Home Cinema Retro Review - Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (12)

It's a lot easier to be brave when you've got lives to spare.

This time two years ago I was so absorbed with The Last Jedi as the big holiday family movie that I bypassed another little filmic entertainment - one that went on to gross nearly a billion dollars at the worldwide box-office. With its sequel now on general release, here at last is my Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle review:

The Gist: Four disparate teens in detention - so far, so Breakfast Club - discover a video version of the game Jumanji. That's the same one Robin Williams and a group of kids played back in 1995, only twenty-four years ago they were all dealing with a magical boardgame. This time around the players in question find themselves not only sucked into the game, but transformed into the avatars they so innocently choose. Thus nerdy hypochondriac Spencer - for example - becomes the unfeasibly muscular Dr Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), while his gym-enhanced fellow-student 'Fridge' is reduced to the Kevin Hart-sized zoologist Franklin 'Mouse' Finbar. Together these unlikely adventurers must find their way through Jumanji's various levels, fulfilling an epic quest before they run out of video-game lives, and developing a sense of camaraderie along the way. (See? The Breakfast Club with ravenous rhinos.)

The Juice: It actually worked in Jumanji 2017's favour that no one really cared about a sequel to the Williams movie. Expectations were so low that this revamp exploded into cinemas as a refreshing surprise. Chief among its plus-points is the comic use of a video-game avatar conceit. Johnson and Hart make great comic capital out of their role-reversals, Karen Gillen embraces both the irritation and the exuberance of a sardonic alt-teen dropped into the body and costume of a Lara Croft-esque bad-ass and Jack Black steals one scene after another as the high-school it-girl turned into - well - Jack Black. The bickering foursome with all their excitement, outrage and jokey banter form the story's centre, so that the special effects serve to enhance rather than to overwhelm. The script has inventive fun throughout with gaming tropes and succeesd in raising the stakes when it matters. It all zips along so that you don't even feel the two-hour runtime, nor have room to ask why the villains have independent lives in a video game. (Well they wouldn't, would they???)

The Judgement: 7/10. I'd been told for two years the Jumanji reboot was a good time and it didn't let me down. One or two dubiously adult (but nonetheless amusing) jokes aside, this is an exhilerating family adventure, which spins the Jumanji format into something fresh, funny and entertaining. Never more so than every time Jack Black speaks. An unexpected treat - or it would have been, had I not been so late to the virtual jungle party.

  

DVD/Blu-Ray Mini-Review - The Kid Who Would Be King (PG)

I'm supposed to stop her... That's ridiculous. I'm twelve. I'm not even old enough to do a paper round.

The Gist: Alex is a fatherless and bullied London schoolboy with a penchant (along with his best friend Bedders) for Arthurian mythology. When he discovers a certain medieval sword in the concrete of a derelict building, his life takes a fantastical turn. A gangly and eccentric new student at the boys' school warns of the return of evil sorceress Morgana - half-sister to King Arthur himself - and of imminent apocalypse. That's shortly before fiery horseback demons start wreaking havoc in the home Alex shares with his mum. Teaming up with some unlikely allies, Alex and Bedders shoulder their destiny and set off on a quest to save the modern-day Realm of Britain.

The Juice: The Kid Who Would Be King is an unabashedly family-friendly follow-up by writer/director Joe Cornish of his 2011 hit Attack the Block. It's also resolutely urban-British in all its sensibilities (not unlike the earthbound elements of the modern Doctor Who), with a rough-and-tumble London comprehensive school serving as backdrop to much of the fantasy. Commendably light on CGI, the narrative focuses much more on old-fashioned virtues of loyalty and companionship than crazy action-mayhem. Cornish's screenplay is in the tradition of boy's-own adventure, albeit with twists of contemporary humour, and his direction keeps things fluid and dynamic. The youthful performances are clunky at points but always likeable, with Louis Ashbourne Serkis (yes, he is son of Andy) rising to the challenge as a latter-day King Arthur and Angus Imrie putting in an enjoyably wacky take on Young Merlin. Oh, and a bit of actorly gravitas is supplied by Sir Patrick Stewart and Rebecca Ferguson as the older Merlin and villainous Morgana respectively.

The Judgement: 7/10. It's a shame that this film wasn't a bigger box-office success earlier this year, as it's a genuinely charming adventure for kids and parents alike, with flashes of striking beauty once the story transfers to the rural heartland of Arthurian legend. (It's also funny without resorting to fart and poo jokes, always a blessed relief.) With its message of finding common ground in divided times so life's bigger challenges can be met, there's a lot here to love. It'll make for a great family movie night - so seriously, give it a go.