JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(Disney) Starring: Tim Allen, Martin Short, Sam Huntington, Lolita Davidovich, David Ogden Stiers, JoBeth Williams. Screenplay: Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon. Producer: Brian Reilly. Director: John Pasquin. MPAA Rating: PG (mild profanity, adult themes) Running Time: 110 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Whenever film fans learn of plans by an American studio to re-make a foreign language film, the common reaction is a collective cringe. Wonderful foreign films like THE VANISHING and DIABOLIQUE have been turned into big-budget garbage, as Hollywood tends to grab on to a plot without grasping the point. The prospect of a remake of UN INDIEN DANS LA VILLE (LITTLE INDIAN, BIG CITY), however, inspired cringes of a different kind. The 1996 American theatrical release of LITTLE INDIAN inspired some of the most savage reviews of the year, making the prospect of the Disney-fied version JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE almost too much to bear. Hollywood could only improve on the original this time around, but it hasn't improved enough. JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE is a dopey and predictable family comedy which could be thought of as disappointing, if not for the wretchedness of the source material.
Tim Allen stars as Michael Cromwell, a Wall Street commodities broker with a non-stop lifestyle. He barely has time in his schedule to finalize his divorce from his first wife Patricia (JoBeth Williams) -- who left him for medical work in the Amazon -- so that he can marry his current girlfriend Charlotte (Lolita Davidovich). When Michael reaches Venezuela, he finds quite a surprise waiting for him: a 13-year-old son named Mimi Siku (Sam Huntington) who has spent his entire life in the jungle. A hastily made promise lands Michael the task of taking Mimi Siku back to New York with him for a visit, but Michael still has little time to teach his newfound son about life in the concrete jungle, especially when Michael and his partner Richard (Martin Short) get in hot water trying to dump a load of coffee futures on the Russian mafia.
Yes, you read correctly, the Russian mafia. JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE certainly doesn't take any chances on having too few plot threads, offering up David Ogden Stiers as the menacing mafioso, an entourage of film-makers following Michael's fashion designer fiancee Charlotte, a romantic interest for Mimi Siku in Richard's daughter Karen (LeeLee Sobieski, who _will_ be cast some day as a young Helen Hunt) and a pet tarantula who makes trouble any time things get slow. There is a lot of going on to keep everyone busy, but even at its busiest JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE simply isn't funny very often. The gags in the script by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon (previously responsible for masterworks like KUFFS and CUTTHROAT ISLAND) include tired pokes at postal employees, foreign cab drivers and the battle of the sexes over leaving the toilet seat up. It sometimes seems as though most of the film was transcribed from 10-year-old Jerry Seinfeld routines.
It's hard to believe that after waiting over two years to follow up his $144 million film debut in THE SANTA CLAUSE, Tim Allen decided this was the script he couldn't pass up. JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE (directed by THE SANTA CLAUSE's John Pasquin) once again finds Allen playing a workaholic who requires extraordinary circumstances to teach him lessons in fatherhood, but THE SANTA CLAUSE gave Allen a unique set-up and clever situations to work with. JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE doesn't give him nearly as much good material, relying on standard fish-out-of-water scenarios -- Mimi Siku dines on cat food and tropical fish, hunts pigeons and climbs on the outside of skyscrapers -- and a healthy serving of pratfalls. Allen has many comic talents, including fine timing with an exasperated one-liner, but he is not particularly deft at physical comedy. When co-star Martin Short throws his tiny body at a locked door in a futile attempt to break it down, you see what a real physical comedian looks like; Allen just looks like he realizes he is much smarter than this material.
Everyone in JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE does thoroughly likeable work in their one-dimensional roles, which is probably as much as you should expect from the performances in a film of this kind. JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE is intended primarily for kids, of course, and it does offer some appealing bits. Most of the best ones involve Michael's ineptitude with Mimi Siku's sleep-inducing blow darts, including a very funny struggle to revive Charlotte's anesthetized cat. The same kids who find that sequence hilarious probably won't be able to make heads or tails out of the big deal over some coffee, however, nor are they really a proper audience for swishy gay stereotypes or jokes about flatulence and penis size. There just didn't seem to be much thought put into JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE except to give it just enough tailoring to make it a Tim Allen vehicle. Considering that the original outfit they were working with was a cinematic polyester suit like LITTLE INDIAN, BIG CITY, it might have been a better idea to throw it all away and start from whole cloth.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 bungle 2 bungles: 4.
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