Ok, this film has been out since December 20th of 2017, and is now on Blu Ray. I think in December that I was turned away by the reviews (always a problem) and then just got too busy to get around to it. My friends noted it was a good film so I put it on my must-catch-in-theaters list. The director is Jake Kasdan, director of comedies like Bad Teacher (2011) and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), he has a good comedic touch here and balances the action.
This is of course is a kind-of sequel to the 1995 Jumanji film and both movies are based on the Chris Van Allsburg 1981 picture book. The movie also launched the board game from Milton Bradley that year. Chris McKenna who worked on Spider-Man: Homecoming provided the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinkner. It begins on 1996, a year after the first film?, at a beach the Jumanji board game is uncovered by a man. Then, we get his New Hampshire home with his young boy, Alex (Mason Guccione) is given the board game, but is only interested in his video game. At night, he hears the drums and finds that the board game’s wooden case opens to reveal a video game cartridge. A light shines in his window. Jumanji!
This is of course is a kind-of sequel to the 1995 Jumanji film and both movies are based on the Chris Van Allsburg 1981 picture book. The movie also launched the board game from Milton Bradley that year. Chris McKenna who worked on Spider-Man: Homecoming provided the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinkner. It begins on 1996, a year after the first film?, at a beach the Jumanji board game is uncovered by a man. Then, we get his New Hampshire home with his young boy, Alex (Mason Guccione) is given the board game, but is only interested in his video game. At night, he hears the drums and finds that the board game’s wooden case opens to reveal a video game cartridge. A light shines in his window. Jumanji!
We shift to 2016, I wasn’t certain this was identified in the film, but it holds up based on later information. Nerdy guy Spencer Gilpin (Alex Gilpin) wakes up and works on finishing a paper that he prints out. He heads out to meet with his “friend”, Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), a football player who takes the essay Spencer wrote up for him. He leaves Spencer behind to be driven to school by a female student. We can see Spencer’s lack of confidence and of course Fridge not paying attention to what he should be doing to keep his one specialty, football. The old house that is their meeting place, the same home of Alex from the beginning, has his father (Tim Matheson), send him away.
Then, we get Bethany (Madison Iseman) who is busy getting the perfect selfie and then at school chats with her friend after finishing a test. This gets her into detention. It turns to the gym where Spencer is about to toss a football. The P.E. teacher (played by Missi Pyle) asks Martha (Morgan Turner) why she doesn’t participate and she says she should be working on academics instead. Martha shows contempt for P.E. teachers and gets detention. Spencer sees her and calls her a “bad ass.” Yup, we are headed to the Breakfast Club. Joining the club is Spencer and Fridge for copying Spencer’s old papers and Fridge is thrown off the football team. Detention is an old basement with the assignment to unclip staples on old magazines. Spencer uncovers an old video game console (the Jumanji cartridge is still inserted) and he goes to hook it up to a television.
Then, we get Bethany (Madison Iseman) who is busy getting the perfect selfie and then at school chats with her friend after finishing a test. This gets her into detention. It turns to the gym where Spencer is about to toss a football. The P.E. teacher (played by Missi Pyle) asks Martha (Morgan Turner) why she doesn’t participate and she says she should be working on academics instead. Martha shows contempt for P.E. teachers and gets detention. Spencer sees her and calls her a “bad ass.” Yup, we are headed to the Breakfast Club. Joining the club is Spencer and Fridge for copying Spencer’s old papers and Fridge is thrown off the football team. Detention is an old basement with the assignment to unclip staples on old magazines. Spencer uncovers an old video game console (the Jumanji cartridge is still inserted) and he goes to hook it up to a television.
Fridge randomly chooses a character, Franklin “Moose” Finbar, and Spencer likes the name of his character, Dr. Smolder Bravestone. Bethany chooses a professor Shelly Oberon and says Martha doesn’t like fun so she takes Ruby Roundhouse, a Man Killer. The game then draws each person into the jungle world. Spencer finds himself tumbling in the jungle and is startled to find himself in the Dwayne Johnson body of Smolder Bravestone. The tall football player, the Fridge, discovers that Moose’s nickname was actually Mouse and he is now Kevin Hart high. The Johnson/Hart team works better here than their earlier comedy Central Intelligence (2016).
Wallflower Martha is turned into Karen Gillan in cut-off shirt and shorts as Ruby. She is the most interesting character for me. Selfie-absorbed Bethany finds the greatest change in Jack Black’s Shelly, short for Sheldon Oberon! They all find that they have three-lined tattoos on their wrists. The adult actors keep their teenage personalities. In fact, the through line is so fun that I was waiting for them to escape the game, and return to being teens. Shelly confronts his new reflection and he is so stunned that a hippopotamus grabs him and tears him apart! There is a boom and Shelly falls out of the sky, Spencer who plays video games realizes that the tattoos show their three lives in the game. The video game concept is fun and brings the unreality of the action and constant attacks by animals.
Wallflower Martha is turned into Karen Gillan in cut-off shirt and shorts as Ruby. She is the most interesting character for me. Selfie-absorbed Bethany finds the greatest change in Jack Black’s Shelly, short for Sheldon Oberon! They all find that they have three-lined tattoos on their wrists. The adult actors keep their teenage personalities. In fact, the through line is so fun that I was waiting for them to escape the game, and return to being teens. Shelly confronts his new reflection and he is so stunned that a hippopotamus grabs him and tears him apart! There is a boom and Shelly falls out of the sky, Spencer who plays video games realizes that the tattoos show their three lives in the game. The video game concept is fun and brings the unreality of the action and constant attacks by animals.
The references to video games are throughout the film, really like the horror movie cliches pointed out in Scream (1996). Bravestone activates his character’s menu and sees that he is skilled at climbing. Mouse looks his menu and finds that he can carry things in his backpack and his weakness is cake! Ruby Roundhouse can Dance Fight. Shelly is a cartographer. They of course have to use their skills and end up trapped by their weaknesses. The group is chased by the hippo and then a jeep pulls up with Nigel Billingsley (Rhys Darby) whom Bravestone realizes is a NPC, a non-player character, there to help them.
He fills in the group with what Spencer identifies as a cut scene showing the evil Van Pelt (Bobby Cannavale) who takes out the Jaguar’s Eye from a statue and curses the land of Jumanji. Nigel manages to steal the green gem, Van Pelt has control of all of Jumanji’s animals, and wants to get back the Jaguar’s Eye. This is their mission and Nigel hands them the Jaguar’s Eye. Nigel has a single dialogue track so he can only questions connected to whatever is needed for the game otherwise he just repeats things. It is something that runs through the movie. The group has to survive Van Pelt’s mercenaries hunting them through the jungle and a bazaar. They have to follow the clues of the game to reach the more difficult levels.
He fills in the group with what Spencer identifies as a cut scene showing the evil Van Pelt (Bobby Cannavale) who takes out the Jaguar’s Eye from a statue and curses the land of Jumanji. Nigel manages to steal the green gem, Van Pelt has control of all of Jumanji’s animals, and wants to get back the Jaguar’s Eye. This is their mission and Nigel hands them the Jaguar’s Eye. Nigel has a single dialogue track so he can only questions connected to whatever is needed for the game otherwise he just repeats things. It is something that runs through the movie. The group has to survive Van Pelt’s mercenaries hunting them through the jungle and a bazaar. They have to follow the clues of the game to reach the more difficult levels.
There are more animals, but strangely no monkeys. The danger doesn’t feel “real” since it is like a video game, but it doesn’t get repetitive or boring. The movie moves along at a fun pace. Later, they get help from a mysterious character played by Nick Jonas. There are some funny scenes like when Shelly has to pee and Bravestone and Mouse show him the rules. We get the confidence of Spencer in Bravestone and then the conflict comes to a head with Mouse over his getting kicked off the team and Spencer clinging to him for friendship. We also get Martha (Ruby) falling for Spencer (Bravestone) and their awkwardness is great! One of the best scenes is Bethany (Shelly) teaching Martha (Ruby) how to put on the charm to distract some guards. Karen Gillan is hilarious at being clumsy. This is a stronger scene than the short make-over of Allison in Breakfast Club. I've seen her comedy chops in her 2014 sitcom Selfie. There is a brief mention of a character from the first movie. So an entertaining action film with nice comedy.
Four Jaguar’s Eye out of Five!
#JumanjiWelcometotheJungle, #DwayneJohnson, #KevinHart, #JakeKasdan
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