The New Witch Mountain is Much Better than We Expected
Written: Mar 17 '09 (Updated Mar 17 '09)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Dwayne Johnson, cameos by Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, good performances throughout, kid appropriate.
Cons: Must sit through the credits to see the actual ending.
The Bottom Line: This is a pretty good movie to see with children about 8 years and up, that adults will enjoy too.
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| dagny21's Full Review: Race to Witch Mountain |
Spoiler Alert: This review gives away a little bit of the plot, but I don't think too much. But, if you want to remain in complete suspense, stop reading now.
Lately I've been trying to limit the number of movies we go to. Since our child reached an age to start seeing movies in the theater, we've just been going to basically all movies we felt were appropriate for him. But, as he gets older and the number of movies has grown, we've had to cut back on that or else be at the theater every weekend. I had Race to Witch Mountain on my list of movies to save for video.
But, my husband had other plans, so off we went to the movies again.
Race to Witch Mountain isn't exactly a remake of Escape to Witch Mountain (although I admit I don't remember it that well), nor is ita sequel to the original. It's more of a retooling of it to fit a more modern audience.
In the original movie, the characters Tia and Tony (young Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann) are orphans with special powers and no memory of their real parents. A widower helps them run from a millionaire who wants to exploit their powers. In Race to Witch Mountain we meet teenagers Seth and Sara, who also have special powers, but who know exactly who they are and what their purpose is. They enlist the help of troubled cab driver Jack Bruno (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) to get them to Witch Mountain where their space ship is. They are pursued by a Siphon (an evil hunter alien determined to kill them), the US government, and by a mob boss who is angry at Jack.
What We Liked?
Action-packed
This movie is pretty much non-stop action from start to finish. And it's pretty well done.
Kid Appropriate
One of the reasons I wanted to skip this movie was that I thought it might be too suspenseful for my kid. It really wasn't. There was a lot of action, and some things that might freak out a really young child, but nothing that the average 8 year-old couldn't handle. There were a few truly suspenseful moments, but nobody really got hurt and there was certainly no gore.
Funny
In spite of some serious messages and plenty of suspense, there is plenty of comic relief in this film. We chuckled quite a little bit along the way.
Excellent Performances
Just about everyone in this movie did a fine job. The kids were excellent, "The Rock" was awesome, and we were even treated to cameos by Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, the kids from the original Escape to Witch Mountain.
What We Didn't Like
Dropped Plot Point?
Part of this story looked like it was going to be about Jack getting out from under the mob boss whom he had evidently done some work for. But, partway through the film the mob people after Jack just seemed to disappear. There was no satisfactory resolution to this part of the story, and it left us scratching our heads.
A Little Preachy
The reason Seth and Sara are on earth is because their own planet is on the verge of becoming uninhabitable due to their abuse of it. This was a bit heavy-handed and obvious for us. As a family, we try to be concerned about the environment, but I get tired of being reminded of this stuff in kids movies. Maybe it won't bother you, but it annoyed me slightly. It seems that every alien invasion type movie has to be full of social/political commentary for whatever time it is made during. Ick.
Better Sit Through the Credits
In our family, we are in the habit of sitting through the credits. For those of you who aren't, you really should do that for this movie, because the real ending of the movie doesn't come until during the credits. My husband and I both felt the end of the movie was rather unsatisfying, and we were relieved that they gave us a bit of an update as we sat through the credits. But, I don't think this should be necessary. You shouldn't have to sit through the credits to get the full story. Fine, show us some bloopers or something during the credits, but don't leave an important part of the story to be shown during the credits.
Final Thoughts
We all enjoyed this movie much more than expected. Definitely a good one to see with the kids that the adults will find enjoyable too.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Family Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
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Epinions.com ID:
dagny21
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 in Kids & Family |
 - Top 500 |
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Member: Christine D
Location: Alaska
Reviews written: 388
Trusted by: 66 members
About Me:
Happily married mother of one boy.
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