Jumanji

Rating:
Summary: Would u like a board game like this?
Review: I first saw this movie at the movie theatres when I was 7. Now I am 14 and I still like this movie. It is about a board game, when you play it real things from the jungle come to life from the game. Four characters must finish the game to make everything from the game go away. I am very impressed with the way the animals and the effects looked. The actors did an excellent job especially Bonnie Hunt and Robin Williams. The movie went by smoothly. I enjoyed the movie a lot. The movie may be a little dark because my little sister was scared the first time she saw it. Everytime she watches it more she gets less scared. I don't know why. I recommend this movie to anybody!

Rating:
Summary: It was the Never Ending Neverending Story.
Review: Movie started off good and held mine and the families interest for a while, but it went on and on and on. Most of the family had left the room by the end. Ol'dad stayed till the end, and it wasn't worth it. Good thing we only rented it. Some of the special effects were pretty good and the likeable, but the story just got in the way.

Rating:
Summary: Fun but far-fetched
Review: This movie is about a board game gone wild (literally!). It's a fun fantasy-land in the "real world" that becomes frightening with a hunter that hunts people, rhinos that trample cars, and spiders that are almost human size (I still have to close my eyes at that part!). There is some element of romance, but it's primarily a comic adventure. Just stay away from any board games that play conga drums!

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, well-acted film for teenagers and adults
Review: In Jumanji, 13 year-old Alan Parrish has difficulty communicating with his domineering father. During an intense argument, Alan shouts at his departing father, "I'm never going to talk to you again" and then prepares to run away. He is interrupted by Sarah, a classmate. The two begin to play a strange board game which Alan had unearthed earlier that afternoon at a construction site. Weird and scary things pop out of the game with each roll of the dice. Alan's piece lands on a space which reads "in the jungle you must wait until someone rolls a 5 or 8" and Alan is sucked into the board while Sarah hysterically runs away. Some twenty-five years later, two children find the board game in the attic of their new home. They begin to play and proceed to release monkeys, killer mosquitoes and a lion with each roll of the dice. Eventually, one child rolls a 5 and releases the now-grown Alan Parrish (whom everyone in town assumes was murdered). In order to put everything back the way it was and save their town from destruction, Alan finds Sarah and the foursome struggle to play the game through to completion, wreaking further havoc with each roll.

The film is superbly cast and well-acted. The story is engrossing and, occasionally, is touching and humorous. Viewers should be aware that this is a horror film. It is very frightening. It is fine for adults, teenagers and older children. For parents like myself who are familiar with the Chris Van Allsburg picture book of the same name, I must warn you that this film isn't really appropriate for the 4 - 8 year-olds that love the book.

Rating:
Summary: The Good Old Days
Review: In 1989 Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID initiated a significant renaissance of family films of both the animated and live action variety. There were actually quite a few live action family films produced up through the mid 90s that combined outrageous situations, sentimental plotting and good doses of visual mayhem to entertain most audiences. Some of these films such as HOME ALONE (1990), BEETHOVEN (1992), HOMEWARD BOUND: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY (1993) and DENNIS THE MENACE (1993) were the staples of this renaissance. By the mid 90s the appeal of such films seemed to be waning. 1995's JUMANJI seemed to be one of the last of the films to gain recognition and prominence at least to the audiences that went to see it. Many of the noted critics at that time were not exactly enthralled with this film. I sat in the theatre thinking that this was one of the most innovative films to come along for some time. It not only contained those elements that characterized the aforementioned family films but also combined convincing digital effects, real drama, danger and concluded with an important message the parents and children should take the time to notice one another and not create impenetrable boundaries around themselves. A boy most grow into manhood before he understands that perhaps his father does not know how to approach him. JUMANJI is filled with action and many special effects that really are elements of the catharsis that Alan Parrish (Robin Williams) must endure before he can ever possibly go home again. Watching this film again recently I was touched by the scene where Robin Williams visits the old family shoe business to find the factory empty and closed down now a home for a transient who barely remembers the fate of Williams' dad. That scene counterbalanced with the score that James Horner had composed of the earlier New England setting was bittersweet. Watching that scene I also drifted back to the time when this film was first released. They really don't make films like this any more. Those were the good old days. And it's really not that long ago. For a while the studios were making intelligent films for the whole family that weren't afraid to make you feel for the characters as well as laugh with them. I have fond memories of JUMANJI.

Rating:
Summary: Warning: This movie should have been rated PG-13
Review: If you thought 3000 Miles to Graceland was a viloent movie, then I will have to guess that you have never seen Jumanji. But this movie got a PG rating if though there a lot of violence going on during this movie. This was based of a book and there is a game in this movie called Jumanji in which it has strict rules like Don't begin in less you intend to finish. And gives messages to the players like "in the jungle you must wait until the dice reads 5 or 8." The movie begins wiht a couple of kids or teenagers burying a box. And 100 years later the box is dug up by a boy named Alan (Adam Hann-Byrd). His parents decide to send him away to a school. But when Alan angrys his parents they leave slamming the door and his also packs his bags and also is out the door when a girl named Sarah (Laura Bell Bunty) who has come to Alan's house to return a bike that was wrecked by her boyfriend. Alan shows Sarah the game and before they know it they are playing the game and weird stuff comes out before Alan gets a message to wait inside the game until the dice reads 5 or 8. And Sarah runs screaming from the house. 26 years later, a woman (Bebe Neuwrith) and her neice Judy (Kristen Dunst) and nephew Peter (Beauty and the Beast's Bradley Pierce) move in the house and one day insteading of going to school Judy and Peter find Jumanji and play and without knowing releases Alan (Robin Williams) even though he was rumored to be dead.

Rating:
Summary: Jumanji Excitement
Review: Based on the children's book by Chris Van Allsburg, Jumanji stars Robin Williams as a man who escapes his confinement within a devilish board game, only to be followed by all kinds of exotic problems: elephants, lions, zebras, monkeys, floods, giant insects, killer plants, and a big-game hunter. The computer-generated effects all wreak havoc through quiet streets, and while most of this is pretty fun, relationship conflicts and character development are weak and forgettable. The high point, in comic terms, is probably David Alan Grier's hilarious performance as a cop catching the worst of these various plagues--one at a time.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie!
Review: Okay just because Robin Williams isn't funny doesn't mean this movie is bad. And just to notify you this is an "Action film" not a "Comedy". This story takes place in a small own in New Hamphshire in 19g9 where young Allan Parrish finds a board game called Jumanji. After getting sucked into the game in front of his friend Sarah he gets sucked into a mysterious land called Jumanji. In 1995 two kids move into a house where Allan Parrish once lived. The board game releases Lions, Glass Breaking Mosquitoes, A stampede of Ellephants, Rhinos and Zebras, Man eating Plants, Giant Spiders, Quick Sand and Monsoons. This movcie is amazing and a great action film. And for those of you thinking this is going to be a comedy think again.

Rating:
Summary: One of Robin Williams' worst movies.
Review: I'd say this is one of Williams' worst movies. He's not funny at all here, although the movie does have some mild humor here and there. Unlike his other movies, there is really no moral to story, meaning that the plot is ultimately pointless.

The movie begins in the 1860's when two kids bury some locked chest. Then, a boy discovers it on a construction site and pulls it out, discovering a board game inside called Jumanji. He gets a girl to play with him and he is sucked into the board, reappearing like 20 years later, saying and looking like he had been living in a jungle most of his life. Unfortunately, with him also came undesirable things from Jumanji, such as monkeys taking over the town, stampeding elephants, disease, spiders the size of basketballs, and the like. To end it all, they must finish the game, which means it's going to get worse before it gets better. They end up finishing it alive (barely) and then they are back in time as kids right before he got sucked into the board. So the two keep the secret to themselves since no one is aware anything happened and they'd never believe them anyway. They also get married. Awww, how cute. So they rid themselves of the damned game of course but stupidly just set it in a creek to float away, instead of burning it (duh!). So then in Japan or somewhere on the beach, two kids hear the African drumming coming out of the board ahead and they rush towards it in curiosity and delight at their finding. Oh boy! Maybe this means there will be sequel! Then, we can learn where this game came from and how and why it does what it does.

Rating:
Summary: Fun but dark
Review: The first time I saw this (on cable), I was very surprised. From all the commercials promoting the film, I thought it was for children. Possibly that's why it didn't do as well in the theaters as it could have done--once parents spread the word, it was hard to find an audience. This is NOT for children. It's too dark a story line and I was a bit creeped out by the spiders scene. Now, that said, I did enjoy the film but ... it was missing something but they couldn't put their finger on it. --This text refers to the DVD edition