Director: Jake Kasdan
Writers: Jake Kasdan, Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg
Released: December 2019
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Awkwafina, Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Ser’Darius Blain, Madison Iseman, Danny Glover, Danny DeVito
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As I mentioned in the first remake – Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – you can in no way compare these modern day films to the 90’s Robin Williams Jumanji masterpiece. Nor are these parody movie intended to be.
With that said, let’s begin:
Jumanji: The Next Level was everything that I expected it to be. It was clearly capitalising on the success of the first one, with the story being an after thought. However, if you didn’t see the first movie then you’d still enjoy this second instalment.
In this movie, the characters from the first film are catapulted into Jumanji again. This time, Spencer’s (Alex Wolff) grandfather (Danny Devito) and his friend (Danny Glover) joined. This was the perfect opportunity to make fun of boomers, and they didn’t hold back!
It played on the most popular aspects of the first film: Jack Black pretending to be a teenage girl, Kevin Hart’s sass, crazy ways of losing one of their three lives, and hilarious one-liners.
There were new avatars such as a horse (yay) and Ming Fleetfoot, whose strength is thievery and pick-pocketing.
This movie was far more about the characters than the storyline, which was a little weak. But despite its predictability, it was another awesome kids’ movie with lots of action and comedic moments. While there was a generous sprinkling of cheese, the movie didn’t try to be anything more or less than it was; entertaining.
Would definitely recommend watching if you loved the Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. If you didn’t see the first one, don’t worry, they explain the rules of the Jumanji game very well in this movie so you won’t get lost!
Jodie’s rating: 6/10
NZ Film Freak 