Skip to main content

Jumanji



Jumanji: The Next Level Story: The gang needs to rescue one of their own as they escape the most dangerous game in the world.

Jumanji: The Next Level Review: After the adventures of the first film, the gang is making their way through life in the real world. But while Martha, Bethany and Fridge have found their own identities, Spencer is struggling. Since he now lives in New York City, he’s unable to maintain a long-distance relationship with Martha, and they decide to take a break as a couple. Additionally, Spencer has kept the broken Jumanji game and finds himself drawn to it. When his friends discover he has gone back in, they realise they need to return to that dangerous world to save their friend. Only this time, Spencer’s grandfather Eddie (Danny DeVito) and his friend Milo (Danny Glover) are also pulled in.

Lead actors Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan quickly find their groove again within the game world. Their chemistry is off the charts and since there’s a new twist with the body-swapping theme this time around, they get to play different personas. Once again, Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart make a great pair, playing off each other’s charisma and wit to humorous effect. The new personalities brought in by Danny DeVito and Danny Glover add a whole subplot, which forms the emotional backbone and adds more depth to the story. The older duo shows off their experience, and DeVito steals every scene. Jack Black displays his range in more ways than one, while Karen Gillan revels in the physicality of her performance.

Director Jake Kasdan knows how to elevate the strengths of his cast to great effect, and it shows. But despite the addition of new characters and some new twists in the game, the plot invariably becomes familiar after a while. Additionally, just like the previous instalment, Jumanji suffers from a lacklustre villain. Sure, the focus is predominantly on the group and their hijinks, but the threat of the bad guy never feels real. The plot plays out some similar beats as the previous film, and yet, it manages to get away with it, thanks to the cast. The visual effects are striking, and the set pieces do not disappoint either. While some of the problems of the first film persist, they’ll be hardly noticeable in the end, as the ‘Jumanji’ franchise puts out another entertaining entry with ‘The Next Level’.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kuthiraivaal

  Kuthiraivaal Movie Review:  Manoj Leonel Jahson and Shyam Sunder’s directorial debut Kuthiraivaal brims with colours and striking imagery. This is apparent as early as its first scene, where its protagonist Saravanan alias Freud squirms in his bed, suspecting a bad omen. As some light fills his aesthetic apartment wrapped with vintage wall colours, his discomfort finally makes sense—for he has woken up with a horse’s tail! The scene is set up incredibly, leaving us excited for what is to come. But is the film as magical as the spectacle it presents on screen? Kuthiraivaal revolves around Saravanan (played by a brilliant Kalaiyarasan) and his quest to find out why he suddenly wakes up with a horse’s tail, and on the way, his existence in life. Saravanan’s universe is filled with colourful characters, almost magical yet just real enough—be it his whimsical neighbour Babu (Chetan), who speaks about his love for his dog and loneliness in the same breath, or the corner-side cigar...

Maaran

Even as early as about five minutes into Maaran, it’s hard to care. The craft seems to belong in a bad TV serial, and the dialogues and performances don't help either. During these opening minutes, you get journalist Sathyamoorthy (Ramki) rambling on about publishing the ‘truth’, while it gets established that his wife is pregnant and ready to deliver ANY SECOND. A pregnant wife on the cusp of delivery in our 'commercial' cinema means that the bad men with sickles are in the vicinity and ready to pounce. Sometimes, it almost feels like they wait around for women to get pregnant, so they can strike. When the expected happens—as it does throughout this cliché-ridden film—you feel no shock. The real shock is when you realise that the director credits belong to the filmmaker who gave us Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru, that the film stars Dhanush, from whom we have come to expect better, much better. Director: Karthick Naren Cast: Dhanush, Malavika Mohanan, Ameer, Samuthirakani Stre...

Valimai

  H Vinoth's Valimai begins with a series of chain-snatching incidents and smuggling committed by masked men on bikes in Chennai. The public is up in arms against the police force, who are clueless. In an internal monologue, the police chief (Selva) wishes for a super cop to prevent such crimes. The action then cuts to Madurai, where a temple procession is underway.then we are introduced to ACP Arjun (Ajith Kumar), the film’s protagonist, whose introduction is intercut with scenes from the procession. Like a God who is held up high, we see this character rising up from the depths. In short, a whistle-worthy hero-introduction scene. We expect that Vinoth has done away with the mandatory fan service given his star's stature and will get around to making the film he wanted to make. And it does seem so for a while when Arjun gets posted to Chennai and starts investigating a suicide case that seems connected to the chain-snatching and drug-smuggling cases from before. Like in his pr...