Jumanji: Review By Daveactor7

"Jumanji"

Directed by Joe Johnston

Running time: 1 hour and 44 min

Starring: Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Kirsten Dunst, Bradley Pierce, Jonathan Hyde, David Alan Grier

One of my favorite childhood films and still to this day it is appealing, but now it is time to strip this film down to the core.

Warning, Spoilers ensue ***

The film begins with two young boys who bury a chest in the middle of the woods and clearly there is something within this chest that both of them fear. About half a century later, Alan Parrish a well known respected boy, fleeing a gang because of simply hanging out with the leader's girlfriend. He causes havoc in the shoe factory in which his father loves and cherishes and after he is caught and beat up by the gang, he comes upon the buried chest within a nearby construction site. It contains a board game called "Jumanji" He takes it home and after a quarrel with his father about a school, he and Sarah, the gang leader's girlfriend, play the board game and here's the thing-he is literally taken into the game itself and Sarah flees the house, being chased by animals conceived from the game. Another 30 to 40 years pass by and a new family arrives. Children Judy and Peter venture along the mansion and discover the board game. They begin to play and again terrible things begin to occur again, but this time Alan is released from the game and back into reality. However, time has changed much since he had gone and he is now a middle aged man. The three of them meet up with Sarah and they play the game, and amidst the dangers they come across, they must finish it. A truly intriguing story that grasps your attention and never lets it go. The screenplay by screenwriters Jonathan Hensleigh, Greg Taylor, and Jim Strain is good and full of humor, suspense, action, basically it has all the genres of film into the main category of fantasy. I liked the background of most of the characters. Alan's background we literally see, Judy and Peter's backgrounds explained and shown on screen and the other characters though their backgrounds are not that strong, they are still interesting. The three screenwriters also make sure to keep suspense in every scene. The arrival of a stampede, chaos in town, and the imminent dangers.

Robin Williams does a good job here as the older Alan Parrish and he does a good performance as a man who had lost the remains of his childhood in the world within the board game. Certainly not his best role, but he gives a good dramatic performance here and keeps elements of his comedic self in the film at times when it is necessary. Bonnie Hunt plays the older Sarah and she does a good job as well, making sure her character interacts not only with the other characters, but also with the environment. The acting which I loved the most from her in this film was when she meets the board game once again and her reaction is priceless. Kristen Dunst plays Judy and she gives a great performance. Her work here is much better then her roles in the spider man films, dear lord. She, like Hunt, is able to understand her character, but her performance makes sure to keep an eye on every single sub genre in the film. Bradley Pierce plays Peter and to be honest, I have never seen this actor before. Neither in any other films after this one. His performance here is decent and he tries to pull off a strong approach to his character like Dunst, but his expressions throughout most of the film are dull and even when he is in his monkey transformation process he does not show much. Jonathan Hyde plays Sam Parrish and he does well in playing the role of Alan's father who seeks greatness out of his son. He also does a little better as Van Pelt, the hunter seeking out Alan. His performance as the hunter is both at times a little intimidating and hilarious. The scene in which he falls to one of Peter's traps in which he speeds on a inflatable boat with air pumps attached while he was screaming was hilarious. David Alan Grier is perhaps the comedic relief in this film. He is great in this film as Carl, a shoemaker turned Cop. His character makes sure to give the film its humor to keep it from becoming too serious. The scene I loved was when the giant vine takes his car away. His reaction and lines are priceless. Overall, this cast does not fail and succeeds and makes sure to keep the film going through each of their performances.

Joe Johnston, well he was a good director of this film and I especially loved his work in "Honey, I shrunk the kids" and his best film "October Sky". This film showed that he could pull off a fun adventurous film and he keeps entertainment within each scene. Though I wish he could have given more to this film, I felt that he did a good job in controlling his cast and making the film stay on the right track. I would say I'd give him and his take on his next project "Captain America: The first avenger" a chance. After seeing his work on "the wolfman" which was decent, I'm still hoping he has entertainment running through his veins.

The FX work here is decent. The cgi animals created by Industrial Light and Magic are obviously cgi, and what I do not understand is how that can be so when their take on cgi dinosaurs looked so realistic. I am guessing that ILM had recruited a new team to work on the special effects. However, the other cgi elements, the environment and the interaction of cgi and the actors were very good. The cinematography here is nothing special, the cinematographer, Thomas E. Ackerman keeps his focus on the action sequences and he mainly uses close ups, medium shots, and long shots throughout the film. However, I did like his take on the lighting and exposure of the film, he made sure to keep it gloomy and dark all throughout. A strong representation of the board game impacting the entire story.

Composer James Horner does a good job with the score and being fresh off of THREE films: "Casper", "Braveheart" "Apollo 13" he does maintain equal amounts of his work among these films. He understands the situation throughout the story and contains that within each musical piece. The piece I loved most in this film was when Alan discovers the board game at the construction site. The music is ominous and it definitely implies oncoming danger and the other troubles to come. He also makes sure to keep the mysticism within that piece, to represent the powers of the game.

Within each sequence of the film, editor Robert Dalva makes sure to keep the story running and keeping each scene understandable. I could not find any favorites within his work here, but he does a good job in keeping the story on track here.

Overall, this is a definite popcorn film and a fun family flick as well. For a film with strong portrayal of each of its aspects, if that is what you are looking for, take the chance, because the story is great, acting is good, the main points of the film are strong.

This has been another review by daveactor7 :)

Check out my other reviews btw.