Finally watched the original...and it's every bit as punch-card generic as I always suspected. The F/X I'm sure were impressive for the day, but they haven't held up very well, either the CGI (those monkeys!) or the animatronics (those thrift-store spiders!). And, since the novelty of the F/X were all the movie had going for it back then, we're left with a nothing of a story with characters too busy playing the game to advance more noisy F/X sequences to have any sort of human reaction to whatever the hell's going on. Williams is stuck in a game since he was twelve, emerges to find out his parents are long dead...and doesn't really take more than a second to "mourn" before he's moving onto the next scene. And James Horner's score doesn't do much to add any much-needed emotion to the proceedings, playing as a grab-bag assortment of shakuhachi howls and thematic fragments lifted from every fantasy film he had scored for the decade preceding it. It's not as bad or hollow as some other CGI demo reels of the period like Casper (at least this film isn't loaded with toilet humor or dated pop-culture riffing), but it still isn't very good. I hope the new version is better than this.Monterey Jack wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:41 pm Even back then, I had zero desire to see Jumanji. Maybe it is better than I was lead to believe back then, but I can't be arsed to check it out at this late date.
JUMANJI Requel Outperforming All Expectations
- Monterey Jack
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Re: JUMANJI Sequel/Remake/Whatever Filming Underway
- AndyDursin
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Re: JUMANJI Requel Outperforming All Expectations
I certainly thought its a fun, entertaining movie but if you think JUMANJI itself is lame and generic -- while enjoying THE LAST JEDI, READY PLAYER ONE and the GHOSTBUSTERS remake -- I'm really not sure what to tell you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Monterey Jack
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- AndyDursin
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Re: JUMANJI Requel Outperforming All Expectations
And again, you thought the Ghostbusters remake was funny, so I can't do anything but shake my head because I couldn't disagree more.
Either way Jumanji is now the highest grossing film in the history of Columbia Pictures (unadjusted) so I know a few people must have enjoyed it.
Either way Jumanji is now the highest grossing film in the history of Columbia Pictures (unadjusted) so I know a few people must have enjoyed it.
- Monterey Jack
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Re: JUMANJI Requel Outperforming All Expectations
The Transformers movies made billions, That didn't make then any good.
Neither Jumanji movie is as bad as any of those, but they're bland corporate product, with no wit or imagination for anyone over the age of twelve. Still can't get over how much the latest one made. Really...? I felt the same way watching the first Hangover movie at home, and not cracking a smile during that alleged "comedy" that somehow grossed THREE HUNDRED MILLION.
Neither Jumanji movie is as bad as any of those, but they're bland corporate product, with no wit or imagination for anyone over the age of twelve. Still can't get over how much the latest one made. Really...? I felt the same way watching the first Hangover movie at home, and not cracking a smile during that alleged "comedy" that somehow grossed THREE HUNDRED MILLION.
- AndyDursin
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Re: JUMANJI Requel Outperforming All Expectations
I dunno, I enjoyed Jumanji a hell of a lot more than The Last Jedi as well as the last few Marvel films I've seen (talk about corporate fimmaking!), so I don't find it surprising audiences went to see it and most seemed to like it.
As we've said before, I can't argue sense of humor with you. When you see a movie that isn't in tune with your sensibility you seem to absolutely hate it. I laughed a lot at this movie and the first Hangover. I can understand why audiences enjoyed both of them. It's not a great movie but it's a fun ride for the kid flick it basically is.
As we've said before, I can't argue sense of humor with you. When you see a movie that isn't in tune with your sensibility you seem to absolutely hate it. I laughed a lot at this movie and the first Hangover. I can understand why audiences enjoyed both of them. It's not a great movie but it's a fun ride for the kid flick it basically is.
- Monterey Jack
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Re: JUMANJI Requel Outperforming All Expectations
I have a weird sense of humor, I guess. There are SO MANY of these awful multiplex comedies that leave me stone-faced and wincing throughout, and then a random one like, say, Blockers will suddenly have me laughing hysterically throughout. Hey, we both think that Top Secret! is a comedy masterpiece, and that's an opinion not shared by many.
The Jumanji movies are "harmless", and I probably would have enjoyed them as a kid, but as an increasingly-jaded and grouchy adult, there's just nothing there to really latch onto...no warmth, no well-timed gags, no sly satire, just a lot of noisy annoyance. That a movie as slight as Welcome To The Jungle could have made that much is, I suppose, a damning indictment of the current cinema climate, where Hey-this-is-better-than-I-expected is good enough. I just found it to be as generic a special effects demo reel as any made in the last decade, and the limp jabs it made at video games were, I suppose, intended to "excuse" how thin the plotting and characterization was. Were I a parent with kids in tow, I would have shrugged the movie off (again, it's not mean-spirited or laden with annoying toilet humor or instantly-dated pop-culture riffing), but as a grown man who just wanted a movie that would entertain me, I found both films very lacking.
And the 1996 kid making "Jiggy widdit" references must have been a seer, because Will Smith didn't record that song until '98.
The Jumanji movies are "harmless", and I probably would have enjoyed them as a kid, but as an increasingly-jaded and grouchy adult, there's just nothing there to really latch onto...no warmth, no well-timed gags, no sly satire, just a lot of noisy annoyance. That a movie as slight as Welcome To The Jungle could have made that much is, I suppose, a damning indictment of the current cinema climate, where Hey-this-is-better-than-I-expected is good enough. I just found it to be as generic a special effects demo reel as any made in the last decade, and the limp jabs it made at video games were, I suppose, intended to "excuse" how thin the plotting and characterization was. Were I a parent with kids in tow, I would have shrugged the movie off (again, it's not mean-spirited or laden with annoying toilet humor or instantly-dated pop-culture riffing), but as a grown man who just wanted a movie that would entertain me, I found both films very lacking.
And the 1996 kid making "Jiggy widdit" references must have been a seer, because Will Smith didn't record that song until '98.
- AndyDursin
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Re: JUMANJI Requel Outperforming All Expectations
Well as a grown man I at least enjoyed watching Karen Gillan for 2 hours.
I know what you are saying (and my wife did not like it as much as I did), but I could also say the same thing about every dumb superhero movie. There's nothing there to engage me in these assembly line Marvel films and Disney's increasingly lame Star Wars series. They ain't being made for me, I guess, but there's not much there in the bulk of them. If you've seen one, you are getting the same overall viewing experience from them all. While nothing earth shattering I did think Jumanji had some real heart and was pretty fun. Compared to other corporate studio franchise crap, I felt it was most definitely a cut above, especially compared to Disney's typical product.
I know what you are saying (and my wife did not like it as much as I did), but I could also say the same thing about every dumb superhero movie. There's nothing there to engage me in these assembly line Marvel films and Disney's increasingly lame Star Wars series. They ain't being made for me, I guess, but there's not much there in the bulk of them. If you've seen one, you are getting the same overall viewing experience from them all. While nothing earth shattering I did think Jumanji had some real heart and was pretty fun. Compared to other corporate studio franchise crap, I felt it was most definitely a cut above, especially compared to Disney's typical product.
- Monterey Jack
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Re: JUMANJI Requel Outperforming All Expectations
This I will concede to you, good sir.AndyDursin wrote: ↑Sat Apr 21, 2018 11:47 pm Well as a grown man I at least enjoyed watching Karen Gillan for 2 hours.
- AndyDursin
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Re: JUMANJI Requel Outperforming All Expectations
Lol see I knew there was common ground here