Film Review - Jumanji: The Next Level (12A)

No, no, no! I'm the old fat dude!

In pure dollar terms 2017's Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was the biggest blockbuster surprise of the last decade. Part of the reason was its deft blending of comedy and adventure, but more was due to how imaginately it subverted the expectations of everyone who had seen the Robin Williams original. Whatever the cause, the film's outlandish level of success meant that this sequel was destined to exist - only question, would it be more than a cynical exercise in wringing cash from the built-in audience? I can happily report that with the original creative team on board, Jumanji: The Next Level stays original and creative. It's also a lot of fun.

High school is over for our Breakfast Clubby quartet - and while three of them have moved on emotionally and geographically, geeky Spencer is in a hometown rut. Secretly he longs to be video game character Dr. Smolder Braveheart all over again. Thus when his friends arrive home for Christmas break, they find that he has reconstructed the magical game they thought had been destroyed and vanished inside it. What can they do but follow him? However the damaged game is playing by different rules this time. When Spencer's ailing grandfather (Danny DeVito) and the friend with whom he fell out decades before (fellow-Danny Glover) get dragged into Jumanji as well, virtually no one ends up as the avatar they expected. Add to that their new quest - one that turns out to be fraught with even more peril than before.

The big achievement of The Next Level is that it takes all that made its 2017 predecessor so much fun - the video-game tropes, the crackling banter, the sharp visuals - and mixes things up enough to keep them fresh. With the bickering protagonists of Welcome to the Jungle now firmly united in friendship, it's inspired to have them teamed with a pair of grumpy old men, painfully trying to explain the rules of what's going on as the usual Jumanji madness breaks out all around. And while Karen Gillen's Martha gets to revisit her Amy Roundhouse character (a move which grounds the potentially confusing experience for the audience), Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black all get to play entertainingly against their original types.

This plot device is never less than entertaining, but works particularly well in Hart's case. While Black was the most consistently hilarious character in the Jungle, this time it's the diminuative star of The Upside and Night School who shines, his high-pitched motor-mouth shtick replaced with something very different. And just when that seam of comedy threatens to reach exhaustion, the screenplay stirs the body-swap plotline even more. What is truly impressive - and a credit to the more mature actors - is how easily you can follow the thread of the teens' character journeys through a variety of video game personas. In other words, you never lose track of who's who, however break-neck the pace of the narrative, and stay invested as a result. 

The rebooted franchise should also be commended for keeping a tight focus on character interactions, no matter how furiously the action hurtles along. The joke-heavy dialogue never lets up - even when our heroic band are fending off a vicious monkey attack miles in the air - and an impressively high percentage of their gags raise a laugh. Visually the sequel is a step up from before, with Laurence of Arabia desert vistas and craggy snow-capped peaks providing respite from the traditional Jumanji jungle. Throw in some great support performances that I won't even spoil and you have as satisfying a family-friendly advanture as you're likely to watch this Christmas and most others.

There's a concensus among critics that Jumanji: The Next Level is a solid sequel, complimenting but not quite matching Welcome to the Jungle, due to the underlying concept no longer being fresh. Well maybe it's because I came to the Jungle two years late with the surprise already spoiled, but I actually preferred this new one. It made me laugh more, it thrilled me more and  - in its sub-plot of two older characters reviewing their life choices - it even moved me a little bit more. The makers should probably quit while they're so far ahead, but from the end-credits that's not going to happen. If they do go for the trilogy (and there's around zero per cent chance that they won't) let's hope the writers have enough ideas in reserve to re-summon that Jumanji magic. This time around it was so worth it.

Gut Reaction: I laughed, loudly and a lot, including every damn time Hart opened his mouth. On a few occasions I even got properly enthralled.

Memorable Moment: The mandrill bridge attack. One of those occasions that properly enthralled me.

Ed's Verdict: 7.5/10. A worthy companion piece to the first (new) Jumanji, The Next Level is a great comedy showcase for multiple talents and (occasional genital references aside) a terrific family night out. Pass the popcorn and enjoy the ride.  

Film Review - The Dead Don't Die (15)

This is definitely going to end badly.

The Dead Don't Die is the new film from American auteur Jim Jarmusch and bears immediate comparison with Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead. Both are inspired by George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead and its sequels, both are broadly comic and both treat the zombie concept as allegory for various social ills. But while Jarmusch's tale has its morbid pleasures, its chances of achieving the same adored cult status as Shaun strike me as an undead kind of slim.

Chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) and Officer Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver) police the quiet mid-American town of Centerville, where the height of crime appears to be the theft of Farmer Frank Miller's chickens by local recluse Hermit Bob. But stories of the Earth having been knocked off its axis due to fracking activity are all over the news and the sun is going down way too late. There are more serious consequences too when darkness does fall - something very nasty is crawling from the local graveyard and the good townspeople are about to be besieged by undead horror. Cliff and Ronnie, along with fellow officer Mindy Morrison (Chloe Sevigny), have a hellish day ahead, but perhaps they'll have some support from the town's enigmatic new funeral director - Tilda Swinton as the kitana sword-wielding Zelda Winston. (Spot the anagram?)

Anyone expecting traditional levels of zombie-related mayhem here might do well to check out the director's back catalogue. Jarmusch is known for talk-heavy, leisurely paced screenplays, that eschew action for character development. While The Dead Don't Die has moments of vivid flesh-eating gore and a climactic kill-count as high as most movies in the genre, its heart lies elsewhere - in lengthy scenes laced with deadpan humour (no pun intended) and satire that's even more in your face than that of Romero's classic trilogy. Here Jarmusch takes the 'zombies as the ultimate comsumers' idea from 1978's Dawn of the Dead a step further, with the entire zombie hoard representing the ravishment of the Earth by Middle American shoppers. Meanwhile Hermit Bob (Tom Waits) provides a wry and growly commentary on the whole sorry mess, as the one character who has opted out of the modern consumer malaise.

It's an approach that provides intermittent fun. Parts of this film are genuinely hilarious - the Murray and Driver double-act is consistently poker-faced and droll, Danny Glover strikes up an endearing partnership with comic-book store clerk Caleb Landry Jones (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and Steve Buscemi produces a few real guffaws as the bigoted Farmer Frank. Overall, however, it's too concerned with being offbeat and odd to mesh effectively with the subject-matter. The lack of momentum becomes frustrating and not all the cast embrace Jarmusch's brand of weirdness with equal success. Also the screenplay's indulgence in self-referential humour and third-wall breaking (constant references to the movie's specially-commissioned theme song and its writer are only the start of it) amuse at first, before starting to irritate.

Don't get me wrong - I laughed more frequently and more heartily at this quirky indy take on the zombie apocalypse than at most mainstream comedies. It's just that the writer-director seems to be approaching the subject-matter as a diverson rather than anything more weighty. Even the satire is deliberately spread on thick, so you can't really take it seriously. The Dead Don't Die is worth your time, but ultimately when it comes to z-horror, Shaun's slacker Brit-comedy proved a much more natural fit.

Gut Reaction: Big laughs and awkwardness. A strange combination for a very strange film.

Memorable Moment: A famililar zombie face at the diner...

Ed's Verdict: 6/10. Jarmusch's love for Romero is clear and his zom-com has his moments. But it's not off-centre genre classic for which I'd hoped.