Entertainment Monday (19 September 2016) Pants on Fire

Pants on Fire is a made of tv movie by Disney. It’s a story about Jack Parker (Bradley Steven Perry) , a 15 year old boy who lies to get out of trouble and to impress people. His biggest lie is that he helps an underprivileged boy named Mikey by being his friend and tutor. Jack made up Mikey so that he could have an excuse for being late and not doing things. Jack’s principal nominates Jack for the Student of the Year award for being an upstanding student. The Student of the Year gets their dream internship and Jack wants to be a bat boy for the Red Sox.

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After Jack’s nomination Mikey (played by Tyrel Jackson Williams) appears as well as some other people he lied about such as his hot long distance girlfriend and aliens that had tried to adbuct him. Jack and his friends try to solve whether Mikey has magically come to life or if he’s just another liar trying to con them.

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Bradley Steven Perry’s acting was satisfactory for a kids movie. Jack is a likeable character despite being a liar. His lies never hurt anyone but he was starting to become a compulsive liar. All the rest of the cast are okay too rather than outstanding but I expected as much. The roles were one dimensional and typical for kids movies. Jack had two friend, one goof ball and one intelligent one that exist just to support him,  two clueless parents, an resentful sister and a cute love interest.

I really liked the premise of this movie and working out the truth about Mikey. It’s not a clever mystery and it’s not supposed to be as it is a kid’s movie. I thought Tyrel Williams was excellent as Mikey. He played him eccentrically like he was alien in human form which added to the mystery. There were a few cute and funny moments as Jack tries to find out about Mikey. The best part being when Jack sneaks into the house of the girl he likes because she had invited Mikey over. There are some near misses where he almost gets discovered by her family members which I thought was amusing.

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