It seems of late that remakes of classic original genre flicks just have to involve a threat of alien invasion where none had existed in the original. First The Day The Earth Stood Still and now Witch Mountain. Not a sequel, but the latest buzz word of "reimmagining". In this one it's not a race to the secret alien colony inside Witch Mountain but a race to the secret U.S. military base that's holding the crash-landed alien space ship, which must be retrieved by the kids before their home planet plans the inevitable invasion.

So first, what's good (or at least so-so). The you-can-see-it-coming cameos of the original alien kids from the first two Witch Mountain flicks; a waitress named Tina (Tia) and Sheriff Anthony (Tony). And more than just a walk-through, they actually had lines and got to act and everything (but, man, how large an ugly stick did Time hit them over the head with?). For the kids, the girl did a good job of acting, while Dwayne Johnson wasn't all that bad, though using his I'm-in-a-comedy facial expressions, except it wasn't a comedy. Which brings us to the not so great.

First, I blame the director for making the alien kids speak in that circa 1950s all aliens lack emotions and must speak like they graduated from Harvard and must use as unnecessarily complex a wordage as possible, tone of voice. Things like "travel conveyance" instead of just "vehicle" (if they learn English from our radio and TV broadcasts, then wouldn't they be more likely to talk like they're from the streets or with a Kentucky twang?). It's almost like the director told the kids "act like this movie is a parady of alien flicks" and told The Rock "act like this is a comedy" then had someone write an action flick. No real sense of mystery and threat like in the original, and the way the alien kids spoke was nearly laughable. The original was vastly superior, this one just sort of laid there.

Not sure if I can recommend this or say to avoid it; just depends on your standards and how much you want an afternoon off. But see it as a matinee'.