Michael Elliott
Senior HTF Member
Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)
Andy Fickman
Disney's reboot/remake/sequel (or, once again, whatever) of ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN has a couple alien children (Anna Sophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig) landing on Earth and being chased by a group of men wanting to use their powers. Thankfully, for them at least, they ended up with a cab driver (Dwayne Johnson) who will protect them to the end. Perhaps it wasn't best for me to view ESCAPE and RETURN before viewing this third film in the series because when you watch the films so close together it's hard not to compare them. I found the 1975 and 1978 movies to be mildly entertaining even though they were nothing overly special but the biggest difference with this film is how much its been dumbed down. Instead of some sort of story we just get one loud, obnoxious explosion after another and in the end you can't help but feel that you've wasted your time. I think the screenplay is pretty poor but I guess this sort of thing passes for a kids movie today. None of the characters are written very and in fact I'd say there isn't a single one of them that has an ounce of a personality. It's hard to care for the alien children here because they're simply so cold and unlikeable. Part of the problem is without a doubt the screenplay but another problem is that the performances themselves are rather lame. Neither Robb or Ludwig have any energy and they come across very weak in the film. Perhaps this was what the director wanted and if so he deserves the blame but either way when your leads aren't entertaining then your movie is in trouble. I'm really not familiar with the work of Johnson in these kids movie but I found him to be pleasant here. He's certainly game for anything they throw at him including some of the silly humor. Tom Everett Scott, Ciaran Hinde and Garry Marshall wound out the supporting cast. In a nice move, Disney brought back Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann who played the children in the original movies. I had expected just a quick cameo but the writers went the extra mile and gave both of them nice parts. I'm really not sure how children will see this movie but for me it doesn't come close to the original two. I think the first two contain enough good moments to where most kids of today should still be able to enjoy them. As for adults, seeing the older movies will show how much better kids entertainment use to be.
Andy Fickman
Disney's reboot/remake/sequel (or, once again, whatever) of ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN has a couple alien children (Anna Sophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig) landing on Earth and being chased by a group of men wanting to use their powers. Thankfully, for them at least, they ended up with a cab driver (Dwayne Johnson) who will protect them to the end. Perhaps it wasn't best for me to view ESCAPE and RETURN before viewing this third film in the series because when you watch the films so close together it's hard not to compare them. I found the 1975 and 1978 movies to be mildly entertaining even though they were nothing overly special but the biggest difference with this film is how much its been dumbed down. Instead of some sort of story we just get one loud, obnoxious explosion after another and in the end you can't help but feel that you've wasted your time. I think the screenplay is pretty poor but I guess this sort of thing passes for a kids movie today. None of the characters are written very and in fact I'd say there isn't a single one of them that has an ounce of a personality. It's hard to care for the alien children here because they're simply so cold and unlikeable. Part of the problem is without a doubt the screenplay but another problem is that the performances themselves are rather lame. Neither Robb or Ludwig have any energy and they come across very weak in the film. Perhaps this was what the director wanted and if so he deserves the blame but either way when your leads aren't entertaining then your movie is in trouble. I'm really not familiar with the work of Johnson in these kids movie but I found him to be pleasant here. He's certainly game for anything they throw at him including some of the silly humor. Tom Everett Scott, Ciaran Hinde and Garry Marshall wound out the supporting cast. In a nice move, Disney brought back Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann who played the children in the original movies. I had expected just a quick cameo but the writers went the extra mile and gave both of them nice parts. I'm really not sure how children will see this movie but for me it doesn't come close to the original two. I think the first two contain enough good moments to where most kids of today should still be able to enjoy them. As for adults, seeing the older movies will show how much better kids entertainment use to be.