GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1997 Timothy Voon
3 :-) :-) :-) for the King of the Jungle
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Leslie Mann, Thomas Haden Church, Greg Cruttwell, Abraham Benrubi, voice of John Cleese, voice of Keith Scott Director: Sam Weisman Screenplay: Dana Olsen, Audrey Wells
"George, George, George of the Jungle WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!"
I didn't think a theme song could be this contagious until I found myself humming it for breakfast, lunch and tea.
"George, George, George of the Jungle WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREEE!"
Yep. I've caught Jungle fever, God help me. Not long after George started swinging, I felt the incredible urge to throw of all shy reservation and self restraint, strip out of coat and tie, throw on a loin cloth and swing from vine to vine. There's nothing quite like the feel of flying through air, only to be stopped by the incredible jolt of a large tree trunk. The feel of wood smashing against skin and bone, shattering the vertebrate, the splinters embedding in the soft tissue of tongue and cheek, the missing teeth .... I'm getting carried away!
"George, George, George of the Jungle WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREEEE!"
As a decent, respectable citizen of this earth, I found myself laughing at excrement jokes, painful male gonad jokes and self inflicted, bodily harm jokes? Maybe it was because Jim Carrey was absent, and Brendan Fraser present that made the slapstick so much more palatable. This likeable portrayal of "George" by Brendan, carries with it the innocence of a child, the pectorals of a Man, and other well proportioned parts desired by Woman. Yes ladies, stop gawking - tongue in, close that jaw. We've all got what he's got, more or less.
"George, George, George of the Jungle WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREEEEE!"
I didn't know that animals were so computer malleable until I watched an Ape philosophize, an elephant imitate a dog, gorillas become Ninjas, and a monkey imitate George. The story is very simple. George finds Ursula, George likes Ursula, George mates with Ursula - I don't mean initially, because we need to build up the sexual tension between Man and Woman, Tarzan and Jane, George and Ursula; and I don't mean literally - shame on you, put away those thoughts, this is a children's movie! Who's Ursula? Oh, she's a wealthy blonde who is the most fortunate and compatible of her sex to be chosen for George, with a matching I.Q. of one.
"George, George, George of the Jungle WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREEEEEE!"
So Disney has created a fun spoof with more vacuum than grey matter; but who cares, after a hard days work, it's pretty invigorating to end up laughing like a one year old. This movie doesn't pretend to be a great myth of Olympic proportions, like the meat loaf "Hercules"; and so ends up to being more enjoyable and likeable, with little expectations to live up to.
"George, George, George of the Jungle WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREEEEEE!" "Goodbye England's rose .... Like a candle in the wind..." "George, George, George of the Jungle WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREEEEEE!" "Let's hear it for the Men in Black.....Men in Black." "George, George, George of the Jungle WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREEEEEE!" "Now how does that song from My Bestfriend's Wedding go again?" "George, George, George of the Jungle WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREEEEEE!" "It's the Circle of life....."
Nope, I still like this tune the best: "George, George, George of the Jungle WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREEEEEE!"
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews