By sticking close to home, Jett, played by Lee Thompson Young, tries to walk the line between teen actor and just regular teen. It doesn’t always work. In the film, as Jeff looks towards the big events of junior year in high school, he finds the demands of work and school even more challenging. He also worries that after playing the cool action character for so long, people can’t separate him from his TV character.
“I don’t even know who I am anymore,” Jett cries to his best friend J.B., played by Ryan Sommers Baum, who casually replies, “Maybe you should reed Teen Weekly. They just did an in-depth profile on you.” When the studio insists that he sign a contract to do three more years of the show, Jett hesitates at the thought.
Meanwhile, Jett’s TV alter-ego, Silverstone, is having his own existential crisis. Raised by workers from Mission Omega Matrix, Silverstone wants a regular family and friends but is called to take on the evil Dr. Kragg, played by Michael Ironside. Variety said in their review, “Kragg has been performing dangerous transdimensional experiments and has threatened to take over the world.”
A slight accident with a can of soda and the space/time continuum set prop strangely switches Jett into Silverstone’s dimension and Silverstone into Wilsted.
Variety noted, “Writer Bruce Kalish is careful to remain faithful to the tone of the show, even if that means hasty resolutions and contrived plot devices. Still, pic is not meant to be even remotely close to reality, but does manage to get its message across. Fans of the show will no doubt enjoy what feels like an expanded and very expensive episode of the series, especially when it comes to the long-awaited romance between Jett and Kayla (Kerry Duff).” As Jett, Young makes a role model kids can look up to, similarly to Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer – someone who can satisfy young, action loving audiences without the senseless violence. There’s a sense of empowerment that comes with these types of roles, and done correctly, they act as a great symbol for the confusing teenage years.
Variety said, “Director Shawn Levy does a nice job of providing the action with a minimum amount of aggression, an approach most impressively executed in an imaginative, meticulously choreographed playground fight sequence.” Ironside’s Dr. Kragg is a small appearance but powerful, but scene-stealers are Baum as J.B., Nigel Shawn Williams as Artemus and the lovely Montrose Hagins as Miz Coretta.
Variety mentioned, “Set design features the usual Disney look of sound-lot perfection, but the slick appearance works with the plot.” Technical credits are great, having flawless morphing moments and martial arts special effects like those in “The Matrix” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
I have to say, as someone who never watched the show growing up, I thought this was an enjoyable film. Granted, I don’t think I will go back and watch the show, and I may not even see the movie again, but I think this was interesting. A lot of the jokes worked, the Silverstone show looked like a show that, if it was real, children would enjoy watching it, and it’s smart enough. I don’t know what fans of the show thought about this, but I think there’s clever writing and good acting. This is a decent enough film for everyone to check it out, whether they have seen the show or not. Look and see for yourself.
Tomorrow will be another film based on a famous Disney show in “Disney Month 2021.”
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