Race To Witch Mountain
Andy Fickman

The story: Seth (Alexander Ludwig) and Sara (AnnaSophia Robb), teenage visitors from another planet, have crashlanded on Earth and need help getting home. Enter cab-driver extraordinaire Jack Bruno (Dwayne Johnson) and UFO expert Dr Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino).

Look out, Brendan Fraser, ex-wrestler The Rock is attempting to muscle in on your territory.
Fraser, the go-to guy for family-friendly adventure fare, racked up three movies last year alone: Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor and Inkheart.
But perhaps there is room for another player in this lucrative box-office genre. After The Game Plan (2007), about a football player bonding with his eight- year-old daughter, Dwayne Johnson is ready to step up and help shoulder the weight of PG-rated heroics.
In Race, he happens to be in the right place at the right time and reluctantly picks up Seth and Sara, whom he thinks are teenagers on the run.
Here, the plot police would like to pull over this vehicle for a serious infraction. Seth is able to manipulate his molecular make-up and pass through solid surfaces, and Sara is able to move objects, including controlling the steering wheel and shifting gears, just by thinking about it. And yet, they are happy to sit in the back of the cab until Jack Bruno turns up.
But Race has already sped on, leaving logic and reason behind in a cloud of dust.What follows is a standard chase movie as the government goons and an assassin from another world go after the conveniently telegenic aliens while Jack drives like a man possessed in the sturdiest cab known to man.
Then, as if having decided that, oops, some kind of female star is needed to serve as a foil to Johnson, Seth and Sara pinpoint Dr Alex Friedman as the one person who can help them locate their ship, which has been confiscated by the military.
You have to wonder if the budget ran out at this point, or if they overspent on that miraculous cab, because the flying saucer looks like a leftover prop from the 1970s. The ship in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977) looked more impressive. So much for progress and advanced alien technology.
Johnson has a natural charisma and an easy grace, but he needs stronger material if he is serious about challenging Fraser.
As a reminder of the fickleness of the showbusiness, Tom Everett Scott pops up in a minor role as a government agent. Yes, that same actor from the candy-coloured musical That Thing You Do! back in 1996.
He is a stern reminder to Johnson that if the wrestling star wants to remain a contender in the entertainment ring, he will have to step up his game.
(ST)