Critics aren’t like normal people. We watch movies for money, mostly because we’re giant nerds, and we like movies that Advance the Art of the Motion Picture. This is why most critically acclaimed films stumble at the box office — because normal people just want to go to the movies and have some fun. As a professional pretentious person, it would be easy to harsh on “Jumper,” which is out today. But if I had to pay for my own tickets, this is exactly the kind of fun little movie I’d want to see on a Friday night. It’s a big-budget action flick full of flash and dash that manages to be a lot of mindless fun while not insulting your intelligence too much. Given the low IQ of most action movies, this is a major achievement.

Based on a young adult novel of the same name, “Jumper” is about a 15-year-old named David (Hayden Christensen) who suddenly discovers that he can escape from his gloomy life (absent mother, mean father, school bullies) by teleporting through time and space. First up, run away from home. Next up, rob some banks. Then? Let’s go surfing in Fiji, eat lunch atop the Sphinx, and hook up with hot chicks in London — it’s all in a day’s play for the insecure, super-powered, and super-entitled 23-year-old he becomes.

But it’s hard to shake those puberty blues, and it’s not long before David is paying secret stalker visits to his high school crush, Millie (Rachel Bilson, who needs to eat a sandwich). Impressing her with all the things stolen money can buy, he whisks her off to Rome, which leads to romance, which leads to scenes of another jumper spying on their canoodling, which finally leads to the appearance of Samuel L. Jackson in a fright wig leading a cult of Paladins. They’re nice folks who want to kill all the jumpers because God told them to.

Personal growth and character development are represented by Mr. Christensen’s progression from sexy and callow at the start of the film to sexy and broody at the end. The mysterious other jumper (Jamie Bell) reveals himself to be a tough, quirky street punk, but his dialogue is never quite as clever as the screenwriters seem to think it is. Similarly, the locations look like slick picture postcards rather than real places, and the endless parade of fast cars, cool outfits, and luxury props begins to feel as if you’re flipping through a catalogue.

But the jumping is an impressive gimmick, and this movie isn’t long enough for director Doug Liman to get bored. Mr. Liman, who also directed “The Bourne Identity” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” seems to have the attention span of a flea, and though the first two-thirds of his movies start out with pumping adrenaline and high concepts, one can sense him getting more and more restless by the minute. Case in point: Everyone remembers the country house shoot-out at the end of “Bourne,” but few people remember the lame “body surfing” climax 10 minutes later.

Happily, “Jumper” runs a breakneck 88 minutes — 30 minutes shorter than both of Mr. Liman’s previous films, and the director never runs out of inventive new teleporting tricks to show off. In the film, David has become overly dependent on jumping, using it as a substitute for opening a door or even walking across a room. It’s his way of “skipping the boring parts,” as he puts it, and Mr. Liman makes this the movie’s mandate. Plot exposition is nonexistent, and all the stodgy, predictable set-up we usually have to slog through is leapfrogged in the blink of an eye. “The boring parts” were left on the editor’s desk, and while any number of loose plot threads dangle enticingly, “Jumper” takes such glee in showing you something new and cool every five minutes that you feel like a killjoy for yanking on them.

Breaking down the numbers, you’re paying eight cents a minute for “Jumper.” In terms of sheer entertainment value, it would be a bargain at twice the price.