Which witch is which? (Race to Witch Mountain (DVD))

Member Name: Fiver29

Product:	Race to Witch Mountain (DVD)
Date:	19/08/09 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Family fun, inoffensive

Disadvantages: None

Just outside Las Vegas an alien space craft lands in the desert. At the same time Jack Bruno is dropping a couple of Clone Troopers off at the latest Space Convention. Next day Jack is back in his cab at the convention but this time he's taking one of the speakers (Dr Alex Friedman), she tries to convince him that not everyone at the convention is a crack pot, but he's a total sceptic, although she makes a bit of an impression on Jack.

Sometime later Jack is confronted by two men, they are part of a gang he used to work for, and the boss has decided that Jack has spent too long on the straight and narrow, and it's time for him to come out of his retirement. Jack is not interested and after a slight altercation the men leave and Jack sets out to work. Suddenly he sees two children, Sara and Set, sitting on the back seat of his car even though they weren't there a second ago. Of course these aren't two ordinary children, they are aliens, who are on the run from not only the government, but an enforcer from their own world.

Jack doesn't know this out course, so he sets out on a journey that changes his views on little green men from outer space.

Cast
*****

* Dwayne Johnson as Jack Bruno
* AnnaSophia Robb as Sara
* Alexander Ludwig as Seth
* Ciarán Hinds as Henry Burke
* Carla Gugino as Dr. Alex Friedman

My Thoughts
***********

I did wonder if the writer/producer/director of this film was a Stargate SG1 fan, because the enforcer was an almost exactly like the Go'auld Super Soldier found in the later seasons of SG1, right down to the weapons firing from the suit on the outstretched right arm. Then there was the secret military base, set inside a mountain, the exterior of which looked an awful lot like the exterior of Cheyenne Mountain in Stargate.

I really enjoyed the film though, the storyline was good and the pace of the film was just right. Being a kid's film it couldn't be too complicated, but it wasn't dull either, it wasn't the sort of film where my kids had to ask questions about what was going on, because it was all explained during the film, but in an entertaining way. There were a couple of scenes early on in the film, where they first introduced the enforcer that might be a tiny bit scary for very young viewers, because the creature pops ups in dark corners for a couple of seconds here and there. Apart from that there's nothing else scary in the film. There is a little bit of violence when Jack beats up the pair of thugs trying to get him back into a life of crime, and there's a lot of shooting, but I think it was pretty much an A Team style shoot out each time, because I don't recall anyone actually being killed by the gunfire.

Some of the special effects were good, for a sci fi film there weren't actually that many, but what they did have they did a reasonable job with.

The acting was reasonably good too. The only thing that really irritated me was the wide eyed stare from Dwayne Johnson. I've only ever seen him in the Scorpion King before, so I don't know if this is one of his traits, but I don't recall seeing him doing it in that film. The teenagers did a great job, granted they're never going to rival the talents of adult actors (although in some cases child stars are better than come B list actors), but for their age group they did a really good job.

All in all it was one of the most enjoyable films I've watched in a while, definitely one that all the family can enjoy.

DVD Extras
*********

There isn't much in the way of extras, a few deleted scenes and a set of bloopers that weren't really that funny.

* Format: PAL
* Region: Region 2
* Number of discs: 1
* Classification: PG
* Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
* DVD Release Date: 24 Aug 2009
* Run Time: 94 minutes

Summary: Worth renting