Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

First Hit:  The interaction of the actors in this film make it work – I enjoyed it.

It is hard to miss the funny mark when you’ve got Jack Black (as Bethany), Kevin Hart (as Fridge) and Dwayne Johnson (as Spencer) together in a film. The wonderful part is that Karen Gillan (as Martha) held her own quite well with these three funny and larger than life guys.

A young Spencer (Alex Wolf) is nerdy and unsure of himself. As the film begins, he’s being taken advantage of by a young Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), who is a big strapping young man. Intimidating Spencer into doing his homework Fridge creates a friendship of convenience.Although Spence is somewhat resentful of being taken advantage of he does it anyway. After they get caught cheating, they are sent to detention.

Young Bethany (Madison Iseman) is the class popular beauty. She’s constantly on her phone and uses her contrived sexuality to get her way in school.  She ignores a teacher’s request to put away her phone and gets sent to detention.

Young Martha (Morgan Turner) is a nerd and introverted. She hates PE and tells the teacher she won’t participate in the exercise class and gets detention.

This is the setup and together in detention they discover an old electronic version of Jumanji. Getting sucked into the game they end up in a jungle where they arrive as the opposite of who they are outside the game. Spencer (Johnson) is no longer an intimidated skinny nerd, he’s a big, strong assertive man. The big man on campus football player Fridge (Hart), has turned into a small wise cracking man. The beautiful Bethany (Black) turns into a short dumpy man. And the nerdy quiet Martha (Gillan) has turned into a beautiful, strong woman who is a martial arts expert.

Given this setup, a lot could go wrong if the situations and dialogue are weak or don’t allow the actors breathing room, however this is not the situation. It works: The situations and dialogue create scenes that are funny and allow the actors to interpret both their former younger selves while embodying their new older bodies and skills.

Johnson is fun to watch here because his ability to seem like his size and strength are new to him really works. His interactions with Hart are priceless. Hart does a great job of trying to make the others still believe he’s still the size of his younger self instead of his shorter self. The script makes good use of his innate talents of making wise cracks and barking out his intentions. Black is perfect. He makes you believe that he was once a beautiful young lady who is now trapped in a stubby man’s body. I enjoyed the scenes when he gave Martha lessons on how to seduce the men guarding the transportation building. Gillan was fantastic because, despite her beauty, she embodied the nerdy girl of her younger self. She was great as the martial arts expert, ready to kick some butt. Wolff, Blain, Iseman and Turner all did a wonderful job of being the younger characters. Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers did a nice job of creating a screenplay that enhanced the story and actors. Jake Kasdan elevated the story to something fun and engaging.

Overall: I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this film.

When the Game Stands Tall

First Hit:  Enjoyed this dramatization of a real life story about brotherhood and sport.

Having lived in the bay area for nearly 40 years I’m aware of De La Salle and their Spartan Football team. I was aware of “The Streak” and when it got broken.

However, as the film works hard at doing, the point is not about winning football games, it is about showing and living up to the promise you make to yourself and your teammates. Bob Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel) or “Coach Lad” as the team called him, focuses on using football as a vehicle for people to sign up for commitments to themselves and others.

They have to openly share their commitments with their teammates – this makes the commitment more powerful. This film shares all this in many ways; through the story of brotherhood between T.K. Kelly and Cam Colvin (Stephan James and Ser’Darius Blain - respectively).  

Then there is the story of Coach Lad’s son Danny (Matthew Daddario) attempting to find his relationship with his dad. There is Tayshon Lanear (Jessie T. Usher) learning that it is about the team and not him. Lastly, it is about a son living his dream not his father’s as represented by Chris Ryan (Alexander Ludwig) and his Dad Mickey (Clancy Brown).

There were liberties (like Chris Ryan’s going for a record) in the story and the main point is/was simple:  Show up, stand by your brother and learn to become an honorable man in our society.

Caviezel captured the quiet, focused, driven and caring coach and mentor. What Caviezel did was to make the film about the philosophy and not his performance. Michael Chiklis as Terry Edison (Assistant coach and friend of Ladouceur) was very strong. James and Blain were great as life long friends reaching for their dream. Daddario did a really good job of being the son of a father that really has many sons. Usher was strong as the ego driven talent that was willing to learn. Ludwig was really good as the son who needed to become his own man. Brown overdid the strong overbearing father role but it did make the point. Scott Marshall Smith wrote a really good screenplay bringing out the essence of Ladouceur’s lessons. Thomas Carter directed this film and I liked the use of real footage (beginning and in the credits) to bring this closer to life. I did think Mickey Ryan’s character was overdone and this was a directing issue more than an acting issue.

Overall:  I hope that many team sport coaches see this film and gain some insight that success is more than a “rah rah kill them” attitude.