MOVIE REVIEWS

After an intriguing first film, <em>'Return from Witch Mountain'</em> is annoyingly a sequel that chooses a lazy, formulaic evil villain storyline. Don't get me wrong, what you get isn't anything majorly negative but it does very little to boost the production it precedes. The 1975 film ends with a revelation of something more, to the point you'd expect them to build upon it here. Sadly they don't, as we get a very bland bad guy. Christopher Lee is notably in this, but unfortunately for him plays the aforementioned antagonist - Dr. Victor Gannon. He is joined by Bette Davis (Letha), who is equally forgettable. Kim Richards (Tia) and Ike Eisenmann (Tony) return to play the two kids, while there are decent minor roles for Jack Soo (Yokomoto) and Richard Bakalyan (Eddie). Disappointing that they didn't continue the idea left by <em>'Escape to Witch Mountain'</em>. As such, it was always going to come out weaker.

Much as with Ray Milland & Donald Pleasence in the first of these; this sequel is much more about the baddies - in this case a wonderfully venal Bette Davis "Letha" and Christopher Lee as the bonkers scientist "Victor": Lee must be twice the height of his diminutive co-star! Our pair of kids get to go to Los Angeles for a visit. On their way into town, they become separated - "Tony" (Ike Eisenmann) rescues a man he thinks has jumped off a building only to find that it is "Sickle", Davis' nephew and Lee's mind-control experiment guinea pig. They drug and kidnap Tony and carry out some fun capers in her search for loot... Meantime, "Tia" (Kim Richards) has rescued the "Earthquake Gang" from their own kiddie equivalent of "West Side Story" and they all set out to find her lost brother. The adult performances are all good fun, the story has a few twists and turns; goats and extortion, and there are some basic, enjoyable, special effects deployed throughout this rather, comically, predictable fantasy. This is a good follow up, an enjoyable family feature.