Lawrence Clan Keeps ‘Ship’ Afloat

Recast “Gilligan’s Island” with the Lawrence brothers, throw in a bit of “Baywatch” and the Three Stooges, and you have “Jumping Ship,” the playful if entirely predictable Disney Channel movie that premieres tonight at 7.

As in the 1999 movie “Horse Sense,” Joey and Andy Lawrence play cousins from two different worlds, with Joey as a self-absorbed hotshot living off daddy’s money in Beverly Hills and Andy as a down-to-earth kid on a ranch. Middle brother Matt plays the owner of a boat chartered by Joey’s character on an Australian vacation with Andy.

Pirates enter the picture when Joey is seen flashing his money upon his arrival Down Under. (Yes, it’s perfectly preposterous, but you’ll have to take that up with writer-producers Chad and Carey W. Hayes.)

Despite Joey and Andy’s disappointment upon seeing the rust-bucket of a boat that has been chartered over the Internet, they ship off for some deep-sea fishing with Matt. The high-tech pirates follow along, intending to kidnap Joey and collect a ransom, then feed him to the sharks.

Complications strand the guys on an uninhabited island. There, Andy, who has lost his father, bonds with the similarly fatherless Matt. But a continual butting of heads between the shallow, label-conscious Joey and the hardscrabble Matt leaves us to wonder whether these three will ever pull together as a team. Not for long, though. This is, after all, a Disney product, which means that lessons will be gently taught along the way.

Director Michael Lange and cinematographer David Burr make the island look reassuringly idyllic, despite its dangers, and the Lawrence brothers deliver wholesomeness, charisma and, from time to time, genuinely commendable acting.