Wow, is that stupid. Is Hannaham aware that the movie is based on a series of Young Adult novels, and that the 'jumping' ability is a common fantasy among young males? Who are not, it barely needs reiteration, widely known for their foresight and maturity...

This movie really does look like something I would have written when I was 12. That might not make it a good movie, but some kids should get a kick out of it, right? I mean, I liked Stargate a lot when I was 12.

'Jumping' is a common fantasy among young males? Among which species of males? Not to flame but, my young fantasies always included invincibility and a girl named Leah from home-ec.

Also, I don't agree with Mr. Hannaham that terrible movies characterize a nation's people. Persons? Inhabitants? Who am I trying to impress with this cleverdripper anyway? The plummeting standards of the educational system, the number of hilariously ironic printed tee-shirts sold, and the inability to form even the rezmblants of a compleet sents pretty much takes care of that. And who even uses their blinkers today? But how many Americans believe the South Korean people to be bloody vengeminded sadists wielding a hammer against their foes and their estranged daughter's bathing suit area? Granted, different audiences and different sized spoons, but, let's keep it in perspective here.

Let's let the movie characterize what it should, a twenty cent idea and a director with the will to think he can. Bad movies folks, bad movies.

JE: I said "kids," not "young males" -- but don't tell me you never fantasized about getting out of a tight spot at will, or popping into Leah's whenever you wanted...

I wonder if they're called "Paladins" in the movie not after imperial guards of ancient Rome or high officials of the Catholic Church, but from a source a little more popular amongst kids these days.

And for the record, my childhood fantasies consisted almost exclusively of being Spider-Man. Which, as you could imagine, explains why I still feel physical pain whenever I think about Spider-Man 3.

but don't tell me you never fantasized about getting out of a tight spot at will, or popping into Leah's whenever you wanted...

That's disturbing on so many levels.

JE: What? I decided to leave out one little unnecessary noun... and it makes all the difference.

Ali,

It's disturbing to you that Jim is not asexual?

It needs to be noted that the novel JUMPER by Stephen Gould is really quite remarkable, as a character study and as a young adult thriller. I should also note that, unlike common complaints made about the movie, it establishes its rules and sticks by them.

World conflicts and terroristic hatred go alot deeper then anything seen on a two-demisional screen.

But both views agree the movie is bad right?

Just a note here, Sir, regarding the comment alluding to American direspect for foreign antiquities: the character who destroyed the sculptures had a foreign accent.. not sure he was from the US-He first saw the main character in the UK i believe..

You found yourself giggling at "Jumper"? I was so incredibly bored not a single emotion registered while I sat through the movie. Not even one of disdain.

Though it would be fun to teleport anywhere I wanted, I always wanted to be able to kick and punch people really well. Though without the turtle shell or the blindness thing. I was also drawn to the Punisher, but guns aren't my thing - I ended up being more of a Batman kind of guy.

And I think perhaps that this shows the Filmmakers disregards for foreign antiquities. My feeling is that if they disrespected human life in arenas like the Coliseum, we can certainly tear apart the digital reconstruction of it without feeling guilty.

Phillip: Don't get me wrong: The laughter at the critics' screening here became contagious sometimes (it was in a theater seating 450 or so, but with only about 30 people in it), but it wasn't because we were enjoying ourselves. It was because it was so nonsensical that we were mildly flabbergasted. How about that "Oh, these kids nowadays!" look Samuel L. Jackson gives at the end -- or the unbelievably unnecessary epilogue. (I actually guffawed when HC's mom said she had only one choice, to kill him or to leave, and he responds with disgust: "So, you left!") But, as I said in the review, I would rather have been almost anywhere else while the movie was in front of me. I NEVER check my watch during movies (I carry a pocket watch, so it involves a little extra effort), but I think I checked twice in only 88 minutes. Because it's impossible to care about anything. (I was just checking off tourist spots I'd actually been to, in Rome, Egypt, NY, etc. I've never hung out on Big Ben or the head of the Sphinx, though. Never been to Tokyo or Ann Arbor, either...) For that reason, I don't think I have misbehaved so badly (with inappropriate laughter) during a movie since a packed house for Neil Diamond's "Jazz Singer" on its opening weekend. Nobody in "Jumper" was as funny as Laurence Olivier in that one.

I understand the laughing at movies you can't believe have been made. "August Rush" had me crying I was laughing so hard. I went to see "Battlefield Earth" three times dragging people with me because I couldn't believe it!

This...what did you say 88 minutes??? Felt like 4 hours. It was sooooo bad, Jim...soooo bad. That part that kept getting me was that these Paladins are supposed to be these religious fanatics and they all looked like they were merely working 9-5 jobs. Minimum wage. Hardly fanatical.

And I'm sorry, if that much money goes missing over that long a time, there's going to be more people looking for you than a secret group with a goofy name. And if someone who I thought had died under an icy river that I felt responsible for the last thing I'd do is act buddy-buddy when he suddenly appears 8 years later! Every moment of this film sucked the life energy out of me. I couldn't laugh. I only felt like fleeing and putting my hand over a hot flame to make sure I was still alive.

My main concern is that JIm seems to think that a movie such as this reflect what Americans are. It doesn't - it reflects what Hollywood types think Americans are. Big city people are sophisticated, country folk are rubes, the beautiful people are the good guys, ugly people are evil, etc.

Not right and he should know better.

Interesting that the original books actually talked about the jumper having a global awareness and conscience - acting to 'jump' into situations with great personal danger to fight terrorist plots. Lost in the films, it seems. Pity!

Favourite nonsensical movie experience: "Game of Death," the Bruce Lee movie that was completed after his death with stock footage, awkward doubles with sunglasses, and shots of his actual funeral. Which was even funnier than, i.e., Ed Wood movies, in part because when my friends and I saw it we didn't actually know any of this ahead of time, and just thought we'd be seeing something akin to "Enter the Dragon."

Here is a man who sees China as the vague outline of a rice field. Here is a man who sees Egypt as a Sphynx and a few half-glimpsed pyramids. Here is a man who sees France as an outdoor cafe, and the middle-east as a half-glimpsed desert bubbling with oil. I thought that this movie was not so much a depiction of the American psyche as it was as good an illustration of the globalized person as any I had ever seen.

The moment he gains the ability to travel anywhere at will is the moment it is no longer worthwhile to travel anywhere; when a man gains access to the universal he finds that it is a tiny, worthless thing. Nothing in all the world is smaller than the whole world, than the universal or the generalized. Nothing in all the world is is larger than the local, the specific, the individual.