Race To Witch Mountain

Dwayne “Call Me The Rock At Your Own Peril” Johnson stars as Jack Bruno – a Vegas cab driver with an interesting past. After some sort of object crash lands in the desert, two strange children show up in his cab carrying more cash than an NFL player on his way to the strip club and asking to be taken to the middle of nowhere. Of course, they end up being chased by a top secret, heavily armed government organization, and some sort of other worldly power, who might be the only being who could beat up The Rock.

Who are these kids?

Why does the government want them?

What is out the middle of nowhere?

Will The Rock get really angry and beat me up for calling him The Rock?

Race to Witch Mountain is a movie with plenty of action, and not much story. Writers Matt Lopez and Mark Bomback (based on the book Escape to Witch Mountain), along with director Andy Fickman, don’t spend much time developing the plot, even going so far as having one of the main characters let us know that it’s so complicated we could never understand! Then, when they finally do jump into the story, it’s all explained in one quick scene that is about as bare bones as you can get, so we can get right back to watching The Rock beat people up, and he’s good at that, so it’s not the end of the world.

Without that dedication to plot development, Race to Witch Mountain is not much more than a series of action scenes, fight scenes and chase scenes that keeps going and going without many moments to stop to catch your breath. Not surprisingly, half-hearted attempts to include other elements to the story are simple and predictable. The audience knows the love interest for Jack as soon as she steps into his cab. We know the two kids will not be sure if they can trust this dude, until some amazing act of sacrifice and heroism proves it, and most of the government agents are pure evil incarnate. Again, it’s not dreadful, but nothing exciting either.

Race to Witch Mountain is interesting enough, and The Rock does what he can to keep the audience engaged.

Race to Witch Mountain is rated PG for sequences of action and violence, frightening and dangerous situations, and some thematic elements.