The Jensen Project (2010)

Strong and Moving!

Crappy film

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

At the start of the movie, Brody and Samantha are flying a plane over New York City. One gets the impression they're not supposed to be doing this.Let's back up a few days. Claire is a teacher, but at one time she designed a revolutionary technology called "nanobots", tiny computers which could be used by one person to control the body of another. Very valuable to the military--for both sides. You wouldn't want to be a soldier if the enemy had the technology and could use it on you.But Edwin disapproved of the quality of Claire's work and she was out of the program, known as The Jensen Project. Now she's married to pediatrician and immunologist Matt (who was also in The Jensen Project), and they have a teenage son Brody who is a genius like his parents. You won't believe how his technological expertise allows him to skip school (but not without consequences when he's found out!) And what he does when on his own is similar to playing video games, but much more advanced. He doesn't hate learning; he's just bored in a traditional education environment.Ingrid shows up with shocking news. Edwin has quit The Jensen Project and destroyed evidence his work. He is now developing nanobot technology for the enemy, who communicates with him through Mr. Cho. That's not to say he wants to be evil, but Mr. Cho has terrible things planned for Edwin if he doesn't obey.Only two people can save the world now! Guess who they are? Naturally Brody comes along, and while exploring this fantastic secret installation he meets Samantha, a brilliant teenage scientist who has been on her own for years. Possible romance? Maybe.The action gets pretty exciting, for a family movie. Maybe I shouldn't say action, because it's not that much of an action movie. However, there are moral dilemmas that must be dealt with or the world is in serious trouble.This is a family film. There are a few scenes of unethical testing of harmful technology. And, yes, even Brody is put in jeopardy. But there's nothing that serious here. A little minor violence here and there.The acting isn't particularly outstanding, but it's okay. Alyssa Diaz is the standout as the genius teen with an attitude. I was a little disappointed in Patricia Richardson because in her first scene she has the personality of a robot. She develops emotions fairly quickly and improves for the most part, though. That's the only real weakness I could see.Kellie Martin sure looks young to be a teenager's mother--except where her facial expressions and the lighting show off her wrinkles. Well, at least we know she hasn't had work done. Her hair and clothes are quite pretty, and sometimes her face is too. She does a good job acting.The real achievement here is visual effects. No computer screens--the information just hangs in the air. People walk through walls and even fireplaces. And there's plenty more. Nothing groundbreaking, I'm sure, on a TV-movie budget, but interesting to watch all the same.It was worth seeing.

I really like the idea behind this movie, a group of geniuses gathered together to solve the world's problems not for the credit, but because its the right thing to do. It was interesting to see Kellie Martin take on the adult role. She did well, but that makeup job made her look like she was pushing 40 and she's only 34. Patricia Richardson was good, but underutilized. Same for LeVar Burton. The special effects were really awesome. There were a couple of things that bugged me. While I realize it was necessary, all that science talk would start to lose me at times. The other was for the guy that played Edwin. When they are running the experiments on the nanobot, and the Asian guy keeps messing with the test subject's heart by first lowering it, and then making it go really fast, Edwin objects to it seeming to indicate that he's not a killer. However, when it's placed in Brody, he seems to have no problem with letting him die if need be. Overall, though I did really enjoy it. It's a good movie to sit down and watch with the family, and not have to worry about it being overly violent, with lots of bad language, and sexual content.

I disagree with some of the other reviewers here. I watched this last night and hope it turns into a series. It was very cute, very light, a nice family TV movie in the spirit of Spy Kids. Was it the greatest thing I have ever seen, no. Was it the worst thing, no. It was nice to see TV vets Patricia Richardson and LeVar Burton, 33 years now since Roots, believe it or not. Kellie Martin is a bit young to play the mother of teen ager, but she did it very well as always. She always shows class and grace in her roles and did very well in this cute family movie. It is what they refer to as a "back door" pilot and so if it did well they might turn it into a series. It would be better probably as a series of TV movies, similar to Mystery Woman, another Martin series. Nice to see something family oriented nowadays.

My ratings out of 5:Acting 1/5 (only for Kellie Martin)Directing 0.5/5Dialogue 0/5 (never mind how infernally fast actors spoke when dealing with comic-book technology so we couldn't understand)Story 2.5/5 Script 1/5Set design 3/5I quit after about 40 minutes. Pathetic and ghastly and manipulative. Too much speed-talking. Too much background music (bad pop) for who knows what reason. The premise was quite good. The execution was as bad and as cynical as it could be.