Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Rating

Director

Jake Kasdan

Screenplay

Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner (Book by Chris Van Allsburg)

Length

1h 59m

Starring

Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Rhys Darby, Bobby Cannavale, Alex Wolff, Ser’Darius Blain, Madison Iseman, Morgan Turner, Mason Guccione

MPAA Rating

PG-13 for adventure action, suggestive content and some language

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Review

For adults of a certain age, 1995 was the year that Robin Williams took audiences deep into a jungle right within his own home in the inventive adaptation Jumanji. While technology has changed in the last twenty-two years, the sense of adventure has not with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

Based on a popular book, the original film co-starred Bonnie Hunt and Kirsten Dunst in the story of a board game that brought another world into the real world as Williams and company fought to win the game at great peril. Taking the familiar board game concept of the original film and twisting it further to pull audiences into a virtual video game world seemed like a natural evolution for the return.

Although that original film was quite popular, ranking seventh at the year’s box office, no sequel was ever planned. Now, we’re finally brought back to the realm that was once so enticing, pulling in new generations of families to experience the magic with Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan taking the lead roles.

Sitting unused in the basement of a local high school, the board game Jumanji has taken a new form, that of a console video game, not unlike a 1980s Atari console. When four students are sentenced to detention and find themselves bored in the basement, they fire up the console and enter the world of Jumanji. Literally. The self-conscious dork (Alex Wolff) becomes the bulky team leader Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Johnson); his childhood best friend and football star (Ser’Darius Blain) becomes zoologist Franklin “Mouse” Finbar (Hart), who is also Bravestone’s weapons valet; the populist phone addict (Madison Iseman) becomes the cartographer/cryptographer/archaeologist/paleontologist Sheldon “Shelly” Oberon (Black); and the overachiever (Morgan Turner) becomes the martial arts master Ruby Roundhouse (Gillan).

Not only must this quartet (and later quintet, adding Nick Jonas as the team’s pilot) battle a sinister plot to control the Jaguar’s Eye by the big game hunter Van Pelt (Bobby Cannavale) and save the kingdom of Jumanji, they must also combat internal strife among the four non-friends, thrust into a game requiring trust that they don’t yet possess.

While a production like this seldom puts forth strong acting performances, Gillan aims to thwart that stereotype with her oustanding performance as Ruby Roundhouse. Trading on the awkwardness of a girl who was never outwardly social, Gillan adopts the mannerisms and affectations of her teenage counterpart (Turner) to create a credible reflection of the character. Several scenes stand out, but none more so than her attempts to flirt with a pair of confused hangar guards.

Black is also strong as the feminized Shelly Oberon, having to convey the anger, frustration, and confusion of a cute, popular girl being forced into the body of a fat, ugly man. While it would be easy for this to become a caricature and it almost does, Black keeps the excessive preening as minimized as he can to avoid it feeling both sexist and reductive. The sexual tension he creates with co-star Jonas, with whom his teenage symbiote (Iseman) has an attraction, is palpable and is never once made to feel homophobic.

Rounding out the solid performances are Jonas as the lost pilot and Cannavale as the vicious, possessed big game hunter on the group’s trail. Johnson and Hart play their commonplace schticks well, even though there isn’t much depth to either performance.

Quite possibly the funniest movie in some time, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is an incessantly ribald and coarse comedy that trades on modestly juvenile humor in unique and hilarious ways. The trailer made this film look like a folly of epic proportions, a film as different from its fun-loving original as it is similar to an R-Rated comedy without the more lewd humor and sharp language. Yet, the film is energetic, engaging, and entertaining to everyone’s surprise.

Oscar Prospects

None

Review Written

August 7, 2018