Carter Jenkins Movies

A group of kids defend their Maine vacation home from knee-high alien invaders in this adventure comedy for the entire family. When Michigan native Bethany Pearson (Ashley Tisdale) arrives home after a secret outing with her boyfriend (Robert Hoffman), her father, Stuart (Kevin Nealon), decides that it's high time for a family vacation. Packing up the car with wife Hannah (Ashley Boettcher), teenage son Tom (Carter Jenkins), and big sister Bethany in tow, Stuart invites the extended family to join them at the vacation home for some much-needed R&R and sets his sights on Maine. Much to Tom's dismay, Bethany's stuck-up boyfriend, Ricky (Hoffman), even manages to wrangle an overnight visit. Shortly after the Pearsons arrive at their sprawling summer home, however, things start to get strange. As dark clouds start to swirl overhead, four glowing objects blast through the sky on a collision course with the Pearsons' roof. But these aren't your typical meteors, because inside dwells tough-talking alien commander Skip, muscle-bound weapons specialist Tazer, lethal female Razor, and geeky four-armed techie Sparks. Before long, the aliens have taken Ricky over via a powerful mind-control device, and announced their intentions to claim Earth for the "Zirkonians." While the adults are completely oblivious to the extraterrestrial threat, the kids fight to save the planet with a little help from Sparks, the alien tech-specialist and one nonhostile invader. John Schultz directs a script penned by British scribe Mark Burton (Wallace & Gromit). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Heaviliy promoted by CBS before its "preview" unveiling on October 18, 2007--and its subsequent "official" debut on October 21--Viva Laughlin was based on the British series Viva Blackpool. The nominal hero was Ripley Holden (Lloyd Owen), a minor-league casino owner who hoped to hit it big with a lavish new gambling emporium in Laughlin, Nevada, the celebrated "mini-Las Vegas" located some 20 miles south of Sin City along the Colorado river. Alas, no sooner had Ripley arrived at his still-under-construction hotel-casino than he learned that his biggest investor had pulled out all his money. Shortly afterward, the investor turned up dead, placing Ripley under the close scrutiny of two somewhat shady characters: casino mogul Nick Fontana (Hugh Jackman, also one of the series' executive producers), who dearly coveted our hero's property; and detective Peter Carlyle (Eric Winter), who suspected Ripley of murder. Peter in fact was so determined to get the goods on Mr. Holden that he pretended to fall in love with Ripley's vacillating wife Natalie (Madchen Amick). Ever lurking in the background was Bunny (Melanie Griffith), the sexy widow of the dead investor, who dropped subtle hints that she knew more than anyone else of what was really going on. Perhaps because the CBS ad campaign misleadingly suggested that Hugh Jackman and Melanie Griffith were the stars of the show instead of secondary characters, or perhaps because viewers were confused by the series' heady blend of mystery, comedy, sexual intrigue, fantasy and out-of-left-field musical numbers, Viva Laughlin failed to win its timeslot. Truth to tell, it didn't even place or show, and was the first big casualty of the 2007-2008 season, cancelled after a scant three episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Some critics labeled the weekly, hour-long series Surface as NBC's spin on the ABC hit Lost, though in fact it more closely resembled the theatrical feature The Abyss. The basic plotline involved a curious new form of sea life that had appeared variously in the South Antarctic Sea, San Diego harbor, the coast of Monterey, and the Gulf of Mexico. The first person to see this phenomenon was oceanographer Laura Daughtery Carstarphen (Lake Bell), from the vantage point of a bathysphere 5,000 feet below the ocean's surface. Others taking a special interest in the strange life forms included a CIA man, a sinister foreign scientist, a pair of fisherman, and a couple of teenagers, one of whom brought the warm, friendly looking creature's egg onto dry land, hiding it in his mom's fish tank, where it promptly hatches and a creature pops out. As the series' multitude of story arcs were played out, a number of disturbing questions were raised: What is this odd sea creature? Where did it come from? The answers, of course, were not immediately forthcoming, but one thing was clear regarding the creature: First impressions were very, very, very deceiving!!! Featured in the cast were Rade Serbedzija as Dr. Aleksander Cirko, Jay R. Ferguson as Richard Owen, Carter Jenkins as Miles, Leighton Meester as Savannah, and Bobby Coleman as Jesse. Created by Josh and Jonas Pate and originally titled Fathom (until another producer staked a prior claim on that moniker!), Surface debuted on September 19, 2005, with one of the most expensive pilot episodes in network TV history. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A washed-up ballplayer is put in charge of a pack of kids scarcely more mature than himself in this remake of the 1976 comedy hit. Morris Buttermaker (Billy Bob Thornton) is a former major league baseball player whose career and life has hit the skids thanks to his overwhelming fondness for booze and women. Needing a break, his lawyer (Marcia Gay Harden) arranges for Buttermaker to take on coaching responsibilities for the Bears, a Little League baseball team comprised of a handful of hapless losers. As Buttermaker tries to groom his young charges into a winning team, he also gives them a glimpse of his hard-living lifestyle while they gear up to take on perennial rivals the Yankees and their arrogant Coach Bullock (Greg Kinnear. The 2005 version of The Bad News Bears was written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who previously scripted another Billy Bob Thornton vehicle, Bad Santa. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi