Certainly not ‘rock’ solid
The original movie, called Escape to Witch Mountain starring the lovable, late Eddie Albert is one of Disney’s all time classics for us kids growing up in the early 80s. It was intense, scary and it was heart felt. Fast-forward to 2009 and here we have Race to Witch Mountain starring Dwayne Johnson as the lead ‘hero’. How you jump from Eddie Albert to Dwayne Johnson is baffling. While I certainly do appreciate the job that Johnson does on a movie-to-movie basis, he simply didn’t fit the role as the harsh stranger who turns ‘father figure’ to the kids in the film; it simply doesn’t seem like a natural fit.
Anyway, the movie begins as our down and out hero is barely making a living by driving a cab in Vegas. He not only is behind on bills, but he’s wanted by the local mob for the simple reason of turning down a ‘driving’ offer. Not wanting any more trouble in his life, he meets up with two stowaways who mysteriously end up in his cab. They pay him 15k to drive them outside of Vegas to find a remote location where they need to retrieve an object. Along the way, Jack Bruno (Johnson) discovers that the kids are more than they seem. They are distant visitors from outer space who have mysterious powers that help them survive. Johnson also finds out that they are wanted by the government and are being tracked. His job turns from Taxi driver to the only sure bet these kids have for survival.
Here is how this movie is segmented out for enjoyment. Awful beginning, great action in the middle, awful ending. That’s act one, two and three right there. So if you ignore the beginning and the ending, you’ll find this movie really enjoyable. Let’s break this down a bit. What made the beginning so awful is how the government located the kids once they were aware of them. The government goes to the crash site (believable), finds footprints heading in a particular direction (believable), tracks down the nearest town/transportation in the area (believable) and finds that the kids are heading to Vegas (believable). Once in Vegas the government spends five minutes locating the kids through all the cameras in Vegas and discovers them getting into a cab (WHAT?). That last sentence ruined the entire film for me because it didn’t make a lick of logical sense. I even rewinded (haha — VHS) the Blu-ray to watch this process again and couldn’t believe that the filmmakers settled for this. This is by far the worst logic applied to finding someone. Questions began racing through my mind faster than Dwayne Johnson going to Witch Mountain. Such questions:
– Have they been to Vegas?
– Have they ever seen the camera system set up?
– Can each camera be located in the city so that a perfect view of an oddly placed cab company is accessible remotely?
– Is this even possible?
Those four questions were never answered. The entire set-up was shot and the movie became one big detached film for myself. You can’t simply run through the set-up like it didn’t matter; this is potentially the most important part of the movie. The whole thing didn’t make sense. I hate saying this to because believe it or not I really wanted to see this film. Not to get off-topic here, but I really like Dwayne Johnson as an actor. I respect him and I think he works well in dramas and actions. This lack of attention to the set-up was inexcusable and pretty much negated everything he did in this film.
Now, with that said, let’s move on to the second act. The portion of Race to Witch Mountain where they’re trying to elude the alien bounty hunter and the feds was done brilliantly. The kids (AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) were fantastic compliments to Bruno. They were just as good as the kids from the original flick and helped to add even more intense action to this portion of the film. Here you’ll see suspense, action and a lot of well-played car chases. This portion of the film had all the actors kicking on all cylinders. It was fun to watch and was quite possibly the best part of the entire film. If you’re looking for a nice little thrill ride, then you’ve hit it when you get here.
The last act of the film was suspect, and I don’t want to give away too much. Let me give you a taste of how it goes. The heroes are climbing up a mountain to get into the feds’ base of operation (so they can retrieve their ship and go home). As they are climbing up the mountain they are spotted by remote cameras and captured on a ledge. They repeat the climbing process again, but somehow elude the apparent single camera that is guarding the base (because if you’re trying to get into the facilities via a pipeline, those definitely shouldn’t have cameras on them). I’m not a picky person when it comes to breaking down a film, but there are obvious blunders in the creation process and quite frankly they’re inexcusable ones.
Blu-ray redeems all
One fantastic thing about Blu-ray is that it looks and sounds so darn beautiful when it comes to action films. You get all the lovely video in HD and even the lighting and special effects benefit from the upgrade. The sound is superb, with booming explosions, a gorgeous soundtrack and enough sound effects to keep you edgy when it’s firing on all 5.1 cylinders. Without a doubt a good way to go.
The features are far and few between. You get an interesting documentary on hidden references to the original movie, deleted scenes and bloopers. You also get the benefit of having the DVD version of the film handy (although I would have loved to have the original movie included) and a digital copy. Not terrible, but I’ve certainly seen better.
