Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Directed by Jake Kasdan
Four teenagers in detention discover an old video game console with a game they’ve never heard of. When they decide to play, they are immediately sucked into the jungle world of Jumanji in the bodies of their avatars. They’ll have to complete the adventure of their lives filled with fun, thrills and danger or be stuck in the game forever!
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12 films that influenced Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
What critics say influenced Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Bad Teacher director (and son of Star Wars legend Lawrence Kasdan) Jake Kasdan gives us the basic story of the sinister board game that traps its players in a nightmarish jungle world, but aside from a brief nod to the late Robin Williams, a new and unwitting viewer need have no idea that Hollywood is raiding the '90s classics cupboard again.
Holding as much sly reverence for Tom Hanks’ Big as it does the first Jumanji, Jake Kasdan and Dwayne Johnson’s lighthearted and fairly disarming romp through the jungle (or at least postcard Hawaiian scenery) is the type of breezy, all-ages power fantasy that used to populate family entertainment in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Will The Rock and Kevin Hart continue riffing on old Robin Williams movies due to the overwhelming demand to see them swap in for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (respectively) in a reboot of “Good Will Hunting”?
Films like Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, The Goonies, and Jumanji are just a few of the films that I would watch on repeat throughout my childhood and as a teenager.
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Obviously aspiring to use the Jumanji name to achieve something as broadly appealing as that Penny Marshall/Tom Hanks classic, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle lands closer to The Mask or The Santa Clause.
Thrown into a dense jungle, each kid is transformed into the character he or she selected, Mortal Kombat-style, when they fired the game up.
Films like Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, The Goonies, and Jumanji are just a few of the films that I would watch on repeat throughout my childhood and as a teenager.
The lions and monkeys and elephants and rhinos and zebras, rampaging through a kitchen, were brought to life through the then-novel miracle of digital imagery; this was two years after “Jurassic Park,” but the technology still felt bold.
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The avatars' visit to a native bazaar is just like the shopping trips in Tomb Raider and Valerian.
Bad Teacher director (and son of Star Wars legend Lawrence Kasdan) Jake Kasdan gives us the basic story of the sinister board game that traps its players in a nightmarish jungle world, but aside from a brief nod to the late Robin Williams, a new and unwitting viewer need have no idea that Hollywood is raiding the '90s classics cupboard again.