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| Jumanji provides an unexpected challenge for unsuspecting high school kids transformed into video game characters. |
The new Jumanji is a very good movie, with a little bit of scariness, a lot of humor and excitement, as a young group of high school students become magically trapped in a video game, finding themselves transformed into the video game characters. I can relate, having been trapped in a few myself.
The plot has great pace. If you like action movies and you want to laugh too, it's a perfect film. There are a few scary moments and some adult verbal humor that bring it to the PG-13 level, but nothing blatant. Dwayne Johnson is very good, a super-powered version of his normal self. Jack Black is hilarious. It's actually a tough acting job to portray someone who does not match his exterior appearance. Karen Gillian is very believable as a shy high school girl suddenly forced to work with other people. Kevin Hart is very good, and very funny, although I did not particularly like the way his part was written. Kevin's character (Moose) is a sterotypic African American male, not very bright, dishonest and smart mouthed, but good at sports. I wonder, is that all that African Americans are allowed to be in Hollywood these days? Not cool. But that's not on Kevin Hart, that's on the writers and the producers.
Hollywood has gotten into a rut the past few years, and Jumanji takes the lazy way out in not challenging the expectations of racial stereotyping. But it's fun and worth seeing if not an all-time classic.
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