great deal of sense. Of course young children probably won't mind because what "Race to Witch Mountain" delivers is an attractive cast lead by nice guy Dwayne Johnson, some action and plenty of special effects which as I mentioned has that ability to keep a child transfixed. It also of course has some humour as a Disney kid's movie without some humour would be wrong. And that is it, a visual movie which delivers plenty of visual entertainment for younger eyes.

What this all boils down to is that technically "Race to Witch Mountain" works, it delivers everything which a child would want from a Disney movie. The trouble is that whilst it will do its job for young children it doesn't have anything for adults who find themselves having to watch it.


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