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Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Parent Guide

Although the constant peril and life-threatening sequences will likely be too intense for little ones, teens may enjoy the action and positive messages..

In this sequel to the 1995 movie Jumanji (starring Robin Williams), a group of teenagers get sucked into a video game version of the magical board game. This time the players control the characters (Karen Gillan, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black) like they are aviators. And the only way back to reality is to beat the game.

Release date December 20, 2017

Run Time: 119 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by donna gustafson.

Many people can relate to the feeling of being immersed in an activity, but the movie Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle depicts the experience literally – not just figuratively.

While doing detention time in a storeroom at their high school, nerdy Spencer (Alex Wolff), football star Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), non-conformist Martha (Morgan Turner) and boy-crazy Bethany (Madison Iseman) find an old video game console still loaded with a cassette. None of the four are familiar with the title Jumanji, yet playing it seems more fun than doing their assignment to sort discarded magazines.

Following its usual format, Jumanji vacuums up the quartet, and places them within its jungle environment. Each of them now find themselves within the body of their game character: Spencer (Dwayne Johnson) is the invincible hero, Fridge (Kevin Hart) is his mousy sidekick, Martha (Karen Gillan) is a sexy, mix-martial-arts fighter, and Bethany (Jack Black) is a pudgy, middle-aged man. After a quick introduction to the rules and objectives of their quest, presented by a tour guide (Rhys Darby) who appears to be part of the game’s program, the group is sent on their way. And whether they want to play or not, the only way back to their real lives is to beat the challenges of the virtual world.

The script has fun with this concept, deriving humor from the juxtaposition of the characters’ personalities with those of their avatars. For instance, Spencer is usually fearful but his character is always brave, Fridge is a big tough guy who is relegated to a small, wimpy body, Martha lacks confidence and is especially self-conscious in her midriff-baring tank top and tiny shorts, and Bethany can’t stop being a flirt even if she looks like a man.

Just like first-person video games, this one pits its adventurers against increasingly dangerous situations. These include threats from animals, weapon-brandishing bad-guys and a nasty villain (Van Pelt played by Bobby Cannavale) who is crawling with large insects (they even slither into his ear and out of his mouth). Van Pelt is perhaps the creepiest part of the production, although the constant peril and life-threatening action sequences will likely be too intense for little ones as well.

Amidst profanity shrapnel, some teen drinking and the glossing over of serious infractions like cheating on homework and lying to parents, this movie tries to teach the importance of team work. The characters also are forced to face their fears, examine some of their hurtful interactions and consider changing their behavior – if and when they get back to their former lives. Thanks to these commendable moral messages, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle isn’t just all fun and games.

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Donna Gustafson

Jumanji: welcome to the jungle rating & content info.

Why is Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle rated PG-13? Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for adventure action, suggestive content and some language.

Page last updated March 20, 2018

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Parents' Guide

When four students face detention, the school principal asks them some important questions: “Who are you? Who do you want to be?” He also reminds them that they have only one life to live, and only they can choose how they will live it. What do you think of his counsel? Are there choices you are making with your life that don’t reflect who you really want to be?

How much respect do the characters have for one another when they first become trapped in the game? How do their attitudes change over time? What experiences help them see each other in new ways? What do they learn about their strengths and weaknesses?

News About "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle"

Learn more about author/illustrator Chris Van Allsburg and his book Jumanji. Jumanji: Remastered With the sequel Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle opening in theaters on December 20, 2017, Sony is remastering the 1995 movie Jumanji for home video (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital, Remastered Blu-ray + Digital or DVD). It will release on December 5, 2017. From the Studio: In a brand new Jumanji adventure, four high school kids discover an old video game console and are drawn into the game's jungle setting, literally becoming the adult avatars they chose. What they discover is that you don't just play Jumanji - you must survive it. To beat the game and return to the real world, they'll have to go on the most dangerous adventure of their lives, discover what Alan Parrish left 20 years ago, and change the way they think about themselves - or they'll be stuck in the game forever, to be played by others without break. Written by Sony Pictures

The most recent home video release of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle movie is March 20, 2018. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Release Date: 20 March 2018 Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle releases to home video (Blu-ray/Digital Copy) with the following extras: - “Jumanji, Jumanji” Music Video by Jack Black and Nick Jonas - Gag Reel - Five Featurettes

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‘jumanji: the next level’: film review.

The kids-turned-adult heroes of the first 'Jumanji' are joined by oldsters Danny DeVito and Danny Glover in Jake Kasdan's 'Jumanji: The Next Level.'

By John DeFore

John DeFore

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If you were an asthmatic, insecure teen who had once been able to have adventures in the body of The Rock, what are the odds you’d be content to return to your old life forever? Even if it meant risking death (and possibly dragging your friends into peril as well), mightn’t you go back for one more taste of impossible masculinity?

And so we have Jake Kasdan ‘s Jumanji: The Next Level , in which a mysterious magic video game once more transforms four teens into — well, not necessarily into the intrepid jungle explorers they became in 2017’s franchise starter, but something like that. That pic (also directed by Kasdan) scored family-film points for displaying comic chops parents could enjoy alongside their kids; this installment is a clear case of diminishing returns, but enjoyable action set pieces and a surprise or two near the end should keep parental grousing to a minimum.

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Release date: Dec 13, 2019

Having moved on to separate cities for college and other pursuits, the last movie’s heroes have plans to reunite over winter break. But while freshly minted do-gooder Bethany (Madison Iseman), newly self-confident Martha (Morgan Turner) and football star Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain) are gung ho to see each other, Alex Wolff’s Spencer drags his feet. He and Martha, after connecting in the previous film, have put their romance on hold; he’s having a hard time hanging on to the create-your-own-life spirit he found when an old gaming console transported the kids into an alternate reality, forcing them to beat many challenges before they could emerge safely. Having to share his childhood bedroom with his Grandpa Eddie ( Danny DeVito ), who’s recovering from hip surgery, only makes him feel more pathetic. So he digs up the old game and disappears into it again.

Once they realize what Alex has done, and believing he’s unlikely to survive Jumanji alone, his friends agree to enter the game as well. Inadvertently, they leave Bethany behind, instead pulling both Eddie and his old estranged friend Milo ( Danny Glover ) in with them. Any viewer not quite clear on how this you-become-the-game magic works can rest easy: When two septuagenarians get transformed into avatars in a real-world video game, the kids they’re with must explain things to them many, many times.

The twist here is that the mortals don’t become the same characters they played the last time they entered this world. Spencer’s whole reason to reenter this realm was to again become the manly and suave Smolder Bravestone ( Dwayne Johnson ); instead, he has been transformed into a pickpocket played by Awkwafina, and it’s his grandfather who finds himself inhabiting Bravestone’s body. The zoologist played by Kevin Hart , formerly the avatar of Fridge, is now host to Milo, and Fridge has been downgraded to the body of Jack Black ‘s nerdy cartographer Shelly Oberon. Martha, at least, is relieved to still be in the Lara Croft-y form of Ruby Roundhouse ( Karen Gillan ).

A large part of the first pic’s pleasure came from watching adult actors, very sure in their screen personae, pretend to be children who were awed (or disgusted, as the case may be) by their new bodies and abilities. This time around, that getting-to-know-you phase is much less fun. Black’s attempt to channel the speech patterns of a 20-ish black man won’t sit well with everyone in the audience (he was on much sturdier ground last time, playing a narcissistic teen girl); but in comedic terms, Johnson’s take on a kvetching grandfather falls flatter. We may have finally discovered something The Rock can’t do.

This problem will be remedied late in the film, and in a truly inspired way, but the story spends far too long in this space where actors slog around in ill-fitting roles. Hart is by far the most successful here, clearly enjoying doing his version of a genteel Glover; it’s hard to explain how emphasizing the second syllable of “buttocks” makes sense in this context, especially when referring to a horde of angry mandrills, but Hart gets a laugh with that kind of choice.

The mission our heroes are given is even flimsier than the one in the first movie, but it affords many changes of scenery, from ice-mountain castles to North African medinas to a sea of desert dunes stalked by hundreds of fast-moving, deadly ostriches. One especially involving sequence requires the friends to navigate a maze of suspended bridge segments that mostly lead to nowhere, then spin unpredictably to lead to even more nowheres. Just as they’re about to make sense of the puzzle, those angry mandrills arrive.

Given how well the film does with giant, totally imaginary action scenes like this, it’s disappointing that FX artists don’t try a little harder to make small-scale moments look real. The acrobatic exploits of Ruby Roundhouse, for instance, look distractingly fake at times. Maybe that’s deliberate, given that this is after all a video game — but it’s not at the same level of believable rendering we see elsewhere.

The role of bad guy here offers little to do for actor Rory McCann, who brought so much to the tortured brute he played on Game of Thrones . But as he becomes part of the action, an increasingly busy plot distracts from many dramatic shortcomings. Viewers who think the movie hangs onto enjoyability as precariously as an action hero with seven fingertips clawed into a crumbling cliffside may sigh with relief when, once they’re safe back home, our young stars swear enthusiastically never to go back to the world of Jumanji. Those viewers would be wise to note that nobody swore the studio wouldn’t someday soon bring the world of Jumanji to them .

Production companies: Matt Tolmach Productions, Seven Bucks Productions, The Detective Agency Distributor: Columbia Pictures Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Jack Black, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, Alex Wolff, Madison Iseman, Morgan Turner, Ser’Darius Blain, Awkwafina, Nick Jonas, Rory McCann Director: Jake Kasdan Screenwriters: Jake Kasdan, Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg Producers: Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Matt Tolmach, William Teitler, Jake Kasdan Director of photography: Gyula Pados Production designer: Bill Brzeski Costume designer: Louise Mingenbach Editors: Steve Edwards, Mark Helfrich, Tara Timpone Composer: Henry Jackman Casting directors: Nicole Abellera, Jeanne McCarthy

Rated PG-13, 123 minutes

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Film Review: ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’

Four teenagers turn into Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan in a 'Jumanji' sequel that strands them in a jungle of no fun.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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When “ Jumanji ” came out, in 1995, one’s first impulse was to consign it to the increasingly overstuffed file marked “Junky Cheeseball Robin Williams Movies.” The film’s one true distinction was its jungle beasts. 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. As an adventure, “Jumanji” was deluxe magical trash, but its creatures, so fearsomely alive, seemed to be part of some brave new menagerie.

“ Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ” is just trash, with nothing magical about it. A quartet of high-school kids gets sucked into a video-game-console update of the Jumanji board game, landing in the most generic of jungles — and that’s where they stay, except for one detour into the most generic of fake Middle Eastern bazaars. Whatever the rules of this particular game, they remain mostly unexplained and largely beside the point. It’s like watching the lamest Indiana Jones sequel ever imagined, minus Indiana Jones.

In his place, our four heroes morph into video-game avatars played by a tossed salad of movie stars, who don’t generate adventure-comedy chemistry so much as they do loudly clashing styles of showboating. The film’s notion of wit is to have Spencer (Alex Wolff), a stringbean gamer, metamorphose into an explorer-archaeologist played by Dwayne Johnson , who flinches and says “Oy vey!” like the nerd he still is inside. If Johnson, and the film’s script, had truly run with this idea, it might have been funny, but Johnson, for the most part, is just Johnson: too committed to his image to tweak it much.

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One of the other kids is a hulking jock nicknamed “The Refrigerator” (Ser’Darius Blain), and the wears-out-its-welcome-in-10-seconds joke is that he gets turned into a zoologist played by Kevin Hart , thereby losing several feet of height. The other two high schoolers are female, so it may seem odd that one of them, Bethany (Madison Iseman), turns into a cryptographer played by Jack Black , but once you’ve seen Black, in tweedy hunter’s garb and big round spectacles, do his mincing impersonation of a high-school trollop (very Meanest Girl of 2003 ), it no longer seems odd, just vaguely embarrassing. The other girl, Martha (Morgan Turner), becomes Ruby Roundhouse, a commando in a halter top played by the charming Karen Gillan, who winds up playing straight woman to the three walking icons of paycheck shtick.

In “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” each of the characters has a trio of bars tattooed on his or her wrist, which means that in the game universe of Jumanji they all get three lives. Jack Black is eaten, in one very quick bite, by a gnashing hippo, and moments later — voilà! — he pops down from the sky. Johnson gets tossed off a cliff, then pops down as well. Hart eats pound cake and explodes (for some reason), and so on. Gillan, in the meantime, does some fight-dancing to Big Mountain’s reggae version of “Baby, I Love Your Way.” Did I mention that the four are trying to wrest a giant glowing emerald from the movie’s bad guy — Bobby Cannavale, with no role to play — so that they can restore it to the forehead of the looming mountain sculpted into a jaguar?

Excitement! Suspense! Childlike innocence! Ingeniously staged action set pieces! These are a few of the things you will not find, anywhere, in “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.” The one performer in the film who establishes his own relaxed rhythm, and stays in it, is Nick Jonas, proving once again that he’s got quick-draw acting chops. The movie has snakes and a crocodile pit and a scorpion slithering out of Bobby Cannavale’s mouth. It’s supposed to be a video-ized board game come to life, but really, it’s just a bored game.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, New York, Dec. 6, 2017. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 119 MIN.

• Production: A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures, Matt Tolmach Productions, Radar Pictures, Seven Bucks Productions prod. Producers: Ted Field, Matt Tolmach, William Tietler, Mike Weber. Executive producers: Dany Garcia, David B. Householter, Jake Kasdan.
• Crew: Director: Jake Kasdan. Screenplay: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg. Camera (color, widescreen): Gyula Pados. Editors: Steve Edwards, Mark Helfrich.
• With: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Bobby Cannavale, Nick Jonas, Alex Wolff, Madison Iseman, Ser’Darius Blain, Morgan Turner.

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• DVD & Streaming

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

• Action/Adventure , Comedy , Kids

Content Caution

In Theaters

• December 20, 2017
• Dwayne Johnson as Spencer; Kevin Hart as Fridge; Jack Black as Bethany; Karen Gillan as Martha; Nick Jonas as Alex; Marc Evan Jackson as Principal Bentley; Bobby Cannavale as John Hardin Van Pelt

Home Release Date

• March 20, 2018
• Jake Kasdan

Distributor

• Columbia Pictures

Movie Review

When Spencer Gilpin is called into the principal’s office, he has a pretty good idea why: It’s because he helped a good friend.

OK, that sounds altruistic and bighearted. The truth is, he screwed up. He wrote a paper (or two, or three) for a guy who used to be his good friend back when they were both skinny nobodies living down the street from each other. Since then, Anthony “Fridge” Johnson has grown into a football hero worthy of his nickname and Spencer has, well, pretty much stayed the same stringy nobody that he always was. They rarely even speak anymore—except when Fridge needs a bit of scholastic help.

On this particular day, though, Spencer and his frowning former friend aren’t the only ones heading into the detention soup. There’s also a popular, pretty and completely narcissistic girl named Bethany awaiting the punishment axe. She was sent to the principal for putting selfies and in-class phone conversations above her teacher’s more studious recommendations. And sitting next to her is a too-smart-for-gym-class gal named Martha. She’s a bright individual who, by the way, Spencer has had a slight crush on for a while now.

After getting a little tongue lashing, they’re all sent to a small junk-clogged storage room to do a bit of heavy lifting and recycling as part of their collective penance. “You need to come to grips with who you are and who you want to be,” Principal Bentley says to the four of them. And, of course, cleaning up trash is the perfect way to facilitate that directive.

Little do any of them realize, however, that the principal is being somewhat prophetic. Oh, yes he is. For amid the piles of stuff in that closet, Fridge finds what appears to be a very old-school video game console with a cartridge labeled Jumanji jammed into its game slot.

Now, Spencer is a pretty well-versed video game guy. But he’s never heard of this one. Still, he figures it’ll likely beat ripping apart ancient magazines. So the kids plug the game into an old TV, flip the console on and choose their characters.

With a rain of sparks, some bright flashing lights and the thunder-like rumble of … Are those jungle drums? … all four teens are dematerialized and sucked into the little buzzing console.

But that’s not the most amazing thing.

What’s really incredible is the fact that they all find themselves in a deep, dank jungle. Spencer has somehow been transformed into a hulking, smoldering giant of a man: an archeologist named Dr. Bravestone. Fridge? Well he’s now in the short and diminutive body of Moose Finbar, a zoologist and weapons expert. Martha has become a Lara Croft lookalike named Ruby Roundhouse. But oddest of all is that fact that the gorgeous Bethany is now a tubby cartographer named Sheldon Oberon.

And before you can say, “What just happened!” Bethany/Sheldon gets grabbed by a passing hippo, slammed about and gobbled whole. Only to appear again, falling out of the sky, soon after that seeming demise.

Yup, this Jumanji place is going to take some getting used to.

And, it turns out, a little saving, too.

Positive Elements

The teens trapped and transformed inside this video game challenge gradually learn that they must work together, best a villainous bad guy and break a curse affecting the world of Jumanji. And along the way, these disparate adolescents (albeit clothed with decidedly adult avatars) become good friends. And they begin coming to grips with, well, “Who they are and who they want to be.”

Spencer, for example, realizes that his all-controlling fears and phobias are not always rational. Fridge learns some lessons about the value of friendship. Martha concludes that her formerly self-imposed shyness and isolation are quite limiting. And Bethany comes to grips with the fact that her social media selfie-obsessions didn’t really represent what she enjoys most in life. (In fact, at one point Bethany states, “Ever since I lost my phone it feels like my other senses have been heightened.”)

All the teens eventually understand that it takes more than muscles or beauty to make someone into an admirable person: It takes virtues such as trust, compassion and self-sacrifice.

Spiritual Elements

The Jumanji game is imbued with unexplained magic. We first see it as a board game that’s washed up on a beach (a nod to the original Jumanji film from 1996). But then the game magically transforms into a video game and pulls someone magically into its world. Twenty years later it happens again with the story’s heroes.

The video game jungle world the teens play through is all magically controlled as well. In fact, their main quest is to break a curse that beset the land after someone stole a powerful ancient jewel. This jewel gives the thief magical control over the myriad beasts and crawling creatures of the land. We also see bugs and spiders crawling around on him. For instance, a millipede crawls up and into the man’s ear; at another point, he opens his mouth, and a scorpion crawls out.

In addition, each of our heroes is given three “game lives.” Life gauges, represented by tattoos on their arms, decrease in number each time they are killed or lose a life in the game. After each “death” they disappear, and an unharmed version of their avatar regenerates and drops from the sky.

Sexual Content

There’s quite a bit of female skin on display when we meet Martha’s new Lara Croft-like avatar. Even she feels uncomfortable with the exposure and chooses to cover up a bit at one point—wrapping a borrowed jacket around her waist. Of course, Spencer’s muscular Dr. Bravestone avatar gets plenty of notice from the women in the group, too. “D–n, that is a man right there,” Bethany/Sheldon drools. But at least the brawny Bravestone keeps his shirt on.

When it comes to Bethany and her male avatar, though, there are lots of jokes, quips and visual gags tossed out concerning her gender-blurring body swap. The tubby male cartographer goes on and on about the new, uh, male appendage that he/she isn’t used to dealing with. That joke is revisited several times. And he/she also makes numerous gushing comments about the attractive males in their in-game party. When they meet another player named Alex, the guy gives an odd look to the short and stocky Sheldon after the character’s obviously girl-like reactions. Fridge tells Sheldon that the person behind the avatar is actually a very attractive girl. “If you were out there alive, you’d probably hit that,” he insists.

Later, Bethany/Sheldon gives Alex a lingering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. And after hugging him, other characters make surprised verbal note of Sheldon/Bethany’s clearly aroused (albeit off-camera) physiological response.

As far as Bethany’s real-world persona is concerned, we see her taking selfie shots that strategically expose skin. She states that her boyfriend likes it when she takes pics like that. “It’s the key to our relationship,” she says matter-of-factly. And when she reappears back in the real world, Bethany grabs her own breasts and sighs about how much she’s missed them.

Jokes are made about male genital size. Spencer and Martha kiss in both avatar and real-world form.

Violent Content

Jumanji is staged as an action-adventure game, so there are many thumping, pummeling, shooting and explosive scenes that unfold during our heroes’ jungle trek. A villainous explorer named Van Pelt sends scores of wild beasts after the teens in the game. We see several characters attacked by massive hippos, leaping and slashing jaguars, charging white rhinos and a thundering elephant. Some characters die in these attacks, though the violent deaths are always bloodless, and lives are subsequently regenerated.

The heroes are also set upon by Van Pelt’s motorcycle-riding thugs. These men shoot rifles and missile launchers. Some of them also fall from great heights. Fridge’s character literally blows up at one point.

Spencer and Martha spend several scenes flying into action and pounding various baddies. Martha’s Ruby Roundhouse is quite adept at “dance fighting” as well as leaping into the air and kicking foes in the chest and head. Spencer’s Dr. Bravestone, however, is much more straightforward: He uses duck-and-parry game moves to slam enemies into walls and literally launch them through the ceiling with massive uppercut shots. One man is killed via a scorpion sting to the neck.

Crude or Profane Language

Three or four s-words are spit out, as are a few f-word substitutes, such as “frickin’.” “H—” and “a–” both show up more than a dozen times each. And we hear a few uses of “d–n” and “b–ch.” Jesus’ name is misused once and God’s name is misused some 15 times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

One of Alex’s in-game skills is the ability to mix great margaritas. Spencer and Martha try the blended concoctions, but spit them out. Fridge, however, gladly knocks down several glasses of the stuff, getting a little tipsy in the process.

Other Negative Elements

Spencer’s mother reinforces his personal fears about the world around him. “Remember, the world is a terrifying place,” she tells him. There are a few urination jokes in the mix here, too.

When you’re trying to craft a fun movie-house distraction for the family, it’s probably smart to think beyond the typical film formula and come up with something rollicking, wondrous and imagination-filled. So it makes sense that this pic’s moviemakers decided to harken back to a fantasy romp from the ’90s with a recognizable name and comedic pedigree.

Just sprinkle in a handful of contemporary stars, stir in an updated plot twist, whisk briskly, and you’ve got a nice little matinee pudding with just the right amount of sugar and sprinkles, right?

Well, sorta. I mean, there’s broad, believe-in-yourself fun to be had here, but …

The problem is that while trying to craft something for your typical 13-year-old’s enjoyment, the new Jumanji writing team dumbed things down, and sexed things up, a little too much. The nerd-to-video-game-hero body-swap conceit at the core of things is cute. But it offers a limited pool of ideas and giggles. And the writers go back to that shallow jungle watering hole way too often. That’s especially true with Jack Black’s tubby-guy-who’s-really-a-pretty-girl character: He/she continually sashays about with girlish vim and trades a selfie-taking obsession for an obsession with his/her anatomically male parts. ( Ew , indeed.)

Add in a lot more foul language than you might expect in a movie built for the kids, and you’ve got a fantasy actioner that’s much less, uh, fantastic than it could have been.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Jumanji (1995)

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"Jumanji" is being promoted as a jolly holiday season entertainment, with ads that show Robin Williams with a twinkle in his eye. The movie itself is likely to send younger children fleeing from the theater, or hiding in their parents' arms. Those who do sit all the way through it are likely to toss and turn with nightmares inspired by its frightening images.

Whoever thought this was a family movie (the MPAA rates it PG - not even PG-13!) must think kids are made of stern stuff. The film is a gloomy special-effects extravaganza filled with grotesque images, generating fear and despair. Even for older audiences, there are few redeeming factors, because what little story there is serves as a coathook for the f/x sequences, which come out of nowhere and evaporate into the same place.

The film opens in 1869, as a sturdy chest is buried in the woods. "What if someone digs this up?" a shadowy worker asks. "God help them!" he's told.

We flash forward to 1969, as a little boy named Alan finds the chest in a construction site and opens it to discover a board game named "Jumanji." He rolls the dice and is instantly fascinated with the game's supernatural powers. The pieces on the board move themselves. The game communicates with ghostly messages that float into focus in a cloudy lens. And Alan is attacked by a cloud of bats.

Another flash-forward, this time to the present, as two other kids find the game in an old mansion that has been abandoned for years. This is none other than Alan's childhood home, and when the kids begin playing the game, Alan materializes. He has been in limbo all of this time, growing to manhood, and is now played by Robin Williams. His first words: "Where's my mom and dad?" Ah, but there's no time for sentimentality now. He makes friends with the children, Judy ( Kirsten Dunst ) and Peter ( Bradley Pierce ), and together they begin to explore the world of Jumanji, which contains jungle terrors. They will be attacked by lions, monkeys, rhinos, elephants, giant insects, poison darts, plants that strangle them and other plants that eat things, snakes, birds, mosquitoes, thunder and lightning, and (it goes without saying) spiders. They will wrestle with a crocodile and Alan will almost be gobbled up by a pool of quicksand that appears in the middle of the mansion's floor.

Other characters make their appearances. There's Van Pelt ( Jonathan Hyde ), a big-game hunter who has also been captured by the game; Aunt Nora ( Bebe Neuwirth ), who has adopted little Judy and Peter (somehow it is inevitable that they are orphans), and Sarah ( Bonnie Hunt ), who was the little girl who played Jumanji with young Alan on that fateful day in 1969, and now has grown up to become a reclusive fortune-teller. The town shunned her because she insisted on telling the truth about her experience with the board game.

The basic notion of the film (two kids have lots of scary adventures with Robin Williams) must have sounded good on paper. But the technicians have filled the screen with special effects, both conventional and animated, in such a way that the movie is now about as appropriate for smaller children as, say, " Jaws ." It's not bad enough that the film's young heroes have to endure an unremitting series of terrifying dangers; at one point, little Peter gets converted into a monkey that looks like a Wolf Man, and goes through the film like a miniature Lon Chaney, with a hairy snout and wicked jaws. This image alone is likely to be disturbing to small children. To me, it looked like gratuitous cruelty on the part of the filmmakers toward the harmless young character.

The underlying structure of the film seems inspired by - or limited by - interactive video games. There is little attempt to construct a coherent story. Instead, the characters face one threat after another, as new and grotesque dangers jump at them. It's like those video games where you achieve one level after another by killing and not getting killed. The ultimate level for young viewers will be being able to sit all the way through the movie.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Jumanji (1995)

Rated PG For Menacing Fantasy Action and Some Mild Language

100 minutes

Robin Williams as Alan Parrish

Jonathan Hyde as Sam Parrish

Kirsten Dunst as Judy

Bradley Pierce as Peter

Directed by

• Joe Johnston
• Jonathan Hensleigh
• Greg Taylor

Based On The Book by

• Chris Van Allsburg

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Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Dove Review

Cue the catchy drum beat because the classic game is back, but this time with a modern twist. With a nod to the original, the movie opens with Jumanji being unearthed from its forgotten place, buried in the sand. In order to ensnare the teenage mind of 1996, the board game, Jumanji, transforms itself into a video game cartridge, then is lost from memory until modern day.

The story picks up following the very different lives of four different teenagers who have all found themselves in detention. In a scene which makes anyone born before the year 2000 feel very old, they agree to play the game and are immediately sucked into the virtual world of Jumanji. There they discover that their bodies have been traded in for the game’s avatars and cannot escape Jumanji’s jungle unless they beat the game.

From beginning to end, the movie seeks to achieve one goal: make you laugh. Whether it’s a nerd discovering himself assuming the monstrous body of Dwayne Johnson, the teenage beauty lamenting the fact that she’s been given the body of Jack Black, or Kevin Hart’s dramatic and self-deprecating humor, the movie is loaded with moments to widen your eyes, drop your jaws, and keep you laughing the whole way through. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle does itself a favor by remaking the original in its title only. Director Jake Kasdan made the right decision when he decided to tell an entirely different story. Unlike the original, this film comedically critiques video game culture which is sure to make anyone who has played a game or two laugh out loud while also exploiting the humorous gold mine that is the angst of the modern teenager when placed in dangerous and adventurous situations. Like I said, from beginning to end, this movie will keep you laughing.

However, the laughs might feel like a moral compromise for some because of where the humor is sourced. Here’s where Dove comes in. Though we can attest to an all-around playful vibe of the movie, it’s important to our audience that we are clear to note that Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle does not get Dove’s Seal of Approval, and if you’re concerned about content at all for your family, it’s best to stay home on this one. If, however, you’re wanting to risk it, here’s what you can expect.

Language plays a significant role in the comedic delivery of this film. This is Kevin Hart’s specialty, and though the film only earns a PG-13 rating, it does exceed Dove’s limit for language. The other strikes against Jumanji come from their usage of sexual humor. Though the sexualization of the primary female character in the film is itself a comedic critique of the sexualization of female characters in video games, she is nevertheless the subject of several moments of crass joking. Furthermore, since the film is about teenagers taking the forms of new bodies (some of the opposite sex), one can guess the sort of humor that would ensue as they explore their new bodies.

Dove Rating Details

Cartoonish action and adventure violence

Sexual jokes and innuendo

"Sh**"; "OMG"; "A**"; "B****"; several moments of suggestive language

Characters are seen trying alcohol for the first time

More Information

Film information, dove content.

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Jumanji: welcome to the jungle.

• Parents say (149)
• Kids say (224)

Based on 149 parent reviews

J:WJ - 2 Thumbs Up!!! :)

This title has:

• Great messages

Report this review

It could of been excellent.

• Too much swearing

Inappropriate

• Too much sex

Mild sexuality appropriate for kids beyond 5th grade, not under 10

Good for people over 11.

• Great role models

Great movie for middle school aged kids and older!

• Too much violence
• Too much drinking/drugs/smoking

Great family fun for tweens!

Clever idea of utilizing video game tropes to update this jumanji sequel, good movie for adults, not kids.

More From Forbes

Jennifer lopez’s ‘atlas’ defies bad reviews to debut big on netflix movie chart.

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Jennifer Lopez in "Atlas."

Lousy reviews didn’t stop viewers from streaming Jennifer Lopez’s new Netflix original movie Atlas in its debut over the weekend.

Directed by Brad Peyton ( Rampage , San Andreas ), Atlas is a futuristic tale about Atlas Shepherd (Lopez), a tech analyst who has led a guilt-ridden life after the death of her scientist mother when she was a child. Atlas’ mom invented an AI robot named Harlan (Simi Liu), who becomes self-aware and leads an AI revolt that leaves millions of people dead across the planet.

Escaping to another planet after the carnage, Harlan resurfaces 28 years later with a plan to annihilate Earth once and for all—so Atlas joins the mission to destroy the AI before it's too late.

According to the Netflix Global Top 10 Movies chart , Atlas had 28.2 million views from May 20-26, which equates to 56.3 million viewing hours in its first three days of release—enough for the film to top the streaming platform’s global list. Atlas was also No. 1 on the U.S. Top 10 Movies chart and finished in the Top 10 in 93 countries that have Netflix overall.

The strong debut of Atlas should take away the sting of the blistering reviews by Rotten Tomatoes critics, who to date have collectively given the film a 17% “rotten” rating based on 71 reviews. Netflix viewers remained neutral in their collective assessment of the film, bestowing a 51% Audience Score based on 500-plus verified user ratings.

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Atlas also stars Sterling K. Brown, Mark Strong and Lana Parilla.

Atlas replaces the Netflix original rom-com Mother of the Bride as the top title on the Netflix global movies chart, a ranking the film held onto for two consecutive weeks. Starring Brooke Shields and Benjamin Bratt, the Netflix original movie dropped to No. 4 on this week’s global chart with 9.3 million views, which translates to 14 million viewing hours.

Animated Family Movie Moves Up The Netflix Global Chart

Finishing at No. 2 on the Netflix Global Top 10 Movies chart is the animated musical comedy Thelma the Unicorn (10.7 million views/17.4 million viewing hours) after debuting at No. 4 last week.

The 2009 animated comedy Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs came in at No. 3 (9.5 million views/15.1 viewing hours) in its global chart debut, while the 2007 Shia LaBeouf crime thriller Disturbia finished at No 5. behind Mother of the Bride.

Disturbia had 8.1 million views, which equates to 14.1 million viewing hours.

Unlike previous weeks in May when Netflix released such high-profile films as Unfrosted , Mother of the Bride and Atlas , there are no big movie productions on this week’s list of films debuting on the streaming service.

Next week, however, will see another big release with the action crime comedy Hit Man , starring Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone but You star Glen Powell opposite Andor star Adria Arjona.

Hit Man is directed by Powell’s Everybody Wants Some!! director Richard Linklater, which is co-written by Powell and Linklater.

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'Kidnapped' tells the historical horror story of an abducted Jewish child

John Powers

Enea Sala (center) plays the young Edgardo in Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara. Anna Camerlingo/Cohen Media Group hide caption

We’re living through days of powerful, often violent religious feeling — stories that might have felt like old dead history now take on a stinging new relevance.

That’s the case with Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara , the ferocious true story of a young Jewish boy forcibly taken from his parents by emissaries of the Pope in 1858. It was made by Marco Bellocchio, the great Italian filmmaker who first burst on the scene 59 years ago with his scorched-earth debut Fists in the Pocket .

Now 84 but still far from mellow, Bellocchio takes us back to the 19th century to tell a historical horror story steeped in Roman Catholic antisemitism.

The action begins in 1850s Bologna, which was then under the rule of the unpopular and highly conservative Pope Pius IX. The just-born Edgardo is the sixth son of a Jewish Bolognese family, whose housemaid, unbeknownst to them, baptizes the baby to save his soul.

When the Church’s inquisitor in Bolgona learns of this baptism six years later, he declares Edgardo a Christian. And because it’s illegal for non-Christians to raise a Christian child, he grabs the 6-year-old boy away from his agonized parents and ships him to Rome. There, as he yearns for his mother, Edgardo’s put into a boarding school for the children of converted Jews, where he’s surrounded by images of the crucifixion.

Naturally Edgardo’s parents are shattered and do everything they can to get him back — even waging a huge international PR campaign. Going to Rome, they make heartrending appeals to stony-faced priests who say they understand their sadness but can do nothing to alleviate it. After all, they are helping the boy become a proper Christian.

To avoid seeming politically weak, Pius IX refuses the world’s calls for Edgardo’s freedom. In fact, he doubles down on the kidnapping, personally guiding the boy’s Catholic education and having him baptized a second time.

Although Kidnapped is a straightforward historical drama about religious oppression, Edgardo’s tale is filled with startling twists and turns, especially when, in 1860, nationalist rioters overthrow Pius IX’s rule in Bologna. With new people in charge, the Bologna inquisitor is arrested for the kidnapping and we see how Edgardo has fallen through one of the trap doors of history. Had he simply been born a few years later, he wouldn’t have been taken from his Jewish home and forcibly made a Christian.

Even as the rebels go after the pope, we keep worrying about Edgardo’s fate in Rome. What happens to a young Jewish boy who’s cut off from his family and trained not just to be a good Catholic but to become a priest? What core of the original Edgardo remains? Who does he become as he moves into manhood? The answers are unsettling.

Now, at moments Kidnapped feels old-fashioned. Yet Bellocchio never falls into boring costume drama realism. Working in a painterly style, he pushes things toward the operatic — laying on surging music and endowing Edgardo with innocent good looks that border on the angelic. Actor Paolo Pierobon plays Pope Pius as a kind of opera buffa figure, hammy in a Marlon Brando sort of way — at once silly and creepy and sinister. In one of the film’s best scenes, Edgardo has a hallucinatory encounter with a crucifix that directly answers the falsehood that the Jews killed Christ.

Like me, Bellocchio was raised a Roman Catholic and is clearly appalled by the Church’s cruelty to the Mortara family and to all Jews, whom they treated as inferiors who must literally kiss the pope’s feet for decent treatment. He wants us to be appalled and angry, too.

Yet what gives the movie its timely resonance is not merely its depiction of antisemitism but what it shows about the dangerous politics of religious belief. Although religion officially deals in timeless universal truths, Kidnapped reminds us that these timeless universals are always bound up with historical questions of power. And where there’s power, there will be abuse.

Review: 'Hit Man' is one of the best movies of the year

Oooowee, this is one scorchingly sexy thriller.

Oooowee, "Hit Man" is one scorchingly sexy thriller.

It's also more, a lot more. "Hit Man," now in theaters on its way to Netflix on June 7, is powered by a new leading man who really brings the heat. His name is Glen Powell . You may have seen him hitting the action pedal with Tom Cruise in "Top Gun: Maverick" and then going all swoony-dreamy romantic opposite Sydney Sweeney in "Anyone but You."

But you ain't seen nothing yet. "Hit Man," written by Powell and director Richard Linklater, paints a deceptively comic face on darkness while sealing the deal on Powell as a Paul Newman/Steve McQueen for the 21st century. Such dazzle should not be taken lightly.

Hollywood historians may try to pinpoint the precise moment when Powell became a movie star. It's here, about 15 minutes into "Hit Man," when Powell— playing a nerdy New Orleans philosophy professor—finds his inner cool by taking on bad-boy identities as an undercover hit man for the New Orleans PD. Hire him and the cuffs go on pronto.

Justice triumphs, but for this divorced, stay-at-home, bird-watching, cat laddie who drives a Honda Civic that doesn't know from vroom, it's the rush of playing a pretend badass that becomes an addiction. He's hooked. You will be, too.

MORE: Review: 'Drive My Car' a flat-out masterpiece, enthralling from first scene to last

Cheekily billed as a "somewhat true story," the film is based on Gary Johnson, a teacher who really did work undercover. But don't get hung up on facts since "Hit Man" frequently flies off into fantasy. What stays real is Gary teaching his students about the interplay between the id (primal urges) and the superego (morality) and the efforts of the ego to hold them in balance.

Talk about relatable. Gary lets his id flag fly, taking on wigs, fake teeth and accents as, among other fake IDs, a red-headed Brit killer, a stogie-chewing Russian thug and, most importantly as Ron whose swagger grows beyond what a leather jacket and a thousand dollar haircut can provide. "OK, Daniel Day," raves a cop (Retta) who is mightily impressed by his acting.

His students are shocked. "When did our teacher get hot?" When indeed. I'd say when Gary begins to identify more with Ron than himself. It's Ron who attracts Madison, played by the electrifying Adria Arjona, who hires him to off her abusive husband (Evan Holtzman).

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He talks her out of it, which leads to ethical quicksand that only intensifies their intimacy from bedroom to bathtub, resulting in the steamiest R-rated whoopie since the days of basic instincts and fatal attractions. Recently, "Challengers" and "Love Lies Bleeding" suggested that carnality wasn't dead on screen. "Hit Man" really makes the case for the return of cinema sizzle.

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Powell and Arjona, who costarred with boyfriend Jason Momoa in "Sweet Girl," are fire as screen lovers, bringing a hot-damn urgency even to the moments when Gary and Madison allow the truth to invade their love bubble. Who's to blame when her dirtbag husband turns up dead?

Credit the Texas-born Linklater, the world class talent behind such gems as "Slacker," "Dazed and Confused," "School of Rock," "Boyhood" and the sublime trilogy of "Before Sunrise, "Before Sunset" and "Before Midnight." The laughs pop so vividly that at first you might miss the grace notes and the amplitude of Linklater's vision.

Sex on screen hasn't been this fun in years. But you always get a sense of something deeper and dangerous percolating beneath the livewire banter that can't quite disguise the secrets kept by two characters who can't keep their hands off each other.

What is "Hit Man," really? A case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde meet the Nutty Professor? A radical romance that hinges on Freud, Jung and Nietzsche? Or a chance for Powell to prove he's a powerhouse actor able to nail every nuance in a juicy, challenging role?

How about all of the above? Without resorting to spoilers, I'd say go in without preconceptions for one of the best movies of the year, the kind you'll keep running back in your head with a smile that won't quit. How do you resist that? Two words: You don't.

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Entertainment | Movie review: Strong performances propel road…

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Entertainment, entertainment | movie review: strong performances propel road trip dramedy ‘ezra’.

It establishes right away that Max is the proud and loving father of Ezra (William A. Fitzgerald, an autistic actor making his film debut), who has no problem grappling with the realities of raising an autistic child. Throughout the events that follow, we never lose sight of that, because Max fiercely loves his son, and that understanding offers a sense of emotional safety as the plot that unfolds becomes increasingly high stakes.

It’s this place setting, as well as the strong lead performances, that allow Goldwyn to thread the needle on a story that could potentially go off the rails. “Ezra” is the story of a father, desperate to protect his son, who takes him on a cross-country road trip where they experience catharsis and healing. It’s a fairly traditional road movie formula with an autism twist. Also, the “road trip” is technically a “kidnapping,” since Max spirits Ezra out of bed from the home of ex-wife Jenna (Rose Byrne), and the film never shies away from that reality, in fact relying on this perceived danger to ramp up the dramatic tension and set characters in motion.

The kidnapping stems from a misunderstanding that spirals into an unfortunate accident, coupled with Max’s own traumatic triggers. It’s never fully explicated in the screenplay, but Max’s past mental health issues and possibly undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder are frequently alluded to, thrumming below the surface. His experience makes him an understanding father to Ezra, but also somewhat hampers his ability to properly parent his son. Upset that Ezra might be medicated with anti-psychotics and placed in a special education school, Max assesses that the doctors, pharmaceutical companies and the state are in collusion to keep himself and his son apart. He’s not necessarily wrong, but his desire to expose Ezra to the world and treat him like any other kid bumps up against Jenna’s wish to provide her son with every accommodation and suggested treatment.

Every character choice in “Ezra” is plausible because it comes from a place of emotional honesty, both in the script and performances. We understand why Max acts in the extreme, and also why Jenna is hesitant to call the authorities, but feels forced to do so, because their characters are well-established and perfectly performed.

It’s no surprise that longtime life partners Byrne and Cannavale have an easy chemistry, and Cannavale and Robert De Niro, who plays his gruff father, Stan, have sparkling, rapid-fire New York-accented rapport. While Cannavale holds the center as the complex Max, demonstrating his range, as well as his ability to lead a movie, De Niro, unsurprisingly, is magnetic. It’s not a huge role, but his performance is beautifully expressed.

Goldwyn has called in the big guns to set “Ezra” up for success, and in addition to Cannavale, Byrne and De Niro, he has cast supporting actors such as Vera Farmiga, Rainn Wilson, himself in a small role, and his “Ghost” co-star Whoopi Goldberg, who plays Max’s agent. She calls him when he’s on the road to Michigan to visit a friend (Wilson) at a summer camp, to let him know that he’s been booked on Jimmy Kimmel and needs to be in L.A. in a week, extending their trip even further across the country. Despite Ezra’s protestations, they head West, with Max convinced he needs his son as a good-luck charm for his set. Meanwhile, Stan and Jenna hit the road in hot pursuit, and “Ezra” becomes a dueling odd-couple road movie.

The film is an actor’s showcase, and it’s the performances that hold everything together, especially the young Fitzgerald, who is terrific as Ezra, a young man who communicates his preferences and boundaries clearly — he’s often the only character saying exactly what he means. But Goldwyn’s direction is sure-handed in navigating the complicated tone that tiptoes through comedy and pathos. He pushes his style with cinematographer Danny Moder, utilizing those handheld close-ups for more emotionally intense moments, and imparting a sense of gritty authenticity to a story that often requires a suspended disbelief.

“Ezra” could tip into melodrama, but Goldwyn sidesteps that with a rather facile ending, seemingly skipping a story beat in the denouement. You crave one more moment to wrap things up, but sometimes it’s better to leave us wanting more, avoiding the treacle and focusing on the heart — and the humor — of the matter.

‘Ezra’

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for language, some sexual references and drug use)

Running time: 1:40

How to watch: In theaters on Friday, May 31

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