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Race to Witch Mountain

5/10

Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Ciaran Hinds. Annasophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig, Kim Richards, Iake Eissinmann

Director: Andy Fickman

Two new alien teenagers are loose on earth, in this spin-off from the Disney films of the seventies, and they make life hell for Johnson (formerly The Rock), as a taxi-driver trying to shake off a shady past.

Having crash-landed their spaceship, which has been impounded by the US government (led by a stern Hinds), the teens (Robb, Ludwig) enlist Johnson's assistance to help them return to their planet and save Earth from invasion.

Though better than the earlier films, this is still only OK, and the efforts of Johnson and Gugino, as an astrophysicist who becomes involved in the kids' flight from both government agents and a cyber-assassin from space, to rescue the kids after they've been captured, are not even remotely believable.

The action is plentiful, though it often lacks urgency. the special effects are on the money, and there are cameos from the stars of the original movies, Richards, who plays a waitress, and Ike Eisenmann (who spells his name differently nowadays) as a local sheriff; naturally both help the new kids in one of their escapes.

David Quinlan

USA 2009. UK Distributor: Walt Disney. Colour by deluxe.
98 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: PG.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 06 Apr 2009