Remakes of popular films from the 80's and 90's are always risky. I can't say that I was very excited to hear they were redoing the Robin Williams 1995 hit, but JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE won me over. It's a hell of a lot of fun.
When four teenagers are sent to detention for the day and find an old game console, they are whisked into the game and adventure begins.
The best plot twist (its in the trailers so not a spolier) is that they become very different people in the game.
Awkward nerd Spencer becomes the ripped giant in the guise of Dwayne Johnson, who has a blast portraying a nervous teen suddenly in this massive body.
A giant young football player nicknamed Fridge becomes the diminutive Kevin Hart inside the game. Hart is hilarious and nearly steals the movie. His character's reaction to cake is perfectly baked by Hart.
Jack Black has his best role in years as the game avatar version of Martha, the classic teenage blonde who never looks up from her phone in real life. Who would have thought Black would find so much comic inspiration in playing a 16 year old girl? He's hilarious.
Karen Gillian (Guardians of the Galaxy) is the martial arts wielding, Lara Croft-like version of real life shy girl Martha.
Forced to work together inside the game to escape back to reality, our foursome provides a ton of laughs, a few lessons in working together and some huge action sequences that mashup Indiana Jones, Tron and some nice references to the original film.
Johnson and Hart show the same easy comedy chemistry they began in "Central Intelligence", using their difference in size for some great physical comedy.
The Albino Rhino sequence is a blast, as is the conclusion of their quest on a massive jungle set.
With nearly a billion dollar gross worldwide, its probably a matter of time before we see a second trip into the game. This time, I'll look forward to it.
JUMANJI gets a laugh-filled, old fashioned adventure tinged B.
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