VIDEO: The trailer for Race to Witch Mountain
In Andy Fickman's blow-up of Alexander Key's book (which Disney had previously adapted into two family pleasers in the '70s: Escape to . . . and Return to . . . ) there's no venerable elder thespian, like Eddie Arnold or Bette Davis, rounding out his or her career. Instead, we get granite-jawed Dwayne Johnson (né "The Rock"), who teamed with Fickman for The Game Plan.
His Jack Bruno is a take-no-shit Vegas cabbie; his current fare, however, a pair of towheaded tweeners, are pushing him to the limit. That's because Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig) are space travelers trying to get back to the mother ship, which is trapped inside the title peak.
The film is no E.T., though it does boast self-interested government agents as the baddies. Johnson holds his own against the cute wunderkinder, but nobody's a match for the f/x onslaught of the noisy climax.