Review: The Jensen Project

The Jensen Project is the second movie from Walmart Family Moments. The movie centers around The Jensen Project which is basically an independent think tank of geniuses gathered on a compound researching and developing projects that can save the world. The movie stars Kellie Martin (E.R., Life Goes On), Patricia Richardson (Malcolm in the Middle), and LeVar Burton (Roots, Star Trek: TNG). It was also a backdoor pilot for a possible television series for NBC. It aired this past Friday night.

Let me start by saying that the only way I knew anything about the movie was from LeVar Burton (@levarburton) on Twitter. I don’t think NBC or Walmart promoted this movie. I didn’t see any ads online, on NBC or in any magazine or newspaper. Which is odd, because NBC is notorious for promoting their productions across all NBC/Universal media. Apparently, NBC wasn’t going to give Walmart and P & G their money’s (or is it monies’) worth. Mistake 1: Lack of promotion.

Mistake #2 is dumping it on Friday night. Friday night and Saturday night are for shows and original movies to go and die in peace, unless you are the SyFy network, which leads me to….

Mistake #3: Scheduling it against SyFy Friday. I will go as far as to say that most of the people who would watch The Jensen Project are also Eureka fans and are probably going to watch Haven (Based on Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid). I will not assume that everyone has a DVR.

That being said, I think the movie was actually not bad. It was the type of movie that a family could sit down together and enjoy, thus the whole “Walmart Family Moments” theme. The writing could have been a little tighter and the characters could have been developed some more. Personally, I would have introduced The Jensen Project first and began the movie with the dramatic departure of Dr. Edwin Jensen stealing all the projects from the compound, instead of a less significant scene that happens more than half-way into the movie. I don’t like movies or T.V. shows that start out with a scene that is going to occur later and then jump back with a title card that says “5 Days Ago.” It only ever works when there is some sort of twist involved, like a main character about to die, or a character doing something that is not in their nature.

The effects weren’t bad considering they probably didn’t have a whole lot of “resources” to produce top flight effects. The product placement for Walmart’s Great Value brand was entertaining as well as the showcasing of Microsoft’s Kinect (the motion sensor add-on for the XBox 360) All the actors delivered and sold me on their roles despite having mediocre dialogue, but they did as good as you can do with bad writing. I was completely sold on LeVar Burton as a former NSA operative and Kellie Martin as a genius mom who wasn’t sure of herself.

Should you see it? If you like shows like Eureka, Chuck, Jake 2.0, and a movie like Spy Kids, you might enjoy this with your kids. I’d give it 2 1/2 raised fists, but I don’t have any 1/2s, so I’ll give it 3.