Race to Witch Mountain Review

There's a lot to be said for being able to return to your childhood. Movies like <i>Get Smart</i> and the upcoming <i>Land of the Lost</i> allow me to do just that. I was also able to do that with the recent Return to Witch Mountain, remembering Escape to Witch Mountain and its two sequels, but the funny thing is I really don't remember too much about those movies. I just know it gave me the warm fuzzies to know I'd get to see it again.

The main difference between the original <i>Escape to Witch Mountain</i> and <i>Race to Witch Mountain</i> seems to be that they've either taken some credit away from us, or seen the trend that in this new millennium we no longer have patience. We want everything to be immediate. Instead of waiting until the end of the movie to find out that the kids (Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann in the original, and AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig in the most recent version) are actually aliens from another planet, we find that out right away.

Because we find that tidbit out right away, we don't have to waste all that time in the movie trying to figure out who they are. Instead, they're picked up by a cabdriver (Dwayne Johnson), and because they're moving and passing through objects and reading his mind, the kids don't have any options left other than to tell him exactly who they are. They need to find their spaceship, and it won't be an easy search, as the government has picked it up and is searching for the aliens they know were onboard.

The kids play the straight man to Johnson's humor as he makes cracks here and there, such as charging them for a very long cab ride, and after they hand him a huge wad of cash, stating, "500% tip; that's reasonable," and after watching the kids open a refrigerator at their destination and disappear inside, Johnson stands staring at it, muttering to himself, "Don't go in the pimped out fridge."

An interesting aside is that Richards and Eisenmann are included in this newer cast. Richards plays a waitress in a small town country restaurant, and Eisenmann plays a sheriff working with the government to track and trap the aliens. While Eisenmann and Richards did a lot of acting in their late teens and early 20s, they've each only done a handful of projects since. Another interesting note that has has no bearing on the film, but that I just can't help but include, is that Paris Hilton is Richards niece, as Hilton's mom is Richards' half sister.

While the story behind <i>Race to Witch Mountain</i> is only vaguely familiar, It was a great adventure for the whole family, with plenty of humor for us all. I saw it with two 12-year-old girls, and the three of us were all in agreement after getting up from the edges of our seats that it was a fun movie.