Four high school students serving after school detention discover an old cartridge video game in the school's storage area. It's called "Jumanji" and when they play it, the game sucks them into its world, where they each inhabit a different character: nerdy Spencer becomes Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), a musclebound action hero; football jock Fridge becomes diminutive sidekick Mouse (Kevin Hart); vacuous pretty girl Bethany becomes chubby middle-aged male scientist Prof. Oberon (Jack Black); and academically-driven Martha becomes Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan) a sexy martial artist. The quartet learn that they have to complete the game to return to the real world and their real bodies, but they each only have 3 lives in the game; die 3 times in the game, and they die for real.
I saw the original Jumanji movie back in 1995 and liked it a great deal and I was therefore dreading how a reboot would taint the memory of the original. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The dichotomy of the characters in their real lives versus their in-game personas is funny and well exploited, and the conventions of video game storytelling and set-up are also lampooned with some wit. Johnson, Hart and Black are all performers who can be over the top, but the material calls for it here, and they all exceed, as does Gillan, especially during her hilariously awkward "seduction" scene. Even if some of the animal peril is blatantly more CGI cartoonery, it also fits with the videogame milieu. This strictly popcorn fare, but it isn't brainless, although it's a bit predictable. Still, it was much better than expected.
