Race to Witch Mountain Blu-ray
Dwayne Johnson, The Rock, stars as another unwitting accomplice to aliens as he tries his best to bring them safely to Witch Mountain so they can return home.
Film making 15/25
Cinematography 17/25
Audio 19/25
Bonus Features 12/25
Total 49/100
Race to Witch Mountain is the third Witch Mountain film following the harrowing escape of aliens who look just like humans as they evade capture by government agents. Dwayne Johnson plays Jack Bruno, a former mob boss driver who now wants to go legitimate by make a living driving a taxi.
Jack picks up a cab fare, well they sort of pick him as he is getting rid of some former employers goons who are trying to convince Jack to return to his former employers payroll. The kids appear in Jack’s backseat and ask him to take them to a location using GPS coordinates so he has his next and biggest cab fare of his life.
When it becomes apparent that not only government agents but Jacks former boss wants something from all three of them the race is on to get the two aliens back to their planet. Throughout the film we find out the kids are trying to finish work their parents started and have been thwarted by their planets government.
AnnaSophia Robb plays Sara and Alexander Ludwig plays Seth who are searching for a device their parents put on earth to collect samples of plants to save their planet. The planet they are from is being destroyed by their own pollution and their government wants to just invade earth.
Some scientists like Seth and Sara’s parents want to save their planet and not kill others just to find a new place to live to so they started an experiment to save their planet. Their planet is desperate and has imprisoned the parents so they would not find a cure for their own planet but the kids wanted to finish their parents work.
The government does not want the scientists to find the solution so they send a being called a Siphon that is given a target, the kids, and will not stop till it kills its target. Jack works with Dr. Alex Friedman played by Carla Gugino who is a discredited astrophysicist in Las Vegas to speak about aliens and UFO theories at a convention.
At first she just gets a ride in Jacks Taxi to the UFO convention in Las Vegas but when Jack remembers the fare he finds her thinking she can help the two kids. They race to Witch Mountain, a top secret government facility, with the government hot on their heels as well as already being at the facility.
The government took the kids space craft to Witch Mountain and hopefully Jack, Dr. Fiedman and the kids can avoid the Siphon as well as the government agents bent on stopping them. Race to Witch Mountain is your typical fun Disney movie with plenty of current action interspersed with comedy and a light touch of drama.
The film does a lot of references to the previous films as well as other Disney favorites and even a lot of alien and science fiction features. Race to Witch Mountain may not be a huge hit but it is a fun and funny film in the grand Disney fashion and well worth getting.
Race to Witch Mountain is pretty good but not really great and follows closely with the Disney drama and adventure films but it really misses the great or very good ratings. The film is lacking something to move it to higher than just above average but is well worth watching at least once.
The Blu-ray edition of Race to Witch Mountain is chock full of films in three versions with the Blu-ray edition, a regular DVD version and a digital copy of the film. The Blu-ray edition is your usual high definition quality that does well for the most part but a few of the darker scenes loose too much to the shadows.
The colors are a bit bland with the flesh tones beingpretty good but the darker scenes and especially the scenes in the mountain lair where the experiment is are pretty much hidden in darkness. The scenes before all the exploding and blue fires are deep in black and you can hardly pick out any of the actors as they race through the plant life that is part of the experiment.
Thankfully this scene is one of only a couple that are in darkness and others do not really have the same problems as they are not quite as dark. There are no other problems such as grain or noise and the film looks very good except for the main problem with not being able to see much in part of one scene.
The audio is very good with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound that works well for the whole movie and the effects and music sound great. The surround works well with voices coming mostly from front center clearly and effects working on all the speakers well.
Effects are added with side and rear sounds for great explosions and in the many car chases you can still hear the voices clearly so the audio did well. The audio comes with the English DTS-HD with French, Spanish, Portuguese and other 5.1 Dolby Digital languages. You also have the usual subtitles for the hearing impaired, as well as in French, Spanish, Portuguese and several other languages for a broad language range.
The extra content on the Blu-ray edition is not very full but you do get the three versions of the film with the Blu-ray, regular DVD and the digital copy as well as deleted scenes, bloopers and the references to previous Witch Mountain films and more in the feature Which Mountain?
Race to Witch Mountain has a lot of links and connections to the original films Escape to Witch Mountain and Return to Witch Mountain including using the original stars Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards. They both play parts in the town of Stony Creek as the sheriff and waitress in the film that helps our current aliens and Jack Bruno escape.
The creator of the film used a lot of references to the originals including using the original cast as well as other surprisingly numerous ways. Race to Witch Mountain has all kinds of stars in cameo pieces and plenty of additions that pay homage to other science fiction and alien themed films, stars, directors, and more throughout filming.
There is a bonus feature on this that shows all the various ways they paid reference and respect not only to the original films but the entire idea of aliens visiting earth such as the Roswell convention. The scenes in the Roswell convention use actual booths and people who attend the conference from magazines, organizations and groups who usually man those booths.
Meredith Salenger also does a cameo as Natalie Gann, a reporter as a nod to another Disney favorite The Journey of Natty Gann. They have used a lot of references in character names so perusing the credits for references to other Disney characters and actors is fun and you can even find some Eddie Albert names.
They have done cameos, references in honor of other films by Disney and a whole lot more throughout the film for a lot of added fun and the one extra feature points out a lot of this but you can also find more they have not talked about. The other bonus content of the Blu-ray edition is a take it or leave it affair with deleted scenes and bloopers that add a little to the film but not much.
Race to Witch Mountain is a good film and well worth watching if you’re a Disney connoisseur or like the previous Witch Mountain films. If you like action and adventures that are pretty much kid safe this will certainly appeal with Dwayne Johnson doing a great job with both comedy and action in Race to Witch Mountain.