Sunday, 14 January 2018

Jumanji: Welcome to the Review


Image courtesy IMDb

Just as much as I love reading books, I enjoy watching movies too. It’s a gene inherited from my parents.  

Now, besides watching movies in the theatres, I record movies on my set-top box and watch it at night, within the comfortable confines of our living room.

I have new found company for animated films in my five year old, Skip (Though, I really think he comes just for the popcorn). I record movies for Skip as well and he has now slowly graduated to watching non-animated children’s films like Home Alone, Baby’s Day Out, Dunston Checks In, Zathura etc. I recently made him watch Jumanji (Part 1) on TV and he seemed to like it.

And what do you know! Part 2 had hit the theatres. I wasn’t even aware of a sequel until I heard it on the radio. I screeched in delight and looked around in the car at the other passengers. My parents had suddenly something very important to discuss and my husband began avoiding eye contact. Skip looked at me and said “we’ll go driving”. Please note that I have recently started driving and shall do another post reviewing the Alto K10 automatic car.

I LOVED (still do) Jumanji. I couldn’t wait to watch the sequel and dish it. Sequels rarely match up to the original. We went to a nondescript mall closest to our house that had the most convenient timing, post lunch. Not expecting a jam packed theatre, I decided to book tickets at the counter. Bad decision, as the only seats available was at the first row.

I was a bit disappointed thinking Skip would have to strain his neck, looking up at the screen, the whole time. We grabbed our 3D glasses. Skip wasn’t pleased with his small “baby glasses”.  Since we’d just had lunch, I had to pull the drooling 5 year old away from the popcorn counter with the promise of cheese popcorn during the “intermission”.  The couple walking towards our seat was wondering why I was giving them dirty looks. They plonked themselves next to us with their gigantic tub of popcorn! (Exaggerated eye-roll)

Skip is very loud in theatres. He waits for the theatre to quieten before he can make his proclamation to the public. “I am very very hungry, you haven’t given me anything to eat” said Skip looking at our neighbours’ popcorn.  Thankfully, the screen lit up and the trailers of the upcoming films began. It started off with the Akshay Kumar starrer ‘Padman’. The audience drowned in laughter, the trailer was funny. Skip waited for his moment and loudly asked, “This is not a Batman, this is a Padman, but what is a Pad?” Everyone burst out laughing again. Skip was pleased and with that he forgot his popcorn.

REVIEW BEGINS HERE:  The movie begins with a kid inserting a cartridge into a video game console and my heart sank a little.  I have no patience for spotty high school kids and how dare they change the game from a board game to a video game. Are all these millennials too cool for board games!

The movie proceeds with four high school kids being sucked into the game’s setting into the world of Jumanji where they don on their respective video game avatars. This is where Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson makes his entry which was met with a lot of hoots and cat calls in the theatre and a “Why are you screaming now” from Skip.  The four characters are then enlisted to return the jewel, ‘Jaguar’s eye’ to a gigantic rocky Jaguar statue. The movie follows their journey from their entry into the game all the way up till the statue. The path is trodden with hurdles thrown in by Russel Van Pelt, a hunter, who wants the jewel for himself in order to be able to control the animals of Jumanji. Each player has three lives, losing all of which would mean death. This is a typical action-adventure film and it reminded me of a light hearted version of Hunger Games.

The 3D effects are superb and the effect was much more pronounced being in the first row. The movie is HILARIOUS, the actors are funny especially Jack Black and Kevin Hart.  The five year old had his eyebrows up and mouth wide open so I am presuming he enjoyed it too. At the risk of sounding unfaithful to Robin Williams, Dwayne did an excellent job as the protagonist, Dr. Smolder Bravestone.

Yes, I would record this movie when it comes on TV and watch it again.


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