Race To Witch Mountain (2009/Disney Blu-ray/DVD
+ Digital Copy)
Picture:
B/C+ Sound: B/B- Extras: C
Film: C
Dwayne
Johnson tries his diversity tactics again starring in this family-friendly
actioner from Disney as a late breaking follow-up to their 70’s classic Escape to Witch Mountain and Return to Witch Mountain, which we
recently covered on DVD here.
Fans will
quickly note that the film is certainly entertaining and starts off fairly
strong, but loses much of the momentum soon after our taxi driver lead
(Johnson) picks up two kids, who somehow entered his cab without much notice,
where they came from remains a mystery, but they do seem to possess
supernatural powers. They are also being
pursued by some agency and at the same time, our taxi driver has a past that is
starting to catch up with him as well, what ensues is a cat and mouse race that
also involves lots of plot twists and the usual moments of laughter as a love
interest comes into play as well.
It’s
almost difficult to say what age group would really latch onto this film
because to a certain degree the films pace and overall twists are perhaps a bit
too much for under 10, but kids over the age of 10 may not really be all that
inclined to enjoy the films clichéd and worn out family adventure components
either. If nothing else the film tries
hard and works a bit more often than it doesn’t, it’s a film that was in
desperate need of a solid Blu-ray release to really up the ante with good
picture and sound, unfortunately those are a disappointment as well.
The
picture fares better than the sound, the 2.40 X 1 scope framed 1080p image
looks fairly sharp throughout with good color renderings, the digital work
doesn’t hold up nearly as well in those moments, but overall the image is never
too soft, has a nice stylized quality with the only complaint being that the
blacks are a shade off and seem a bit less true, otherwise the transfer is
adequate for the source.
The audio
is presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that I was hoping would be a
strong presentation, especially given the films overall nature with lots of
aggressive moments, which there are certainly those, but overall the sound
quality never seems to impress, there are lots of moments where the track
becomes more still and the contrast between intense moments and calm moments
really never works well, it’s almost too dynamic for it’s own good that the
listener never fully gets settled in.
Despite being a lossless audio track, it feels more compressed than what
we are used to, and we can only think that maybe the recording process was
suspect more so than the actual transfer here.
Extras on
this Blu-ray release include the DVD version of the film, along with the
digital copy; therefore we have 3 different formats all within one release that
is a huge bonus as it will make fans happy that they can have all three without
the hassle. There are also D-Box
features for the kids, lots of other interactive components that kids will also
enjoy, there are behind the scenes, deleted scenes, and bloopers all of which
are throw-ins and at this point are nearly standard features for almost any
film, the highlights here are the interactive features that will keep kids
engaged even after the film is over.
Not the
best product Disney has put out lately, but certainly one of their better
releases with the Blu-ray/DVD/digital copy all combined.
- Nate Goss
