JUMANJI-WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE: REBOOT THE GAME

Back in 1995 a movie came out that featured a board game as its centerpiece. Starring Robin Williams the movie told the story of a boy with a secret that is sucked into the world of the game only to be released years later when two more children began playing the same board game. When word came out that the movie, treasured by fans around the world, was being remade those fans were not quite sure what to expect. Rest easy because JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE is just as wild, just as adventurous and just as much fun as the original.

But no one plays board games these days right? The movie opens in 1996 and that’s the case when a young teen named Alex tosses the board game aside to play his video games. The next day he looks at the case again to see it is now a video game, begins playing and disappears from this world.

Fast forward to the present and a group of 4 teens are sent to detention. Spencer, the class nerd, and Fridge, the star ball player, are in trouble for Spencer doing Fridge’s homework. Bethany is a self-absorbed young girl who lives on her cell phone, so much she had it on during a test. And Martha is a self-styled outcast sent here because she argued with a teacher. All are there for Saturday detention and instructed to clean out a storage room. But they find the old Jumanji game, hook it up to the TV and begin playing only to be sucked into the game just like Alex years ago.

When they arrive in the jungle it takes them a while to realize what is going on. Spencer is now a muscle bound adventurer and played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Fridge is his sidekick and responsible for carrying a backpack with his weapons and played by Kevin Hart. Martha has turned into a fighting machine ala Laura Croft and played by Karen Gillian. And Bethany is now a knowledgeable professor played by Jack Black. Once they acclimate themselves to their predicament a transport arrives to pick them up.

Driving the vehicle is Nigel, in reality a part of the game who is there to pass along information to the group and set them on their way. He tells them the story of an evil adventurer and Spencer’s rival Van Pelt (Bobby Cannavale) who stole a famed jewel from the eye of a jaguar statue plunging Jumanji into darkness. Their task is to retrieve the jewel and take it back to be replaced in the statue. But there are several tasks involved along the way just like any game requires.

Each learns about their strengths and weaknesses before they set out. They also find out the hard way what the stripes that seem to be tattooed on their arms mean. Each one is a life they have while playing the game. Lose a life, lose a stripe. And when they’re all gone, its game over for that person.

The thing that makes this film work is the interplay between the actors on screen as well as the alterations in their characters from the real world to the world of Jumanji. Spencer’s 180 change has him looking at his arms and amazed at how big they are. Martha can’t figure out why she’s wearing such skimpy clothes in the jungle. Fridge can’t believe he’s little more than a sidekick. And Bethany bemoans her frumpy appearance and the loss of her much loved cell phone. But they all adapt while teasing one another about their changes.

The acting from all four is wonderful to watch. For me Jack Black has always been hit or miss and he hits in this role, especially when he has to go to the bathroom. Gillian gets a chance to shine after her makeup laden role in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. Hart and Johnson, so amazing together in CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE, are just as good here. Johnson in particular shines in his comedic moments, especially when he gives a smoldering look.

The effects are solid here and almost all CGI. But they’re done well enough that it doesn’t matter unlike some films that rely on those effects while doing them poorly. They play well into the story here and that story is solid enough to make you realize this isn’t a remake so much as a reboot of the original.

I found myself laughing throughout the film as well as cheering on the team making their way through the game. While there are a few jokes that adults will enjoy more than kids, they’re not the sort that will be offensive and have you trying to explain them to the young ones. All in all I had a blast with this one and odds are I’ll watch it again. My guess is you will as well. 

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THE SHAPE OF WATER: LOVE IN THE STRANGEST PLACES

I was stunned this year when they announced the winner for the best picture category at the Oscars. How could it possibly be that a movie whose description reads like a low budget horror film from the fifties could win top prize? And from a director known for movies filled with comic book heroes, monsters, ghosts and tales of fantasy? And yet it happened. Now that movie makes its way to disc.

The film takes place in the early 1960s in a government run research facility. Unlike most places we’ve seen in the past this location actually employs people to do real every day jobs like clean the place up. Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) is a young mute woman who works the janitorial staff alongside her friend Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer). When not working she shares an apartment over a movie theater with her advertising artist best friend Giles (Richard Jenkins).

Something big is going on at the facility with the arrival of several people. First is a scientists named Dr. Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg), followed by special agent Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon). The third arrival shows up in a tank, an amphibious being or fish man played wonderfully by Doug Jones. Captured in South America by Strickland the two have an adversarial disposition to one another.

But Elisa sees something the others don’t in the amphibian man. She sees a kindred spirit, another person who is different from the rest and ridiculed or tortured for it. Seeing the cattle prod tipped in blood used by Strickland on the creature she decides to reach out to it instead. She shares her lunch with the creature, nothing more than hard boiled eggs, but in treating it kindly she breaks through to him.

None of this is noticed by the research team. She, like several characters in the film, are ghostlike non-entities, people who are there but never seen by those they work among. The only person who witnesses her communicating with the creature is Hoffstetler. But he won’t reveal this. Why? Because he’s a Russian spy sent to gather information and possibly steal the creature if possible.

The story fluctuates between the tenderness and bond that forms between Elisa and the creature, the mean spirited, bitter and cruel treatment that Strickland pushes on any and every one (including his wife) and the characters found in the periphery here. Each contributes something to the forward movement of the story. Giles is gay and shunned but the film doesn’t focus on that. Blacks are turned away from a restaurant he visits. Zelda is talked down to by her husband.

Halfway through the film the decision is made to destroy the creature. Elisa and her friends set out to rescue him before that can happen. They succeed and take him to her apartment where she keeps him in the bathtub. It is here that her fondness for the creature morphs into not just affection but love as the couple become intimate with one another. It’s become one of the more controversial moments in the film but needn’t be coming off as more natural than most love scenes in films these days.

But we know that the bad guy, Strickland, will eventually be pushed to become the evil government force that thinks only of killing anything they find. It’s a slow buildup to that point and when it happens in the third act you know something will change the lives of all involved before the final reel.

I’ve always been a big fan of Guillermo del Toro. While I’ve missed one or two of his films, I’ve yet to see one that I thought was bad. He has a visual style all his own, one that brings the fantasy realms to the screen and makes them believable. He does that here again creating a world, a creature and a romance between species that makes sense if that’s possible. A fan of monster movies he turns the tables here making the hero the monster and the monster the hero. And it works incredibly well.

The acting here by all involved is great as well. Kudos must go to Sally Hawkins for her bringing life to a character who has no way of speaking except with her hands, face and body language. She does so with skill. And while he may be ignored consistently by the Academy Doug Jones brings to life a creature that emotes through his body like no one else can. He’s done this time and time again and never gets recognized for it. Shame on those who think the only way an actor acts is through the language they project.

In the end the movie may not be for everyone. There is nudity and sexual situation that mean the kids can’t sit in while you watch it. But for adults who understand the circumstances the story revolves around and who can find the romance beneath the makeup the movie is truly a film that will touch your heart. 

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I TONYA: TROUBLED TONYA

When I first heard a new movie was coming out about the life of Tonya Harding I wondered what type it would be. I mean sure it would be biographical but what direction would it take? Would it praise her, condemn her or attempt to straddle the line between both? Depending on your point of view concerning Harding the answer will be a personal one.

The film opens with Harding being led to the skating rink at 4 years old by her mother LaVona (Allison Janney). The chain smoking, hardworking, abusive and foul mouthed woman sees that Tonya has a natural ability and she plans to use that to help her make it through life.

But that life is not the best that a young woman can go through. On top of the failed marriages of LaVona that happen, she is also beaten by her mother at various moments. This leads to a lifetime of verbal and physical abuse in the decisions she makes down the road, both in how she treats others and how she is treated.

Tonya (Margot Robbie) begins developing as a skater but always makes the wrong choices when it comes to winning competitions. While others are taking the standard route of classical music and well-made costumes Tonya enters in costumes she or her mother sew and rock music that inspires her to a great performance but not what the judges want.

At 19 Tonya meets Jeff Gillooly (Stan Shaw), a young man attracted to her and from the same social strata she hails from. If you hadn’t guessed it already Tonya comes from what is stereotypically referred to as “poor white trash”. It isn’t long before the pair begin dating, at first accompanied on dates by LaVona. In no time flat they marry and begin a tumultuous relationship with Jeff adoring her one moment and shoving her face into a mirror the next. The relationship ends in divorce but with the couple unable to part ways and Jeff always there.

Also always there is Jeff’s friend Shawn Eckhardt (Paul Walter Hauser). As depicted here Shawn does little more than eat (he’s seen with food in nearly every shot) and imagine himself to be more than he is, claiming to work for the CIA as an undercover operative. But he’s there for his friend Jeff whenever needed.

In 1991 Tonya gets her big break when she becomes the first woman to do a triple axel successfully in competition.  It’s enough to pave her way towards the possibility of a chance at the Olympics. But after that year while her performance slide downward. Still, she has that chance. Before it can happen the “incident” occurs.

Gillooly and Eckhart formulate a plan to disrupt competing skater Nancy Kerrigan. The end result is the hiring of someone to do her damage by taking a telescopic baton and smashing her knee. As depicted in the film all Jeff wanted to do was send her death threats to mess with her concentration, it was Eckhardt that came up with the damage plan. The end result was not favorable for Harding.

The movie is quite well made with terrific performances by all involved, resulting in an Oscar nomination for Robbie and an Oscar win for Janney. That Janney can come off as such a despicable character shows how she well she did her job and that she deserved the award. One thing to marvel at, if it was indeed her, is the skating ability of Robbie. Not the leaps and such but just being able to skate convincingly in the role. The shots of her in competition show a great skill with the camera as well as editing techniques that are seamless when it comes to stunt doubles.

Now the personal issue. While the movie doesn’t shy away from portraying the roots of Harding it seems to want to elevate her to hero status. It paints a portrait of a woman who finds the fault always lies in someone else and never on herself. Her mother, the judges, her ex-husband, the press, we the viewers are all presented as the reason she is who she is. How that makes her a hero or can be seen as an inspiration for young women is beyond me. And after all that we are presented with here I found it still difficult to believe she was innocent when it comes to the “incident”.

If the language used here, dotted every few minutes with a wide assortment of F bombs, doesn’t bother you then you might find this movie an interesting take on the life of Harding and the struggle she had. If you remember the “incident”, the release of sex tapes, her appearances in reality TV and her recent outburst during an interview then you’ll wonder at the altered view of her life as seen here. 

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