Sub-standard kiddie fare.

Grade: C-

Race to Witch Mountain

Indian Release Date: 28/08/09
CBFC Classification:  U/A
Running Length: 1 Hour 38 Minutes

Cast: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig, Carla Gugino, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Everett Scott
Director: Andy Fickman
Screenplay: Matt Lopez and Mark Bomback, based on Escape to Witch Mountain by Alexander Key
Cinematography: Greg Gardiner
Music: Trevor Rabin

Have you ever watched movie which played out like a loud & flashy trailer? To expand upon my point I’ll take Race To Witch Mountain as an example, it consists of a series of events (mostly consisting of people running or explosions or race chases) playing one after the other with little or no logic to the ones that came before it, the actors mouth (scream or yell it) line after line of seemingly important dialogue, they also stop & stare at the screen in awe at something “magical” or “sinister” with a loud heroic or threatening score playing in the background. That is more or less how this movie plays out. It’s a product straight from assembly line of the Disney factory but perhaps they forgot that kids too have brains & these days they are a lot smarter than you might give them credit for.

Race to Witch Mountain is a remake of the 1975 Sci-Fi adventure Escape to Witch Mountain & since I haven’t watched the original I wouldn’t be able to make any sort of comparison between the two. The plot or whatever little makes sense involves a Las Vegas cabbie, Jack Bruno (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson) who’s down & out on his luck (aren’t they all?). One fine day, two kids Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) & Seth (Alexander Ludwig) who dress & act like those cheesy clones from the first Spy Kid’s movie, just happen to pick his cab as their choice of transportation. They are not just any ordinary kids but aliens who have crash landed on earth in search of some contraption to save their home planet & are be pursued by a nefarious government agent (Ciaran Hinds) & an intergalactic assassin. Soon enough Jack Bruno has to ensure their safe passage back to their planet & also that their mission on earth is a success. Half-way through the movie the obligatory love interest who also happens to be an astrophysicist, Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino) tags along for the adventure.

The movie makes lesser & lesser sense as the story progresses since the alien kids have special powers themselves yet they need the help of a simple cab driver or even a cab all along the way. I mean if I could blow up cars at will, would I bother allowing three cars to chase down my vehicle & smash it to pulp or if I could walk through any surface would I bother looking around for a door? Logic is beyond this movie but when your cab driver is ‘The Rock’ then you do definitely need him, else who’s gonna watch the movie?  

The movie has a bright color template & that fits in pretty well with the whole family Sci-Fi adventure theme. The effects are highly uneven & while they are pretty okay in certain scenes, other parts like during a key sequence in the climax they are downright atrocious. All of the action, even though there’s plenty of it, fails to create any palatable tension; the outcome of any fight is never in doubt.

Dwayne Johnson has an easy-going charm & he’s easily one of the few plus points about the movie but it’s getting tiring to watch him play these family friendly kiddy movie roles over & over again. What next? A Mrs. Doubtfire remake? He needs to return to his action movie roots pronto. Carla Gugino is too good an actress for this kind of material, but with all the kind of movies she’s been doing lately you’d be inclined to think otherwise. AnnaSophie Robb who was first-rate in Bridge to Terabithia (2007) does a more competent job than her on-screen sibling Alexander Ludwig who comes across as nothing more than a whiny teenage robot. Ciaran Hinds plays the bad guy with all the requisite smugness & never seems to pose any sort of threat whatsoever to anybody other than his jaw maybe which might fall off from all that forced frowning.   

Like I said before the movie plays out like one big trailer, loads of explosions, cheesy one-liners, fist-fights, car-chases, grim looking villains & all of this backed up by the appropriate background score which seems to kick in louder whenever it wants to indicate a sense of something exciting or dangerous on screen even when there nothing happening. Plus being a Disney movie you can add things like an animal companion (dog here) & other cutesy stuff for effect too. So maybe the kids might enjoy it but for any adults it’s nothing more than something to sleep through or to get a headache from.

Final Verdict: If the kids want to watch it, make sure you carry a pillow for yourself to the theater.

Grade: C-

 

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