Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2009

©2008 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

The fairly constant action in this Disney car-chase movie starts when two teenagers who happen to be from another planet (AnnaSophia Robb & Alexander Ludwig) materialize in the taxi driven by an ex-racecar driver, ex-con, ex-mob, basically-nice-guy Vegas cabbie (Dwayne Johnson, finally dropping his “The Rock” appellation). The youngsters ask to be taken to the title location to retrieve their spaceship. Sure, kids. Though the strange passengers appear to have no cash, the cabbie goes along with the gag anyway, and soon finds himself protecting them from this giant cyborg as well as from Ciaran Hinds and his shadowy federal agency (which wants, in time-honored alien movie tradition, to dissect and study the kids). It’s well-paced, offers the usual whiz-bang special effects, the kids are not annoying, and Dwayne has a deadpan approach to comedy that works for me. I saw this on the same day as Transporter 3, and liked it better. I had a good time, in fact, at this Disney flick, and am at a loss to explain how this happened. Maybe I was in a good mood. But I don’t have good moods.