Trailer Watch: The Rock in ‘Race to Witch Mountain’

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 17, 2008

The Rock in Race to Witch Mountain

Didn’t The Rock learn anything from Vin Diesel’s foray into the world of family action comedies — I think we all remember how The Pacifier worked out, and Race to Witch Mountain has all the potential workings of a similar fate. At least, that is what I was able to gather about the project prior to seeing the trailer. And now that the trailer has been released online, I will admit that this movie looks like fun. Aside from the assuredly campy dialog and the silly bad guy who is reusing the repulsor sound effect from Iron Man (please tell me that you all picked that out as well), it looks like a relatively clever sci-fi action comedy for the family crowd. And as long as it delivers on some action, relatively entertaining doses of wit and enough Carla Gugino screen time to keep us — um — interested, then we can’t complain too much.

Have a look at the trailer for yourself below:

You can also watch the Race to Witch Mountain trailer in High Definition on Yahoo

Race to Witch Mountain stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Carla Gugino, AnnaSophia Robb, Christine Lakin and Ciarán Hinds, who is one of my all-time favorite “that guys.” Note: Hinds is the Liam Neeson-looking agent in the trailer who is chasing The Rock and the pair of kids. The film was adapted from a novel of the same name by Alexander Key and is directed by Andy Fickman, who previously worked with The Rock on The Game Plan and also directed Reefer Madness: The Musical.

Race to Witch Mountain will hit theaters on March 13, 2009.

What do you think of the first Race to Witch Mountain trailer?

Related Reading:

Comment Policy: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Film School Rejects reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. We also reserve the right to modify any curse words in your comments and make you look like an idiot. Thank You!

David G

I liked the Rock in Game Plan. This wouldnt be far from that same role he played there, so he should be ok. This def doesnt look like the Witch Mountain I remember. Which is a good thing since I fast forwarded most of that movie when I was a kid. And we do need more of Carla Gugino in the theatres right now. Im still stuck on her in Sin City, hotness.

Aleric

What is it with action stars that want to be regarded as "ACTORS", instead of Stars. Schwartzenager rrealized early on that he was never going to be a Kirk Douglas or Charlton Heston, so he did what he did best he made movies people enjoyed seeing. If Vin and Dwayne dont get their act together they are going to end up like Antonio Banderas and be stuck as a side kick doing kid movies in ten years.

Reg

Ehhh Straight to DVD for me on this one. I'll see if this comes on the "DVDs I Bought This Week" Report.

big K

The Rock has a lot of charisma and charm to make up for any percieved lack of talent. I think he's a pretty good actor, and I liked him in "The Rundown" and "Gridiron Gang", two flicks I'm willing to bet more people saw than "Atonement".

Crass commercialism aside, Disney is the undisputed master of family films. They somehow managed to get a shitpile like "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" over the $100 million mark, so I think this movie will be ok too.

Thespo

That was weak. Rock's career jumped the shark in Game Plan. When he tries to be funny, he falls flat. It's his lack of comedic timing and the way he's "in on the joke" in his delivery. If he was more deadpan, it would work better. He's actually much better off playing the straight man opposite a comedic sidekick like in Rundown. It just works better for him. If he does more of that or just some straight up serious action flicks without his b.s. attempts at humor, he'll come out of it. Look at Arnold, his humor was limited to maybe one stupid line each movie, for example "Stick around" when he sticks a dude to a door with a machete (was that Commando?). But otherwise Arnie just kicked ass and groaned a lot. A much better formula for action stars: less talk, more ass kicking, bad but funny accents optional.

Stevedore

I loved the original Escape to Witch Mountain. Hopefully it's a good remake. The original was a bit cutsie but I wouldn't call it a comedy; more of a children's sci-fi adventure movie. Normally I'd agree about action stars doing children's films, however the big difference between Vin Deisel and Duane Johnson is the fact that the Rock can act and actually can be funny.
I'm waiting to hear more about him playing the villain Black Adam in an upcoming Shazam: Captain Marvel movie. I read that a while ago and haven't heard much since.

Trailer Watch: The Rock in ‘Race to Witch Mountain’

Related Topics:

Related Reading: