Race to Witch Mountain (Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig, Carla Gugino, Ciarán Hinds) — Jack Bruno is a cab driver in Vegas trying to turn his life around after stints in prison and working for some crime boss. One day, as he’s leaving the cab-port, he realizes that two teenagers are in the back seat with a wad of cash and insisting that he take them on a drive into the desert. Needless to say, in a Disney movie named Race to Witch Mountain, the adventure is just about to begin. The kids are really aliens who crashed their spacecraft into Earth, the celestial body that their planet’s leaders were certain was their key to survival as their own planet was dying. But their military decided they liked the conquest idea, and the U.S. military decided they wanted to hide the spacecraft and dissect the aliens. That’s the set up for this wonderful joyride into a family film with lots of special effects, chase scenes, and a touch of comedy carried off by the artist formerly known as The Rock, Dwayne Johnson. Of course, the kids are cute, smart, and polite in that friendly alien sort of way. The trio realizes it has to get to the captured spaceship, defeat the robot called Siphon sent to kill them, and get the kids back to their planet. They are aided by a pretty woman – what would an adventure story be without one? – in this case, a science professor, Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino, who is also playing in Watchmen) who writes books on why life exists on other planets. Of course, a bond develops among the four heroes as they work to defeat not only Siphon but also the evil U.S. military. I just don’t go to kids’ movies (well, I did see High School Musical III last year), but the film selection is so bad right now that I made it to this one. And, much to my surprise, I enjoyed it. You will, too, especially if you have kids.