Jumanji A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1996 By Michael Redman
*** (out of ****)
A compelling board game, buried decades before, is found by a young boy in a construction site and has more in store for him than a couple hours of parlor fun. As he discovers when he and a friend begin playing, dice rolls result in the appearance of jungle creatures. Worse yet, when the youngster lands on a particularly fateful square, he is literally whisked away to a jungle where he must remain until another player roles specific numbers.
Twenty six years later, two more kids discover the game, unplayed since the disappearance of our hero. They began playing, roll the magic number, and Robin Williams, grown older in the jungle, materializes.
The three then discover an overlooked rule. The effects of the game stay around until the game is finished. With a horde of murderous tropical animals and insects loosened upon the town, they find Williams' opponent (Bonnie Hunt) from his childhood and vow to finish. With each roll of the dice, more animals and disasters show up, but they must continue in order for them to disappear.
Based on a popular children's book, the film is a lark. The action is formulaic (roll the dice, monsters appear, run from them, set up the game again, roll the dice again, and on), but not so much that it gets in the way of the fun.
What does detract from the movie is the computer animated animals. Maybe it's just me, but I hate computer animation of familiar living things. The effects in Star Wars are dramatic and remarkably successful partially because we don't have a preconception of those space ships and aliens. They look real to us because it is the first time that we are seeing them.
But we all know what monkeys and lions look like. In order for a scene to be successful, it must involve you seamlessly. You must think: `There's a lion; it's chasing them and might hurt them'. It can't go: `There's a lion. Oh yeah, it's computer generated and not a bad job. It looks mostly real, but doesn't move quite right and has some quirks. It's chasing them and might hurt them.' The acknowledgment of the existence of the effect pulls you back from the story and reminds you that you are really just sitting in a theater watching a movie.
Don't let my rants about the evils of using technology before it has advanced far enough to actually work deter you from seeing Jumanji. It's an exciting entertaining film, worth your time.
And the animals aren't _that_ horrendous.
[This appeared in the 12/22/96 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at redman@bvoice.com]
-- mailto:redman@bvoice.com This week's film review at http://www.bvoice.com/ Film reviews archive at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman
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