Jumanji

Well I'm back and I'm ready to review another movie. It looks like Jumanji is the movie for today. It's based on a book by Chris Van Allsburg of the same name. Interesting fact, this was technically my first review. I wrote a review of this movie for my school paper that was never published (the paper not the review). But that's out of the way, let's start my review of Jumanji.

We start in 1869 where two boys named Caleb (Cyrus Thiedeke) and Benjamin (Brandon Orbray) are burying a mysterious box and hoping no one will ever find it again. Years later, in 1969, a little boy named Allan Parish (Adam Hann-Byrd) is being bullied by some kids and he hides in his fathers (Johnathan Hyde) shoe factory. Allan accidentally gets his friend Carl (David Alan Grier) fired but Allan doesn't do anything about it. Allan hears strange drumming coming from a construction site and he finds the chest that was buried at the beginning and he opens the chest to find a board game called Jumanji. He goes home where his father says he is sending him to boarding school. His parents leave to go to an important event and Allan takes this chance to run away, but before he can leave his friend Sarah (Laura Bell Bundy) comes over and Allan convinces her to play Jumanji with him. Sarah rolls the dice and they hear weird sounds coming from the chimney. Then, Allan rolls and he gets sucked into the game until someone rolls a 5 or 8. But before Sarah can roll, a bunch of bats chase her away. Twenty six years later a woman named Nora (Bebe Neuwirth) moves into Allan's old house. Nora is taking care of her nephew Peter (Bradley Pierce) and niece Judy (Kristen Dunst) who recently lost their parents in a car crash.

Nora goes to work while Judy and Peter go to school but before going to school they hear drumming and find Jumanji, they decide to play too. They play and release weird bugs, some monkeys, and a lion. When the lion is released Peter rolls a 5 which releases a grown up Allan Parish (Robin Williams). After trapping the lion in the bedroom Allan goes to find his parents but finds out that the  factory closed after his disappearance and his parents are dead. Judy and Peter decide to finish the game with the help of Allan. But in order to complete the game they need Sarah, so they find the grown up Sarah (Bonnie Hunt) and convince (force) her to help them finish the game. They release a bunch of horrors of the jungle on the world including a hunter named Van Pelt (Also Johnathan Hyde) who wants to kill Allan and they release a stampede where a bird in the stampede steals the board game. They recover the board game, however, they get separated when an older Carl arrests Allan. Meanwhile Van Pelt plans to lure Allan to a store and kill him.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

They manage to temporarily stop Van Pelt by knocking over a bunch of paint cans on top of him. They make it back to the house and the dice roll causes the house to flood. Nora and Carl try to get inside but only end up draining out all the water. The next several rolls release quicksand, spiders, and a horrible earthquake. Van Pelt catches up to them and tries to kill Allan. But Allan rolls his dice just in time and wins the game. This reverses all of the effects of the game and Allan and Sarah are transported back to 1969 where they throw the game in the river. Not a good strategy to get rid of it I would have burned it. We then cut to 1995 again where we see that Sarah and Allan got married and warn Judy and Peter's parents to not go on the vacation where they died. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

Jumanji is a great movie. The special effects are pretty good for the time. Robin Williams gives a great and funny performance as Allan. It manages to capture the chaos of a bunch of wild animals rampaging through a New England town. I think Sarah is a very funny character in this because when she is first introduced she thinks she is imagining everything. If there is something I didn't like, it's that some of the logic in this film doesn't make much sense. But I do recommend Jumanji as a fun family movie. Also on an slightly unrelated note, wouldn't it be cool if there was a real Jumanji board game....on second thought forget I said that. See you next time.

SIMON HAWKS INVENTOR OF MUSTACHE WAX AND SHOULDER PADS