Jumanji: The Next Level

Even though its central concept seems ever-so-slightly more strained this time, 'Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)' is about as good as its predecessor. In fact, it's sometimes even better. Basically, the flick is just fun. The crowd-pleasing body-swapping is amped up to eleven, shaking things up just enough so that they feel fresh. The main actors continue to properly impress in their chameleon-like roles, joined by a few extra treats that perform far better than you'd perhaps expect. Indeed, these new players are probably its biggest asset; a couple of them thoroughly perforate the entire experience despite only having a rather small amount of screen-time. The picture is often funny - though, never hilarious - and is oddly endearing, to boot. It isn't particularly deep or, even, memorable but it doesn't need to be. It's a good time at the movies; what more do you need? Obviously some better theming and, perhaps, a tad of nuance wouldn't go amiss, but it's just not that kind of film really and that's perfectly fine. Even if it doesn't impact you as much as some of the year's best, it'll certainly make you smile and keep you entertained for a couple of hours. Besides, its inciting incident is driven purely by character and it even manages to squeeze some genuine emotional connection, via a well-drawn dynamic between DeVito and Glover, into its otherwise otherworldly proceedings. Its acting is also deceptively simple but decidedly fantastic, fully immersing you in the idea that these major stars are actually four teenagers and two old men. Basically, it's not as simple as you might think. 7/10

I absolutely loved the first instalment and to a large extent those that enjoyed the first will enjoy this it's still entertaining fast paced and humerous. The only thing I found was rather than laughing out loud and being on the edge of my seat like the first I had the occasional chuckle sat back. Having said that laughing out loud or not I was never bored and still had a smile on my face for the majority of the film. A decent sequel exiting at in interesting point for a potential 3rd movie.

One of the pleasant movie surprises of Christmas 2017 for me was "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle". I expected it to be a tired retread of the original classic, but instead it turned into a highly entertaining action comedy. Reading my review again, I was rather po-faced about it and scored it with a rather measly 7/10. But this rather belies my secret love of the movie: it is a film that I can invariably watch and enjoy again and again.

This was also a film that raked in a HUGE return at the box office, getting close to the billion dollar number on its $90 million budget. During the spring of 2018, this was an almost permanent resident at the multiplexes (until "The Greatest Showman" and "Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again" took over the residence for the rest of the year!) . A sequel was inevitable

We rejoin the cast some time after the events of the first film, and the geeky teenage lovers - Spencer and Bethany - are trying, unsuccessfully, to carry on their long distance relationship while at separate colleges. Spencer is struggling mentally; lacking in confidence and momentum and desperate to feel like 'Smoulder' Bravestone again.

On returning to his home town for the holidays, Spencer fixes the shattered game. But the console is unpredictable and when the game sucks people into Jumanji this time it's not just Spencer and two of his friends that go in, but Spencer's Grandpa Eddie (Danny DeVito) and his old friend Milo (Danny Glover).

When they get there though, things have changed and the mission is a different one. A "next level" indeed!

This is very much 'much of the same' from the first film. Yes, there's a different backdrop with desert and mountain 'levels' to play through. But the same fun, with exploding avatars and dangerous cake, is to be had again. The script team had to do something different here, and they did that by mixing up the avatars (including a surprising equine player) and throwing in the 'pensioners' to the mix. There is new fun to be mined here from the now nimble-again Eddie and the slow-talking and laconic Milo never quite getting to the point in time.

The stars were all persuaded back for another ride. The four avatar leads (Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Jack Black and Kevin Hart) all return, together with the young teens (Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Ser'Darius Blain and Madison Iseman). Nick Jonas and his older real-life player Colin Hanks are back. Even Nigel "Welcome to Jumanji" Billingsley (Rhys Darby) returns, this time swapping his jeep for a plane.

The newcomers to the cast are also welcome. Glover and DeVito are at their cranky best, and introduce a genuinely touching moment into the film. And a new avatar - Ming Fleetfoot - is fabulous in the form of Awkwafina, so brilliant in this year's "The Farewell".

There's not much more to say on this. If you liked the original, you'll enjoy this one too. Many of the same jokes are trotted out again. The villain (here Rory McCann) is as forgettable as in the first film. It's not breaking any records in terms of originality, but the producers won't mind about that as long as it drags the crowds in again. At the time of writing it has made $320K on its $125K budget, so that seems to be working.

Jake Kasdan is again at the helm. But I really hope enough is enough, and they leave it at this. The mid-credits scene might suggest though that greed is going to dictate a Jumanji 4 (or 5 in some people's books). The returns, I fear, from the franchise will be ever diminishing from this point forwards.

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I am very fond of the first iteration of JUMANJI, with Robin Williams giving a wonderful performance and the latest in CGI, which looks either quaintly charming or charmingly quaint a quarter of a century later. The remake a couple of years ago struck me as foolish before I saw it, but it turned into a highly amusing movie, with some favored performers. It made enough money that now it is a series. If they continue at this level, it will be a pleasant movie for me to see every couple of years.

When we last saw Jumanji, it had been turned into a home video game, and the youngsters were vowing never to return. Well, by and large they do, because the last one turned into a surprise hit. They're a couple of years older, cracks have formed in their relationships, and for various reasons, two of them can't go in, because their avatars are taken by Danny Devito as Alex Wolff's grandfather, and Danny Glover as Devito's former business partner. They've been angry with each other for several years.

It's a different adventure, and it makes as much sense as any video game. The avatars get swapped around, so the acting fun consists of watching the actors playing other actors in a FACE OFF sort of way. Dwayne Johnson does a pretty good Devito imitation, but Awkwafina does a better one.

This is one movie that is not going to win any awards, but if you're not in the mood for deep-dish suffering nor for something biliously Christmas-like, this is a movie with good performers in roles and situations that will amuse you.

I thought the last Jumanji movie was pretty decent, not perfect, but definitely not bad. If you liked that one you will like this. It is very much just more of the same. If it ain't broke, you know.

A couple new faces, one of them I really liked seeing. Won't say who it was, but if you're older than 20, chances are good you like the person.

The action is like last time, it's entertaining, but not mind blowing. The effects are overall good. The Rock has some, lets call them punching scenes, which I liked. Although the action direction overall, could have been slightly better, tighter.

They once again have fun with the fact that the characters "in game" represent characters in the movies "real life". And I am pretty impressed with how the actors fared. Maybe especially Dwayne Johnson. (I think he's taking some serious acting classes, he's getting better) Overall the cast in this is very likeable.

I didn't feel quite that much that I was in a video game, this time around though. Felt more like just an adventure, than an adventure videogame. They could have hammered home a little better. So yeah, I was entertained, but it's pretty shallow and won't stick with me like, say, the origianl Jumanji. (I watched that as a kid, and it was kind of revolutionary, so of course it stuck) Nice family flick.