GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE (PG)
A review by E. Benjamin Kelsey
* * 1/2 (out of four)
Surely if you're expecting an intelligent film, this is not the one you're bound to stop on as a cute, brightly lit light bulb appears above your head. But if you're in the mood for brainless fun for the whole family, GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE isn't half bad . . . barely.
If the Zucker Brothers/Jim Abrahams team, who produced such off the wall comedies as AIRPLANE! and THE NAKED GUN, were to collaborate with Disney, something much like GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE might be the outcome.
Unlike the majority of extremely lame "family" comedies (JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE, MAN OF THE HOUSE, the 1997 remake of THAT DARN CAT), GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE might actually make parents feel good about being along for the ride. The sad fact behind family comedies is that they generally have no real appeal to an older audience. Brainless slapstick, vulgar jokes, and "funny" faces are the main ingredients. But GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE actually has wit. People of all ages will be laughing at some point during the film.
It's nothing overly new of course. And how many times, just HOW MANY TIMES can we see people get hit in the groin and still laugh? This movie uses this overly cliched method of "humor" more than once. Sure, George slams into things several times in the movie, but that's his trademark. But for crying out loud, we are also subjected to the "hit groin" ploy three or four times, an elephant peeing twice, and an ape farting twice. If you do happen to find them funny the first time, is it really funny to see again a few minutes later?
So while GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE does have it's problems, it's a lot better than most family oriented comedies. It is vulgar, at times surprisingly so, but that's almost expected in movies where kids are going to make up a large part of the audience. And how many parents out there would find it charming for their own young ones to fart, burp, urinate, and/or hit someone in the genitals in order to get a laugh? Not many, but we still seem to allow them to WATCH it in order to get a laugh. I suppose it will remain that way for a long time. But I digress, and do hope to stress that I got a lot more out of GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE than I was expecting! It's fun, and it's dumb. Not a bad choice for the family's night out.
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