Race to Witch Mountain

There are three things that have the ability to fill me with the sense of wonder I had as a child: baseball, dinosaurs and flying saucers. Every time I step into a baseball stadium I feel like a kid and the same goes for dinosaurs and flying saucers. I was obsessed with dinosaurs when I was a kid and what kid did not watch Flight of the Navigator and wish it was them that was flying around in a talking flying saucer? This is the main reason i was excited to watch this movie. The trailer made the movie seem like a throwback movie. It was meant to evoke those childhood fantasies of flying saucers are awesome aliens. it is through nostalgia colored eyes that I went to view this movie and perhaps my opinion was achieved through the fog of memory.

Jack Bruno (Dwayne Johnson) is in some trouble. The kind of trouble is not fully known, but he has been in and out of jail his whole and maybe was a driver for a local mob boss. Bruno is a cab driver and it is alien convention time in las Vegas and he is tired of the costumes and crazy people. Somehow two kids end up in his cab and ask him to drive. The two kids, Sarah and Seth (Annasophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) have an odd speaking quality and appear to be wise beyond their years. Something is just not quite right. They have wads of cash and Bruno is hesitant, but takes them anyway. he is taking them way out in the middle of nowhere, when they are attacked by a few SUVs. Bruno assumes it is the mob boss, but we know it is actually The Government because the two kids are aliens and they want them. Bruno, being a slick driver disposes of the SUVs with the help of the superpowers of the two alien youth. Bruno follows the two kids as they go underground to find something and the trio is met by a crazy looking alien assassin. After Bruno tussles with the assassin and the trio escape, the kids tell him they are aliens. He does not want to believe them at first, but they show him their awesome powers and he believes. The two kids have to get back to their home planet with some research to replenish their planet before the alien government decides just to take over Earth. From here the trio pick up a scientist, Alex Friedmen (Carla Gugino) and the foursome races to Witch Mountain to find their ship.

With effects that are not entirely up to date, Race to Witch Mountain totally satisfied my desire for nostalgia. The flying saucer is totally cool looking and the alien kids have awesome powers that include mind reading, moving things with their minds and the ability to move through matter, DOPE! The alien assassin's suit is incredible looking and looks like a big guy in a costume. I love that it feels so old school. I was worried the assassin would be all CGI but I was pleasantly surprised. The action sequences which come at such a fast pace give us a nice chase, cool explosions and a ton of gun fire. They also offer an awesome sequence of bullet stopping. It has to be the most action packed PG movie ever. At 100 minutes the action does not have a whole lot of down time, except for brief expositional pauses to catch us up. Tackling his first action movie, director Andy Fickman shows a flair for pacing and young person style of explosions, which add to the child like wonder I felt.

As far as the acting goes, Dwayne Johnson (formally The Rock) shows he is not afraid to be the butt of the jokes, while still being Mr. tough guy. His 5 o'clock shadow and tight T-shirt show him as a manly man, but he is pretty good at playing scared, which is tough to do for a guy whose living was made being The Brahma Bull in the WWE. The two little children are serviceable, with the little girl getting more laughs in her delivery than the little too stubborn boy. For her part, Carla Gugino is far too attractive to plausibly be such a nerdy alien geek, but she plays the part well. She is very peppy and sparks interest in a character that could just be a throw away romantic counterpart for Mr. Johnson. The supporting Government people do their best to be the Government people we all know and love from movies like this and they do not take away from the task, which is to entertain me.

Alien movies typically portray aliens as either kind or evil, and this movie gives us both kinds of aliens. I like that aspect of it. Like any race of people, why wouldn't aliens have good and bad aliens. The movie plays mostly for action, but there are some laughs and Dwayne Johnson proves that he has what it takes to be a charismatic leading man. I do not have any real complaints except Garry Marshall played the crazy conspiracy guy, when it should have been played by someone who does crazy, like Jeffrey Tambor or Christopher Walken. Also, I could have done without the little coda during the credits. It is a Disney movie, so there is a sappy ending with hugs and tears and also being a Disney movie there has to be a dog, which got a lot of laughs from everyone but me, but all things considered, I got what I wanted. I wanted to be reminded of flying saucer movies of my youth and I got that. I got cool alien powers, cool explosions and awesome costumes, so I cannot complain at all.

Final Grade: B