Jungle Cruise

An old-fashioned adventure with superb special effects and modern sensibilities, Disney’s JUNGLE CRUISE entertained this family from start to finish.

Harkening back to “The African Queen” and the enjoyable camaraderie of Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in “Romancing the Stone”, Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt have effortless charm to spare.

Johnson is Frank Wolff, a Jungle Cruise operator with the cheapest tour on the river, spouting bad puns that will be very familiar to any huge fan of the ride at Disneyland (count us in that group). Frank is always behind on every payment and dock owner Nilo Nemolato (the reliably quirky Paul Giamatti) has come to collect, again.

Enter Blunt as Lily Houghton, a Whip-smart Indiana Jones style adventurer on the quest to find a myth that her late father got close to finding. Along for the ride is her brother MacGregor (charmingly played by Jack Whitehall) who would rather dress up for afternoon tea than have any swashbuckling on his schedule.

The three set off on their quest that reminded me of everything from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” to “Avatar”, but it’s perfectly rendered in stunning CGI that got more than a few WOWS from our home crowd.

Hot on their trail is German Prince Joachim, loudly playing classical German marches on his victrola as he commands a giant U-boat beneath the water. Jesse Plemons (Fargo, The Irishman) steals every scene he’s in like a Disney version of “Inglorious Basterds” Colonel Hans Landa. He’s funny, menacing and completely mad.

Edgar Ramirez’s Aguirre is a scary jungle adversary (right on the edge of too scary for the 7-year-old in our group, but he loved it). If you don’t like snakes, you’re not going to like Aguirre.

Two hours of laughs, fast paced adventure and some surprising twists and turns down the river, JUNGLE CRUISE is the best Disney ride movie since the original “Pirates of the Caribbean” nearly 20 years ago.

Buckle up as you hear James Newton Howard’s terrific score rise over the Disney logo and enjoy the ride, it’s smooth sailing with Frank & Pants to a family friendly B.