Tomb

Disney's family-friendly action flick Race to Witch Mountain (2009) is now on DVD and I recommend it as an exciting, fast-paced kid's movie. It's a semi-remake of Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), a flick I have blurry but fond memories of and the script and special effects are both appropriately updated. The plot is simple; two alien children on the run from a shadowy government agency team up with a gruff-but-kindly cab driver (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) in an attempt to return to their flying saucer and save the world. Along the way, the kids do magic tricks, an armoured alien hit man gives chase, a train explodes and the cabbie finds an attractive astrophysicist love interest (Carla Gugino). Here is a film that gives audiences precisely what they are expecting, which can be a good thing. It's pretty much got everything I expect from a “psychics-on-the-run” movie and that's a genre I'm rather attached to.

In a proper “psychics-on-the-run” flick, the innocent young protagonists have powerful psychic abilities due to genetic mutation, chemical experimentation or because they're space aliens. A ruthless organization of paramilitary thugs deems them dangerous and hunts them down mercilessly, while the kids use their abilities to evade capture. Suspenseful chase scenes are interspersed with spectacular special-effects set pieces in which psychic powers create mayhem. One of the bad guys might have psychic powers himself, or at least be spectacularly malevolent enough to deserve a full scale psychic beatdown.

Those are the rules. These are the films:

• Firestarter (1984) — as far as I'm concerned, this here is the ne plus ultra of “psychic-on-the-run” films. Many viewers find it corny and/or over the top, but if you can't handle a little bit of melodrama, you have no business watching runaway psychic flicks in the first place. Sweet little Charlene “Charlie” McGee (Drew Barrymore) is perfectly innocent, adorable and good. She has to be, or else we'd never forgive her for all the people she burns to death at the end of the film. You see, Charlie has the gift of pyrokinesis and can heat any substance to ignition temperature using the power of her mind. The shadowy organization pursuing her is The Shop, Stephen King's fictional agency that secretly deals with paranormal concerns. The Shop is worried that Charlie might be powerful enough to destroy the entire world and their concern might be valid. Even Charlie is terrified of her own abilities, constantly worried that one day she'll become the monster that others fear her to be.

The chief antagonist is John Rainbird (George C. Scott), a Shop assassin who specializes in slapping people so hard that they die from a broken face, which I suppose is kind of like having his own superpower.

Naturally, things build to a pyrotechnic-filled climax as Charlie really lets loose with her powers. Nine-year-old Drew Barrymore is already exhibiting real acting talent here, and the image of a just-orphaned Charlie McGee laying waste to a platoon of armed goons while tears stream down her face is not easily forgotten.

What is easily forgotten is the crummy sequel, Firestarter 2: Rekindled (2002), a TV miniseries that failed to kick off a planned series, and which lacks Ms. Barrymore’s vital presence. It's also apparent that making a Firestarter film in the age of CG is a mistake. We know that half of the burning scenes in Firestarter 2 were shot safely using a green screen, while the scenes in the original film were done by being brave, keeping lots of fire extinguishers handy and actually burning stuff.

Other psychics-on-the-run films include:

• Scanners (1981) — the bad guys can read minds and make people's heads explode. So can the good guys.

• Earthbound (1981) — a family of aliens (and their green chimpanzee) can turn invisible by holding their breath. Great last line: “A green monkey came in here and ate my light bulb!”

• Push (2009) — there are only three big action scenes in the entire film, but all of the neat psychic abilities on display are fun to watch.

• The Fury (1978) — Amy Irving uses the power of her mind to make John Cassavetes explode. Off-putting, but memorable.

• Heat Vision and Jack (1999) — A brilliant parody of “Knight Rider,” “The Six Million Dollar Man” and other such twaddle, this one-off TV episode features Jack Black as the world's smartest man, on the run with his talking motorcycle, Heat Vision (voiced by Owen Wilson).