Due to the
Metro Manila Film Festival, the movie
Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle wont be showing in theaters here until
January 8 so I wont be able to make a review of the movie until next year. So
instead Im going to make a quick review of the first original movie Jumanji. The movie
that stared Robin Williams and Bonnie Hunt along with Kirsten Dunst and Bradley
Pierce. There will be spoilers so if you havent watched the movie yet you have
been warned.
SPOILER
WARNING
Jumanji is
a America December 15, 1995 in theaters and it became the 10th
highest grossing film in the year 1995 with a film budget of 65 million
dollars. There was a sort of sequel named Zathura: A Space Adventure which is
based in another one of Van Allsburg books which I also got to watch but this
review is about the 1995 Jumanji movie so lets stick with that.
I havent watched this movie in the theaters but on VHS format at our
neighbors house I often hang out a lot back when I was a kid. I had no idea
what the movie Jumanji was all about aside from it gave me a sort of Indiana
Jones feel to it, and growing up back in the 90's Im a big fan of Indiana Jones
films because of Harrison Ford and Starwars so this film got me really
interested.
The movie starts out back in 1869 with two men burying a wooden chest in
the woods. One can tell from their short dialogue that whatever was in that box is
bad news. Fast forward then to 1969 we see this kid name Alan Parrish accidentally stumble upon said
chest at a construction yard. He finds a mysterious board game named "Jumanji"
inside and just simply out of curiosity decides to take it home.
One would think Alan knew taking that board game was a bad idea from the
first time that thing played that catchy jungle drums. I know its curiosity and
all but shouldn't he have called an adult or something. There needs to be rules
about these kind of things back then for kids, like "Dont talk to
Strangers" and "Dont take home mysterious board games that plays
catchy jungle drum beats."
Eventually Alan with a great lack of parental supervision ends up
playing said board game with his friend Sarah who at the beginning starts out convince him how bad
an idea playing the game is but ends up playing it with him. Sarah
is probably his only friend in this film judging as how he doesn't seem to be part
of the famous kids of school and seems to be bullied a lot.
Both of them roll the games dice and things turn out from bad to worst
as Alan is mysterious dragged into the boardgame and Sarah is chased out of the
house by a swarm of screaming bats like a scene from a bad Batman film.
We then move forward in time to the present day where we see another
pair of kids as they stumble upon the game in an old abandoned mansion which we
soon learn later is Alans childhood home. For some reason they also end up
playing the game and Alan is set free from the board game and also has grown to
manhood and is now being played by Robin Williams.
Alan befriends the two kids and the three sets out to find Sarah who is
now a reclusive fortune teller. They try to convince her to finish the game. I simply
cannot stretch how stupid an idea that was but I guess they need to get the
plot along not that theres really a deep plot at this point of the film.
As the plot continues they find themselves nearly killed by lions,
rhinos, elephants, giant insects, poisoned darts, giant plants that tried to strangle
them or eat them, snakes, birds and giant mosquitoes. Even going so far as to wrestle
with a crocodile, giant plastic looking spiders and crazy cgi monkeys. This
movie has all the elements of an Indiana Jones movie flick short of the Nazi
and a giant boulder.
Alan and the group eventually finished the game alive by sheer luck of a
dice roll and everything is conveniently sucked back into the game. Sarah and
Alan find themselves a kid again back into 1969. The two eventually meet up
with the kids again in the future and the Jumanji board game somewhat buried
again for future sequels.
Jumanji doesn't offer much in terms of story plots and more of just an
adventure film where the main characters are thrust into one dangerous
situation after another via a literal roll of a dice. Its a kids film that came
out of December as a holiday adventure movie flick and more or less that's what
this movie is all about. Films that came before it like Never Ending Story
practically has the same core elements with the main characters being thrust
into high adventure via magical object of sort, so this movie isnt winning any
brownie points for originality. There's also the issue of violence, some
swearing and Alan's father being accused of murdering his own kid. Or Sarah being
a compulsive liar but the film rarely brings the subject up and just concentrate
on the main character being killed or eaten. This is a PG movie that should
have been a PG13 considering all the dangers the kids faced in the movie.
This movie uses a lot of cgi and a lot of them still holds up to some
extent to this day. This is a 90's film at a time when cgi rendered effects is
rather new to movies so having bad special effects are bound to show up. But
then there are those giant spiders that anyone can easily tell are just giant
plastic props or badly made cgi. There are those atrocious looking cgi monkeys
that tanks the movie in the effects department so much that you want to skip
forward the movie on the scene where they are shown. Thankfully they are rarely
seen in the film that much.
Acting wise Robin Williams easily is the best part of the film. Sure the
others played their role well but its Robin Williams portrayal of the adult
Alan Parrish thats the real icing on the cake. He does the innocent kid mind in
an adult body so well its both charming and believable. I personally think the
movie wouldn't work as well as it did if he wasn't there.
Jumanji is a good popcorn movie if you want some entertaining adventure
film to watch with your friends and family. Its is a good family fun that you wont mind watching every year on Christmas eve with the kids or at family gatherings. The kids would easily find this entertaining to say the least. The film had gathered a following and is
considered one of the iconic films of the 90's. Its been parodied and there was
even a cartoon that is very loosely based on the film. I'd easily recommend watching
this movie at least once to anyone and an easy 9 out of ten for me.
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