Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)

The drums are beating once again for this follow up to the surprising hit of 2017. Now, the stakes are a little bit higher as the dangerous game swallows the group of friends for a true test of togetherness and there’s a wealth of fun to be had watching it.

Moving away to different colleges and states has seen the jungle-conquering chums lose contact with Spencer (Alex Wolff). During the festive holidays, the remaining trio hope to get him back in the fold but wind up sucked into Jumanji once more, as their intrepid avatars hope to retrieve a mystical stone and save the day.

I was an epic fan of ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ as it managed to uproot my fears of stitching a sequel onto a childhood favourite. The notion of lightning striking twice isn’t that common in the movie world but gladly this adventure/comedy is a rollicking ride of enjoyment. Jake Kasdan ensures he hasn’t let the spark fizzle out mostly thanks to knowing how to let his actors simmer with chemistry and maintain a giddily silly level of comedy tension.

The video game tropes of last time are playfully mixed about with, which gives the jungle arena a chance to shift and contribute something different. The greenery is replaced by desert yellows and snowy whites for a landscape that wrong-foots the teenagers and lets us wallow in exciting new environments. A dusty, dune-buggy sequence is a romp of adrenaline and a treacherous rope bridge outing truly shows off the manic power inflicted by Jumanji.

There are some plot mechanics which feel mildly contrived and some moments aiding the in-game characters from near-death are less than ingenious but if you sit back and enjoy the breakneck speed of stimulating chaos, then there’s next to nothing to complain about. However, if you want to pick it apart there are occurrences when swipes and gripes between the bodies of Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson) and Mouse (Kevin Hart) grow annoying and the villain plot is a lame rehash of the less than engrossing evil from two years ago.

Even without the same inventive pizzazz witnessed before, mostly because we know some of what to expect, the repetitiveness isn’t ever-present and the enjoyable factor totally outweighs the slim negatives. The comradery displayed in the third act and the snappy action levels this film up from the norm of stale sequel fever. Karen Gillan is a dance-fighting force of nature and gets to kick ass alongside Jack Black, who is pitch perfect again as the social media white girl. The presence of acting stalwarts Danny DeVito and Danny Glover bolster the narrative with emotive resonance, their appearance of retaining friendships through tough times is the swinging vine throughout the picture.

A smouldering Rock, a squealing Black, a gutsy assured Gillan and a loud Hart take your hand and yank you, buzzing and grinning into the topsy-turvy land of Jumanji which can easily warrant another go around, one I’m rolling the dice for.

7.5/10

 

Night School (2018)

After success with ‘Girls Trip’, which I’ll be honest I still haven’t seen, director Malcolm D. Lee once again teams up with breakout star Tiffany Haddish who unites with Kevin Hart in this American comedy. It’s just a blot on the whole thing that the comedy proportion leaves something to be desired.

After an explosive incident at a BBQ store, Teddy Walker (Kevin Hart) is left needing a job and to get to work with his friend as an investment advisor he’ll need to obtain his GED. Roll on Walker attending night school classes taught by Carrie (Haddish), where he’ll have to swot up to hopefully pass the test but he’s doing this on the sly unbeknownst to his fiance.

Written by six, yes six different writers, this movie and the comedy is hopes to achieve cause all the problems. There’s too many cooks and the jokes bomb hard, not even a single one of them is funny which isn’t great when you’re selling yourself as a comedy film. The likes of principals doing black voice, prom-night twerking, fart jokes and boring prat-falls do zero to make you laugh. In all honesty with more refining and less American style comedy of screeching dialogue, this could have been a better film in terms of a comic touch.

What is slightly surprising is there are traces of charm to be found and the film does have its heart in the right place. The drama may not be impressive but these bunch of night school sad saps and their bonding have a smattering of magnetism which makes the road of GED revision a fairly entertaining watch. The morals of trying hard and redeeming yourself through honesty and motivation are nice themes which hold up well amongst the Hart vs. Haddish shouting fest.

You’re in for a forgettable watch but each character on the GED course has enough of a generic quirk to pull them through against the boundless and annoying energy of Kevin Hart. Romany Malco gives Jay a great distrust of technology based off Terminator fears. Anne Winters and her youthful charisma are up for some stereotypes but she acts a developed caring side when chatting with Theresa who is played by Mary Lynn Rajskub, she may be the best of the group with her craziness and mumsy quality ripe for oddball moments. It’s Tiffany Haddish as the teacher who excels most though, her commitment to ensuring her students do their best are well played and help the film in its more grounded stages.

Success can be achieved with second chances, or 3…or 4 and maybe if you have nothing better to do you should give this film a passing chance as even though it’s not at all funny, there’s something lightly distracting and so-so about it.

4/10

 

 

 

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

Here come the drums! Here come the drums! 22 years after the original; and a childhood favourite of mine, this sequel comes stampeding into cinemas and I was more than a little apprehensive but happily I came out the other side with a smile on my face as this jungle set action adventure is a great entertaining ride.

Whilst stuck in detention doing the most mundane task of removing staples, nerdy Spencer, social media obsessed Bethany, studious, shy Martha and football hero Fridge come across a retro games console with a Jumanji cartridge inside. Before they know it the four of them are sucked into the game and a dangerous jungle environment where they have to save the place as their pre-selected video game avatars.

Jake Kasdan directs this romp with a clear wink and nudge to the fun of the 1995 flick. The story isn’t exactly ingenious and the plot does trod along a checkpoint of expected moments but this simplicity is what keeps the movie soaring along at enjoyable breakneck speed and Kasdan realises the selling factor of his film is within his wonderful cast. Therefore he utilises on their oddball comradery and twists what could have been a run of the mill family action tale into a comedic one.

There are some nasty looking uses of CGI in places but maybe it’s some grand plan to hark back to that clunky charm of the original film. The villain isn’t exactly someone you ever fear and their story is bland and the grand climax of everything they have raced across the jungle for isn’t exactly as exciting as you’d hope, but it’s the four heroes of the narrative that drive the movie and they bring enough humour and heart to push the few negatives into your peripherals. Oh and a couple of teeny nods to the original are well placed too.

I wasn’t expecting to grin like a buffoon and in fact laugh so much, but I did. This is a film that is playful in its tone and keeps up that light-hearted manner with the idea of these teens trapped in older more restricted video game character moulds of strength and weaknesses. The weakness of Fridge aka Moose Finbar is a particular outlandish but hilarious highlight. Also the teachings of urinating standing up and sexy dance fighting become genuinely funny sequences.

Dwayne Johnson as the epically titled Dr. Smolder Bravestone is the same old pumped up cool presence he’s come to play in literally every other movie but he gets to play around a touch with the fear of his nerdy self inside. Jack Black steals the show, strutting around like the Insta-model girl he still feels he is. The pep talk he gives at one point is excellent and his role is also. Karen Gillan is kick-ass playing fighting expert Ruby Roundhouse, she sells the dominant action style and her charm fills the screen when trying to be more confident as the nervous Martha. Kevin Hart is zany and full of energy as the backpack wielding zoologist Finbar, he riffs off almost everyone with believable ease.

The jungle is a crazy, fun place to explore and as an audience there’s plenty of joy to be had in sitting back and watching the charm of the foursome do their thing. Sure it’s nothing special but it’s a damn good way guilty pleasure to end the year on.

7.5/10

Get Hard (2015)

Apart from having an admittedly good idea and potential, this comedy squanders any chance of pushing the ‘Trading Places’ like style to hilarious effect. It flatly relies on quite offensive jokes and stereotyped humour to cash in on the audience you’d expect would love this kind of brain dead movie making.

James King (Will Ferrell) is rich, successful and engaged to be married to his boss’ daughter, Alissa (Alison Brie). His life goes from riches to rags when King is arrested for fraud and embezzlement, something he strongly denies. He soon has to turn to car washer and devoting dad Darnell Lewis (Kevin Hart), as he thinks he’s a previous convict that can help him beef up and train to survive in maximum security prison.

It’s clearly a film running around the comedy playground giggling at the chance to use its title to childishly joke in concerns of getting hard and so on and so forth. The film isn’t truly terrible, it did in fact make me chuckle or laugh a few times but it’s not gut bustingly funny and not even overly funny to be honest. It drops any smart hope of being clever in class swapping story to run amok in racist and homophobic trash.

Etan Cohen has his debut here as director and doesn’t really prove to be a talent to look out for. It’s a comedy directed as most American comedies are and he brings no style to a film that sits back to let Hart and Ferrell do their thing. The only shining moment in directorial terms is the prison riot mock up, captured in strobe lighting flashes making it more funny and more pulsating. It’s a simply built movie for simply built minds.

The writing isn’t even much better, racist digs and over the top reactions filling the script to breaking point and it’s so obvious that the screenplay would have been bare bones to let its stars improv lines as much as they love to do. The plot itself is obvious from the outset and I’m sure that’s not just for me, everyone would get it before the film reaches ten, fifteen minutes in. There isn’t really any depth to the narrative or the characters, the film goes by quickly to be fair but it isn’t a well formed execution of what could have been a neat idea.

The music is like most U.S comedies, score sits back to let contemporary songs do the talking. Charlie XCX can be rolling in more cash as it seems her sounds boom, clap across the speakers more than other artists. The soundtrack is mostly pop and urban rap to work with the gangster side of proceedings that King ends up in. It clearly works though as the songs are energetic, tell their story along with the film and are recognisable aiding the audience to engage with the film more.

Will Ferrell sticks to the expected curly haired shtick but it always works and his fan-base won’t be disappointed, as he does OTT well and always excels in dumb acting. Kevin Hart is another big American actor that has a shtick to rely on now but he too does it well enough that you can’t groan too much about it if you’re seeing this movie. They both have a good chemistry and bounce off each other well. Hart’s tennis court scenario is brilliant and Ferrell’s jail time slurs are actually really funny. Alison Brie, for my sake could have been in it more but she portrays the vain gold digging fiance to unlikable levels that suits her character and Brie looks mighty fine doing it.

Lazy and dumb, this doesn’t achieve anything of note and the trailer says all it needs to. If you love or like Ferrell and Hart then you will enjoy it but if not then you’ll just about get by this wasted movie. It faintly ticks the comedy box with a blunt pencil, one you’d expect King to keister.

4.5/10