RT on DVD: Race to Witch Mountain, The Soloist, Delgo
Plus, a John Carpenter classic hits Blu-Ray!
We know it's shaping up to be quite a disappointing week for DVD, but we promise at least a little light at the end of the tunnel. If fantasy is your thing, you've got the latest family flick from the artist formerly known as The Rock (Race to Witch Mountain), an otherworldly animated flop (Delgo), and Thomas Jane's strange sci-fi actioner based on a role-playing game (Mutant Chronicles). Joe Wright delivers an Oscar would-be (The Soloist, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.) while the likes of Sienna Miller, Peter Sarsgaard, Forest Whitaker, Dakota Fanning and others languish in poorly-reviewed indie pics (The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Fragments). Only Blu-ray owners truly have something to celebrate (Big Trouble in Little China on Blu-ray)! Read on for more.
No
matter how gosh darn charismatic Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is, even his bemused,
enthusiastic performance couldn't save this Disney kids' adventure. The biggest
reason for this, of course, is that we didn't need another Witch Mountain
flick -- the 1975 Escape From Witch Mountain is a classic in its own
right, thank you very much -- and director Andy Fickman (The Game Plan,
She's the Man) attempts to "update" the reboot by borrowing liberally from
EVERY OTHER SCI-FI FILM ever made. The story begins as two alien children (AnnaSophia
Robb and Alexander Ludwig) convince an ex-con taxi driver (Johnson) to help them
find an alien doohickey they need to save their home planet. A handful of
drawn-out chase scenes later, they've been joined by Carla Gugino's lady
scientist and are on the run from not only the sinister US government, but a
Predator-Terminator knock off space hunter. DVD extras are sparse,
though the "Which Mountain?" Blu-ray only feature allows Fickman to walk us
through the subtle references to the first Witch Mountain flicks,
demonstrating that he apparently did watch them before deviating so far from
what made them, you know, good?
Next: A very special movie from Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.
Chris B. on 08-3-2009 03:20 PM
I want to check out The Soloist, but, other than that, this week sucks.