0
0
Rating: 3 out of 5
I was bored recently at the crib and wanted something to watch. As I flipped through the endless movies on Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube, I ran into the problem of having nothing to watch. More movies than I can dream of, and still nothing to watch. As I flipped, I saw the original Jumanji and remembered when it came out. I think I saw that movie in theaters about six times. Yea, I was a little kid, and I even bought the actual board game that was on sale in Walmart. I honestly don’t know why I was so drawn to the film at the time. Maybe it was because it starred Robin Williams, but after watching the movie, that couldn’t have been it because he was not the typical wild self. After giving it a view, the special effects really don’t hold up, but hey, the story is still pretty good.
Say the name!!!! JUMANJI!!!! Droppin way back in 1995. Damn, that was almost 30 years ago. Damn! Where does time go? Well, the film starts off in 1869, when two dudes are running from the sounds of drums while holding a box-type thing. They bury it deep in the ground. The film then jumps forward to 1969, when a young boy named Alan Parrish gets bullied. Dude managed to run into his pop’s shoe factory. He first speaks to Carl (Grier), who has created a fly-ass sneaker and thinks it’s the future. Alan carelessly places the new shoe design on a conveyor belt as he is startled by his dad, Sam Parrish (Hyde). Sam is a hard ass who tells Alan he needs to man the f-up and handle business. Just then, they hear a grinding sound from one of the machines. Alan notices that he was the cause of damaging the machine, but Carl takes the blame.
Okay, so far with me. Alan leaves, gets beat up by the bullies, and jacks his bike. As Alan is chilling in a hole, he hears drums and finds a box buried in the ground. As Alan wipes the box cover, he sees it’s a game called Jumanji. That evening, Alan fights with his pops as he doesn’t want to go to a boarding school, and words are exchanged. Alan calls up his friend and little shawty, Sarah Whittle, and they decide to play the game. Shit gets real and strange. Alan is sucked into the game, and Sarah is chased down the street by bats.
End of the movie, right? Nope, we jump again, twenty-six years later, when Nora Shepherd (Neuwirth) has moved into the vacant Parrish mansion with her niece and nephew, Judy (Dunst) and Peter (Pierce). Judy and Peter’s parents were killed, and the siblings are dealing with it in their own way. While exploring the house, the pair find the game and decide to play. Once again, all hell breaks loose. Judy’s roll produces giant ass mosquitoes and Peter unleashes some of the worst CGI looking monkeys. Since Peter rolled doubles, he gets another go and rolls a 5. Peter unleashes a lion, but boom, Alan (Williams) appears, now 40-something and looking like the strange version of Tarzan’s brother. Alan captures the lion in a room, thanks the pair for freeing him, and then sets out to find his parents. The film reintroduces Sarah (Hunt) as a psychic who had to deal with the trauma of being chased by bats and seeing Alan sucked into the game.
The film goes into each person taking their turn to get closer to the center. That is what the whole movie and story is about. It is getting to the center of the board and screaming the name JUMANJI!! We see the characters roll their dice and land on a spot, and something happens. We see carnivorous plants that eat you or the purple ones that shoot poison darts. How can we forget about the stampede? The stampede is hilarious most of the time for that one rhino that lags behind and seems to have an asthma attack. I feel its pain as it runs. I know the feeling. Then there are some nasty ass spiders that look like they came straight from Australia. You know you need a crocodile that appears during a monsoon. Honestly, no one would’ve survived without Alan’s knowledge. Everyone would’ve been dead a long time ago. The film made sure to add in a big game hunter by the name of Van Pelt. With Van Pelt, we seemed to get how the game works and some rules because we just see people rolling and shit happening.
The CGI was probably great back when I first saw it, but damn, it was bad today, along with the animatronics. The monkeys looked HORRIBLE. Damn, they were awful to look at, and some things don’t age like fine wine. Everything just looked off and not pleasing to the eye.
I think where the film tried but failed a little bit was with the cast. They did their jobs, but if you were expecting the all-out funny Robin Williams, this isn’t the film. He has a few funny lines but is pretty much reserved and somewhat spiteful. David Alan Grier as Carl Bentle was the one who had all the funny lines. He was one of the best parts of the whole film. It seemed like he got the brunt of every bad thing that happened. As Sarah Whittle, Bonnie Hunt was funny as she had that mom-type role and tried to deal with Alan. How about young Kirsten Dunst? I forgot how young she was in this film. She was sassy when she needed to be but also the brave one who pushed everyone to complete the game. I need to give some love to Jonathan Hyde. Dude played double duty in this film. He was also another person who stole the spotlight in this film as Van Pelt.
Jumanji is one of those films that is okay, but the later versions are a lot better. It has its moments and brings on the Jumanji franchise, but it did take a few years for the next film to come out. Robin Williams and the rest of the cast do a good job in this film, and the story is pretty good. The story was different back then. It was Tron-like but without the fantastic special effects. How would it be to dive into a real game like Monopoly or Battleship? Don’t need to answer that because one is straight-up life, and the other is the Navy. Watch this film and have fun. In the end, scream JUMANJI!!!
