Disney somehow manages to move forward by going backwards as they once again cannibalize their past. I watched the original Escape to Witch Mountain numerous times as it was constantly rerun on the Disney Channel. It hasn’t really stood up to the test of time. Maybe my tastes have grown more sophisticated over time. Race to Witch Mountain will appeal to the younger demographics today as the original did to the children of the 70’s. The original relied on easy contrivances and hokey special effects. The remake does exactly the same, but with a bigger budget.
Dwayne Johnson (no longer the Rock) is the manly named Jack Bruno, a former ex-con, now working as a cab driver in Vegas. After a run-in with the henchmen of his former boss, Jack finds a pair of siblings named Seth (Alexander Ludwig) and Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) who hand him a wad of cash and tell him to drive. Seth and Sara are aliens whose ship has crash landed in the Nevada desert. The former has telepathic and telekinetic powers while the latter has the ability to shift his molecular density. The two kids must retrieve an alien doohickey and return to their craft or their home planet will be destroyed and Earth will be invaded. There’s also an assassin called the Siphon that kills everything in its path to capture the children. Jack receives assistance from astrophysicist Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino). In an interesting note (one of the film’s few), Dr. Friedman is respected by neither her serious-minded colleagues who mock her beliefs in extraterrestrial life or UFO enthusiasts who only want to hear stories about anal probes and cattle mutilation.
The original film had the right idea in packing the supporting cast with veteran actors, such as Donald Pleasance and Eddie Albert, to lend some credibility to the goofiness around them. The remake does the same casting Ciaran Hinds as a humorless Man in Black, Garry Marshall as a renowned UFO expert, and Cheech in a thankless bit role as an auto mechanic. Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, who starred in the original, make cameo appearances as a waitress and small-town sheriff.
Johnson equates himself well in the role even if he’s not the most multi-faceted actor around. He’s likeable and charismatic, but not enough to carry the weak material.
Rating: * ½
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