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This remake of the 1970s Disney film about alien teens stranded on Earth has all the updates you’d expect: snarky kids; scads of digital effects; product placement; a headliner star; in-jokes for the adults; and lots of frenetic action in lieu of plot development. A Las Vegas cab driver (Dwayne Johnson) picks up the two cute-aliens-on-the-run (Annasophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) — and then they all hurtle from underground lab to small-town diner to UFO convention to super-secret military bunker. But Andy Fickman’s family adventure is all junk food — fast and flashy enough to keep the kiddies entertained, but with little substance. (We actually learn more about the cabbie’s adult troubles than what the alien kids are about.) And for a PG-rated film, Race is pretty violent, with lots of heavy combat, colossal vehicular crashes and an executioner robot blasting fire at the kids.
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2009.
