Directed by:
Jake KasdanCinematography:
Gyula PadosComposer:
Henry JackmanCast:
Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Nick Jonas, Virginia Newcomb, Missi Pyle, Bobby Cannavale, Maribeth Monroe, Madison Iseman, Rhys Darby (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Four high school students get sucked into the jungle setting of a video game, where they embark on a quest as their comically mismatched adult avatars. (Netflix)
Videos (12)
Reviews (14)
An understandable generational upgrade of a classic for today's degenerate audience. Noisier, more digital, more spectacular, but also lacking in childlike charm and family values. Definitely cool fun for millennials with likeable jokes and big names in the cast that certainly don't make a disgrace. We older folks would rather watch the original from the 1990s, as this remake evaporates from our minds during the screening.
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Quite possibly my last visit to the cinema this year (there have been 37) and definitely a hit. Excellent nostalgic entertainment after 22 years. The concept of the play is slightly off from the original, which is perhaps the biggest criticism, but otherwise the film certainly works in every respect. The humour is once again handled by the excellent Kevin Hart and comes through for Jack Black, The Rock is traditionally entertaining and Karen Gillan's vixen has charm. Humour is plentiful and mostly successful, there's also plenty of animals (hippopotamus, rhinoceros, crocodiles, jaguars, black mamba, elephant) and there are contact fights, making the action a nice all-round treat to keep the whole family entertained. It's a bit far-fetched at times and a few scenes are ridiculous, but as long as you accept that it's actually a video game, there's no reason to get upset about the logic. 80%
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While the original Jumanji is a classic in the family film genre, the Zathura variation was aimed exclusively at younger children, and then the modern Jumanji is pure entertainment for fans of Jack Black and Dwayne Johnson. If you enjoy those two, you'll be satisfied, if not, you can safely skip it.
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The saddest thing about the new Jumanji isn't that it's a poorly made yawn that proves comedy directors simply aren't suitable material for shooting action or otherwise spectacular scenes, and the only thing that saves it is the casting of the central foursome of adults, with Jack Black in particular reigning supreme as a uniquely transgender character smuggled into a family film. Saddest of all is how the game of Jumanji itself has shifted from its promising origins. Whereas twenty years ago that board game gave us a breath of distant adventure in unexplored and dangerous wildernesses by confronting the protagonists with huge herds of game, giant insects, or quicksand, with the realization that some unspecified wilderness was out there close by, the new version brings us back down to earth. The reason is that this makes all too clear the end of unexplored lands, the end of experiences beyond the known, the end to bidding farewell to your doorstep, as the only way to begin a wild adventure is in an imaginary world in the body of an imaginary character, because there is nothing in the world left undiscovered and uncharted. The original Jumanji didn't particularly move me as a child, it didn't feel exhilarating, indeed the danger was tangible, much of the acting took place in a darkened attic full of old artefacts, the whole film was set sometime in a rainy fall, and the character of John Williams was essentially sadly tragic (he lost his entire childhood and adolescence somewhere on a white spot on a map...). This exuberant extravaganza poses no challenge to anyone, and it's tiresome as hell.
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It does not hurt to give it a single watch, but the original film remains and will remain unsurpassed because its adventurous atmosphere has not been invoked or imitated by anyone else. It's also a shame that when it comes to humor, the new Jumanji benefits the entire time from just making the players and characters look completely different, and how they behave. Not that it doesn't lead to good comic situations, but there's too much going on, and it's more or less the same thing over and over, only with little changes. And when even the action scenes don't really dazzle you... It is average, but not terrible.
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