by Dee Delaney

Created on: December 18, 2009   Last Updated: May 04, 2010

There was something about the movie trailers for Race to Witch Mountain that captured my imagination. The most popular clip shows a battered yellow taxi racing across the American countryside, pursued by sinister black SUVs. Inside a young boy melts through the seat of the cab, disappearing through the car body and reappearing on the road, only to be hit full on by the SUV. The SUV crumples, as if hit by a rockface, and the boy stands unharmed.

This trailer really fascinated me; was it magic? - was it an extraterrestrial power? - was it a superhero? Either way, this short clip was persuasive enough to make me rent the DVD and find out.

A remake of the 1974 film Escape to Witch Mountain, this 2009 interpretation stars Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson as Jack, the muscular but dim ex-con taxi driver who discovers two very blond teenagers in the back of his cab. The siblings Sara and Seth quickly reveal themselves to be aliens with special powers of telekinesis and telepathy - travelling to earth to save the population from certain destruction, and Jack finds himself in the role of reluctant hero as he helps them to find both their spaceship and the technology that will save the earth. Helping him in his role is Dr. Alex Friedman (played by Carla Gugino); a scientist and a previous cab ride, who believes in the possible existence of extra-terrestrials. She has the knowledge and the connections to help the young visitors to get to Witch Mountain to find what they need to get back to their home planet. The Witch Mountain in question is a mysteriously dark capped hill which contains a very secret government base, dedicated to investigating alien life. Ciarán Hinds plays the brooding government baddy, who chases the siblings around the country in huge black SUVs with tinted windows and an army of heavily armed and armoured soldiers. His aim is to prevent them from returning home and to rid the earth of the alien threat. Along with some violent henchmen from Jack's past, he completes the jigsaw of characters that create a fast moving road chase movie with lots of action and a surprising amount of tension.

This film has to be enjoyed for what it is: a rip roaring children's film with great pace, a tight plot and a lot of CGI action. Andy Flickman directs this film with great skill, putting a lot of vitality into what is basically a very simple storyline. The character of Jack has a little more depth than your average Disney hero, having put a life of crime behind him,

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