Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Casting: Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Bobby Cannavale

Rated: 7/10

Jumanji has been synonymous with Robin Williams, the brilliant actor who is no more. But the 2017 version of this adventure board game reinvents itself beautifully to catch your attention with a whole lot of jungle adventure yes, but also a hilarious dose of humour, fun and frolic that is engaging and enervating all at the same time.

Centred around the antics of four detention students tasked to unstaple thousands of papers for recycling stumble across a gaming console which sucks them into a trickle jungle affair where a possessed man from 1996, a giant jaguar who has lost his magic jewel, a whole lot of trappings and suicidal runs lord over a jungle game which the four school detentioners are compelled to play.

Besides, of course, the adrenaline that flows through the well choreographed, graphic and well-paced sequences of the jungle game, it is the characterisation of the four players that takes your goat with their quirks. A self obsession teen, an introverted girl not wanting any contact with men, football player Fridge with a chip on his shoulder (Ser’Darius Blain) and a geeky nerdy self-conscious boy no one looks (Alex Wolff) at make for an interesting study. More so, when Bethany (Madison Iseman) goes into a man’s body to guide the pack as cartographer Prof Shelly Oberon, the hulk becomes a funny black zoologist Moose Finbar and the nobody boy becomes, well, no less than a smouldering, towering Dr Smolder Braveston (Dwayne Johnson) who can’t believe the transformation as much as the introverted girl Martha (Morgan Turner) can’t believe that she has been reborn as a dancer fighter!

Based on loosely based on the same Chris Van Allsburg book but directed by Jake Kasdan, this one is a fun movie for all ages and a perfect tribute to Robin Williams.

The show, by the way, was sold out for the entire first day which is rare in these days of multiple multiplexes.

You could go and enjoy the experience too.

Source: The Sunday Pioneer, 31 December, 2017