Jumanji series

  • Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)

    Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Amazon Streaming, December 2020) The least you can say about Jumanji: The Next Level is that it’s consistent with its predecessor. Further digging into the “Jumanji as videogame” spin from its earlier predecessors, this sequel keeps more or less the same level of humour, body-switching gags (leading to acting impersonations) and level-based schematic narrative. But when you’re got distinctive performers like Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Awkwafina, Danny Glover and Danny DeVito, well, why tinker with a winning formula? The result somehow avoids excessive repetition, and keeps up the blend of humour and special-effects adventure. Director Jake Kasdan keeps things moving at a brisk clip (unusually enough, the 123-minute effects-heavy film was completed in something like ten months) and the actors deliver what they were hired for. Jumanji: The Next Level may not be easy to distinguish from its predecessor, but it’s more or less the same level of quality, and that was one of the best outcomes anyone could hope for.

  • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

    Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, July 2018) I frankly wasn’t expecting much from a return to the Jumanji universe: The original is uneven enough (something not helped at all by its copious but primitive CGI effects) that a sequel seemed unnecessary—it felt even less necessary when it became obvious that it was going to focus on videogames, a topic as overexposed as could be. But I’ll be the first to admit that I was unexpectedly charmed by the result: Anchored by the likable Dwayne Johnson, supported by the careful use of often-grating comic actors as Kevin Hart and Jack Black, and further enhanced by a great performance from lesser-known Karen Gillian, the cast is up to the film’s surprisingly witty script. Not only revisiting the Jumanji concept through familiar videogame mechanics, Welcome to the Jungle wrings comedy out of shifting character relationships, body identity questions, and videogame tropes addressed with some wit. While the structure is schematic by design and some plot developments can be seen well in advance, much of the film’s interest is in the moment-by-moment beats. It does deliver a bit more than expected, which is already not too bad considering the tendency of modern reboots, sequels and rip-offs towards mediocrity.