Film: Jungle Cruise

 

GENRE: Action, Adventure
RATING: PG-13 for action violence
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 7 minutes
PLATFORM: Movie Theatre
STARRING: Dwayne Johnson (Jumanji 2; Moana, Hobbes & Shaw)
Emily Blunt (Mary Poppins Returns, Edge of Tomorrow, Quiet Place)
DIRECTOR: Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown; Orphan; Non-Stop)
WRITERS: Michael Green (Logan; Blade Runner 2049)
Glenn Ficarra & John Requa (Bad Santa; Cats and Dogs)
PLOT: A female explorer (in pants!) want to find a supernatural treasure in the Amazon with the help of a jungle cruise captain.   

FULL DISCLOSURE: My expectations were pretty low.

STORY STUFF: That was a fun romp. This was more like the Pirates of the Caribbean than Haunted Mansion. The movie character tropes borrow heavily from Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy and Humphrey Bogart’s The African Queen.  Luckily, I enjoyed The Mummy and Pirates of the Caribbean and therefore enjoyed seeing this film play out. Some parts are predictable but that’s alright. Script-wise, I happened to love the plethora of puns. If I recall, the ride at Disneyland also included punny dialogue from the tour guides.  

ACTING STUFF: Jesse Plemmons (Breaking Bad, FNL) seems to be pigeon-holed into evil characters now. It also seems that he took the Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds) school of acting. You can tell he is having a lot of fun. Johnson and Blunt work pretty well together. I didn’t buy any romantic chemistry but they were still a good on-screen duo. Whitehall as the fussy brother has some fun lines. Paul Giamatti is unnecessary in this film.    

ARTISTIC STUFF: The action and visual effects were very reminiscent of the Pirates franchise. I was cool with that. The film opens and then brings back the opening music from Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”. An odd choice for the time period and kind of took me out of the film at parts. I did enjoy the costuming, especially the concentration on Blunt’s pants and Whitehall’s numerous costume changes.  

VERDICT: Four stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You like family fun adventure and can stand puns
UPCOMING REVIEW: Suicide Squad