Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (DVD/Blu-Ray) Review
By: Nik S
Director: Jake Kasdan
Producer(s): Matt Tolmach, William Teitler
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Bobby Cannavale
Production Company: Columbia Pictures, Matt Tolmach Productions, Radar Pictures, Seven Bucks
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
Runtime: 119 minutes
The film starts off in 1996, a year after the original, where a man jogging along a beach stumbles upon the classic board game buried in the sand. He takes it home to his teenage son who promptly tells himself that no one plays board games anymore, then proceeds to play Twisted Metal. Over night the board game transforms itself into a video game cartridge, in which the young man teleports inside of the game. Fast forward twenty-one years and we meet our main cast, a Breakfast Club group of individuals who all have to meet up in detention. Spencer (Wolff), the hypochondriac nerd who's really into games, gets into trouble for writing a research paper for an ex-friend Anthony 'Fridge' Johnson (Blain). They're joined by Bethany (Iseman), a self-absorbed teen who's addicted to to social media, and Martha (Morgan) a young intellectual who believes physical education is unnecessary to the education process. During detention, where they have to clean up magazines to be recycled by pulling out their staples when Fridge comes across an old console. After selecting their characters, they are transported into the world of Jumanji. The teens become their chosen avatars: Spencer becomes Professor Smolder Bravestone (Johnson) an Indiana Jones style archeologist, Fridge's to Franklin 'Mouse' Oberon (Hart) Bravestone's zoologist sidekick, Bethany changes into the opposite gender as Sheldon 'Shelly' Oberon a cartographer, cryptographer, archaeologist, and paleontologist, with Martha as Ruby Roundhouse who is a martial arts expert. Together, they have to join forces to return an ancient jewel to a statue in order to end a curse and make their way back home.
The film, though receiving negative attention from many fans of the classic and the original cast, may not be as good as the original but it certainly pushes through with the stars' charm and comedic talent. There are a few nods to the original, letting the audience know that this isn't a reboot by any means (like 'Alan Parrish was here' carved into a fort that he made, as well as his game piece). The film does well to make each actor play by their strengths by making them play their polar opposites. Black and Hart get the most laughs, even though most of their jokes come at their own expense. The body-switching gag does wear thin after a few minutes after it happens, but luckily the cast is able to keep things fresh by owning up to their teenage counterparts (though it often feels like a hyperbole of how a teenager acts). The cinematography is actually well done, with how light reflects off of a character's face, or the sweeping movements during high intensity shots.
What the movie seems to lack in is the directing, and it's apparent that this movie had a rewrite happen somewhere in production due to some small details being overlooked (like how the game started as a cartridge, turned into an Atari-like console with a catridge). All the animals are primarily CGI, probably since most of the filming took place in Hawaii, and they often look incredibly fake. Kasdan, the son of the legendary screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Empire Strikes Back) often tries to pull inspiration from his father's works, but often falls short. There are times where he tries to do a very Spielberg-like action shot only to come off a little corny and not well executed. There's nothing certainly new here for Kasdan to explore or do, and seems to be relying on an odd mix of Avatar and Breakfast Club to help fuel most of his inspirations.
By no means is this movie at all better than the classic with Robbin Williams. However, despite some of its flaws, the movie is actually alright. There's a few cheap laughs towards the beginning when the character's are discovering their avatars are their opposites, but after a few minutes it seems like the characters actually get comfortable with their role and really work with it. Sometimes the actors didn't seem to have good direction, and not all off that can be placed on the director, but possibly the script with the line and situation they were given. If you're a fan of the original you're going to have a love-hate relationship with this film. If you just want a relaxing night with a comedy that has a few raunchy jokes then this will probably do it for you.
Director: Jake Kasdan
Producer(s): Matt Tolmach, William Teitler
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Bobby Cannavale
Production Company: Columbia Pictures, Matt Tolmach Productions, Radar Pictures, Seven Bucks
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
Runtime: 119 minutes
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a sequel to the 1995 film Jumanji, directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinker. Jumanji is an adaptation of a 1981 children's picture book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. The film was announced in August of 2015 and was slated originally for a 2016 release. Filming dealt with some production problems as they didn't get their full cast until late in 2016, and had to replace their composer for their musical score. Principal photography began in Honolulu September of 2016 and ended in Atlanta in December of the same year. In March 2017, during CinemaCon, it was announced that the film was to be called Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. It premiered at the Grand Rex in Paris on December 5th of 2017, and was released in the united states two weeks later to meet the holiday market release. The film had a production budget of $90 million, and receiving $954 million internationally at the box office making it one of the 10 highest-grossing pictures of 2017 (according to boxofficeguru.com).
The film starts off in 1996, a year after the original, where a man jogging along a beach stumbles upon the classic board game buried in the sand. He takes it home to his teenage son who promptly tells himself that no one plays board games anymore, then proceeds to play Twisted Metal. Over night the board game transforms itself into a video game cartridge, in which the young man teleports inside of the game. Fast forward twenty-one years and we meet our main cast, a Breakfast Club group of individuals who all have to meet up in detention. Spencer (Wolff), the hypochondriac nerd who's really into games, gets into trouble for writing a research paper for an ex-friend Anthony 'Fridge' Johnson (Blain). They're joined by Bethany (Iseman), a self-absorbed teen who's addicted to to social media, and Martha (Morgan) a young intellectual who believes physical education is unnecessary to the education process. During detention, where they have to clean up magazines to be recycled by pulling out their staples when Fridge comes across an old console. After selecting their characters, they are transported into the world of Jumanji. The teens become their chosen avatars: Spencer becomes Professor Smolder Bravestone (Johnson) an Indiana Jones style archeologist, Fridge's to Franklin 'Mouse' Oberon (Hart) Bravestone's zoologist sidekick, Bethany changes into the opposite gender as Sheldon 'Shelly' Oberon a cartographer, cryptographer, archaeologist, and paleontologist, with Martha as Ruby Roundhouse who is a martial arts expert. Together, they have to join forces to return an ancient jewel to a statue in order to end a curse and make their way back home.
The film, though receiving negative attention from many fans of the classic and the original cast, may not be as good as the original but it certainly pushes through with the stars' charm and comedic talent. There are a few nods to the original, letting the audience know that this isn't a reboot by any means (like 'Alan Parrish was here' carved into a fort that he made, as well as his game piece). The film does well to make each actor play by their strengths by making them play their polar opposites. Black and Hart get the most laughs, even though most of their jokes come at their own expense. The body-switching gag does wear thin after a few minutes after it happens, but luckily the cast is able to keep things fresh by owning up to their teenage counterparts (though it often feels like a hyperbole of how a teenager acts). The cinematography is actually well done, with how light reflects off of a character's face, or the sweeping movements during high intensity shots.
What the movie seems to lack in is the directing, and it's apparent that this movie had a rewrite happen somewhere in production due to some small details being overlooked (like how the game started as a cartridge, turned into an Atari-like console with a catridge). All the animals are primarily CGI, probably since most of the filming took place in Hawaii, and they often look incredibly fake. Kasdan, the son of the legendary screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Empire Strikes Back) often tries to pull inspiration from his father's works, but often falls short. There are times where he tries to do a very Spielberg-like action shot only to come off a little corny and not well executed. There's nothing certainly new here for Kasdan to explore or do, and seems to be relying on an odd mix of Avatar and Breakfast Club to help fuel most of his inspirations.
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