Jett Jackson: The Movie (2001 TV Movie)
6/10
They Should Have Had More Fun With This Premise
1 November 2006
"Jett Jackson The Movie" is like a cross between "The Parent Trap" and "Pleasantville". Filmed near the end of the Disney Channel series "The Famous Jett Jackson", it expands the series premise to a new feature length movie (this is all new stuff-not a group of old episodes edited together). As in the series, Lee Thompson Young plays the title character-a high school student who is also the star of a futuristic television series where he plays a teen action hero named Silverstone. At the beginning of the movie he is struggling with whether to renew his contract with the show, which is seriously cramping his school and social life. Meanwhile on the show his Silverstone character is unhappy working at Mission Omega Matrix.

One day on the set a malfunctioning prop transports him to a parallel world where he is actually the action hero he is playing. The accident causes him to switch places with his on- screen character, who is transported to Jett's world of family, school, and television. The remainder of the movie concerns the process of Jett and Silverstone figuring out what has happened to them and the challenges of taking over each other's lives. Both the series and the movie have excellent casts with Michael Ironside as the television villain Kragg, Lindy Booth as Silverstone's partner Hawk, Ryan Sommers Baum as Jett's friend J.B., and Kerry Duff (no relation to Hillary) as his love interest.

This is an entertaining film, especially for those who enjoy the series. It has the good production elements of more expensive Disney features including a lot of close-ups of the cast and some nice morphing effects. The series itself was a cheaper production, it relied mostly on wide shots and had minimal effects.

The film's limited popularity is probably because it is a bit too serious; they could have had a lot more fun with the premise. Young is not very good at expressing wide-eyed wonder at what is happening to either of his characters, he just looks stunned most of the time.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
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