In Las Vegas, the regenerated ex-con Jack Bruno (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) works as taxi driver. During an UFO Convention at Planet Hollywood, the skeptical Jack picks up Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino),who will present a scientific lecture in the event. Then he is pressed by two henchmen of his former boss, the criminal Wolff, that wants to talk to him, but Jack does not want to return to the crime life. Jack fights and gets rid of them; out of the blue, he finds two teenagers on the backseat of his cab. They tell that they are siblings, Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig),and they need to travel to a location outside Las Vegas in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile the government finds a spacecraft that crashed nearby Las Vegas and is chasing the two aliens; after the investigation of the men of Henry Burke (Ciaran Hinds),they discover that the two siblings are the aliens. Jack Bruno, Sara and Seth are chased by Henry Burke's team and by the "Syphon", a killer from outer space that has been sent to kill them by the military of their planet that want to invade Earth. Sara and Seth explain that they traveled to Earth to collect scientific data of an experiment and save Earth from invasion, but they need to return immediately to their planet. Jack teams up with Dr. Alex to retrieve their spacecraft in a secret base in the Witch Mountain.

"Race to Witch Mountain" is a typical movie from Disney, i.e., a delightful family entertainment. The story is predictable and uses the usual clichés of the genre, with the heart-warming hero; the despicable villain; the chase and the car race; the corny conclusion after the first contact; despite of that, I liked "Race to Witch Mountain" a lot. The pleasant cast performs enjoyable characters, and I particularly like The Rock, AnnaSophia Robb and Carla Gugino very much; only the boy Alexander Ludwig is unknown for me. I do not understand why some masochistic viewers that do not like this type of movie waste their time watching them and then write bad reviews; what would they expect? My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Montanha Enfeitiçada" ("The Bewitched Mountain")

I have nothing against remakes, and I had wanted to see Race to Witch Mountain for some time now. I think it is a decent movie, I do remember the original movie with fondness and feel it is a superior movie, however compared to other remakes I've seen like Psycho, Stepford Wives and Wicker Man Race to Witch Mountain is not a bad movie. It looks great visually, whether it is in the effects, the scenery, the cinematography or lighting. The soundtrack has some pleasing and memorable themes, direction is solid and the script while not award-worthy is good. The cast are fine, Dwayne Johnson carries the movie and he has so much charisma that it is a joy to watch him. AnnaSophia Robb once again proves herself a promising actress, and Ciaron Hinds is a fun villain. Only Carla Gugino disappoints, she's beautiful but her performance and character are dull and she and Johnson have no chemistry. The characters are on the stereotypical side particularly those of Gugino and Hinds, the pace is rather jerky in places and the story while having an appreciative nostalgia as well as a darkness the original didn't have I feel has a number of predictable spots. All in all, a decent if unexceptional family film. 6/10 Bethany Cox

As they did with reviving Herbie the Love Bug for a film with Lindsay Lohan a few years back, the Walt Disney Studios decided that the two popular Witch Mountain films from the Seventies could also use a nice computer graphic remake. The Magic Kingdom has always been known to milk a good thing to death.

In this case I think they did better here than with Herbie. Two alien kids with some extraordinary powers get into a cab that's driven by none other than Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson. What a fortuitous circumstance that turns out to be, because youngsters Alexander Ludwig and Sophia Anna Robb are going to need every bit of the fighting skills that the Rock can muster.

They've got two enemies on their trail, first the US government who has kept a lid on news of visiting aliens for decades and they're represented by hardnosed bureaucrat, Ciaran Hinds. They've also got a robot assassin on their trail, just as deadly as Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator without any of his wit and charm. In addition Johnson's trying to steer clear of some wiseguys for whom he worked as a wheelman and did time in prison for same.

They do get some help in the form of scientist Carla Gugino who proves to be resourceful in her own right.

The kids here are as winning as Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards who starred in the two Witch Mountain features back in the Seventies. They have a good chemistry with the Rock and with Gugino.

I'd recommend Race To Witch Mountain as a fine family film, one of the better items to come from the Magic Kingdom.