Race to Witch Mountain

After a UFO crashes in the Nevada desert, a down on his luck Las Vegas cab driver, Jack Bruno (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) is hired by two teenagers (AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig) to drive them to a mystery location somewhere in the desert. As it turns out, the teens are aliens who escaped the crashed ship and are now on the run from government agents led by a hard-nosed director, Burke (Ciaran Hinds), who is convinced the teens are part of an impending extraterrestrial invasion. Things go from bad to worse when an assassin from the teens' homeworld arrives to make sure the two don't complete their mission.

Race to Witch Mountain is obviously geared towards kids. There's a lot of action and each scene is more akin to a mini-episode of a TV show rather than one piece of a larger plot. However, even older viewers may find enough conflict and intrigue to hover in the back of the room just to see what happens next. Much of the credit goes to Dwayne Johnson, who is incredibly comfortable and engaging as Bruno. Both AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig are good as the stiff, nearly-emotionless alien teens, but their performances are a little too rigid. There's an expected level of "coldness" with the two, but they are so cold it is hard to empathize with their predicament and root for them. If it wasn't for the timely arrival of Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino) halfway through the story, I would have lost some interest. Along with "The Rock," Carla Gugino brings a lot to her performance and helps carry the movie through otherwise dull exposition and confusing backstory.

The 1080p transfer is great, but not without a few noticeable color issues running throughout the movie. The color palette runs between overly-vibrant and dull, with the most noticeable of these shifts coming in effects-heavy shots. Blacks are more a dark navy than black, which is only a distraction if you look for that sort of thing. The same goes for the shadows, which are incredibly harsh and tend to flatten some of the picture's "pop."

Race to Witch Mountain boasts the same 3-in-1 treatment as other Disney Blu-ray releases, something I wish more studios would consider doing. The package guarantees something for everyone: a Blu-ray copy for the family (and a showpiece for gadget-happy dads), a DVD copy for car trips and a digital copy, also for gadget-happy dads.

The Blu-ray copy includes eight deleted scenes with commentary by director Andy Fickman explaining why scenes were cut. This is joined by a short blooper reel and "Backstage Disney: Which Mountain?" which details all of the references to the original movie found in Race to Witch Mountain.

Race to Witch Mountain is a solid action movie for kids, but is also something the entire family can enjoy.

Clips

Original Cast

That Direction

Eddie Albert

The Truth

Harlan

Hidden Passage

Behind the Scenes - Bloopers

Car Chase

Trailer

Race to Witch Mountain

Features:

Clips

Related Links: