Race to Witch Mountain...

I went today to see Race to Witch Mountain with Pat and Sandi. Enjoyed it very much, and wasn't even bored by the car chases. I didn't know till we came back to my place and I looked it up on IMDb that the actors who played the two kids in original Witch Mountain movie from 1975 - which I have never seen - played the Sheriff and the waitress in this one. I did recognize the little boy who played Seth; he was Alexander Ludwig, who starred in The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, and I thought him as lacking in talent and charm there as I did here.

And though I didn't recognize her at all, the woman in the lead was Carla Gugino, whom I'd just recently seen in Watchmen (as Sally Jupiter).

Other things I liked:

• The main character, Jack Bruno, was an ex-convict. I liked the idea of the hero being a thug who'd got out of prison and gone straight. I also like the way his former mobster boss was chasing after him and confusing the action.
  
• A few X-Files jokes.
  
• I thought the little girl playing Sara, AnnaSophia Robb, was very personable. And I loved the action with her and the dog.

A moment of insight at one point: I've been talking to a lot of people lately about how I didn't like, didn't read, and didn't want to read science ficion when I was young - I started reading it when I was 17 in England, with The Chyrysalids. The reason I didn't like science fiction and didn't want to try it was because I had the notion that SF all had ugly alien monsters - just as this movie does, in the end. That kept me away. Still would, except I discovered that I can enjoy SF in spite of that. But it remains my least favourite aspect of SF, regardless of medium or genre.