JUMANJI - Currently Playing At The Bijou Of Cool

 

 

When I was a kid we loved to play board games. Every Christmas my parents would make sure that we got at least one or two and I particularly loved the ones like Mousetrap and 13 Ghosts or Operation where you got a lot of pieces that you had to put together to play the game. To this day you don't want to play Risk or Monopoly with me or I will make you cry - guaranteed. I tend to be ruthless when there are armies or properties involved. The Game of Life, however, always kicks my ass.

 

For this reason a movie about a board game (albeit a sinister one) was right up my alley. Based on a children's book by Chris Van Allsburg (who also wrote ZATHURA - another fun movie) it's the story of two children who start a game in 1969 but who are forced to finish is 26 years later when fate and the game come back into play.

 

Like Back to the Future there was a kind of 'full circle' effect to Jumanji that I love. Everything that went wrong is put right at the end and despite all the peril the characters are put through you have that satisfaction at the end of knowing that the world was really a safe and happy place.

 

Combining Robin Williams (in what I think is his best toned down Everyman role) with Bonnie Hunt creates the perfect chemistry. They are both damaged and not quite adults but are both brave and resourceful and real 'parents' to the two child actors. (One being Kirsten Duntz who has NEVER looked cuter) You somehow know that they will save the day.

 

Sure the special effects of the animals looks dated by today's CGI standards but the filmmakers never let up for an instant and you can't take your eyes away from the screen. The Hunter is a real figure of menace and its a nice touch to have him played by the same actor (Jonathan Hyde) that also plays Alan's (Robin Williams) father at the beginning of the movie.

 

And how can you not laugh every moment that David Allen Greer is on the screen? His adventures with the most unfortunate police car in movie history are comedy gold.