Jumanji

As for Williams himself, his wild-man routine is only in evidence in his opening scenes; otherwise he dials it down, perhaps sensing that the way to upstage the loony creatures is to be relatively rational. There is something touchingly innocent in his performance.

Regrettably, however, the weird elegance of Chris Van Allsburg's much-praised picture book has been all but lost in translation.

Jumanji is cardboard Spielberg, a B-movie scrap heap of spare parts lifted from "Jurassic Park" and "Gremlins" and "Back to the Future".

The terror sequences (not only animals but monsoons and earthquakes and quicksand) are scary until they get monotonous: after a while, you have a sense you're watching a clip reel from every Hollywood disaster flick ever made.

Williams is hardly at his comically inventive best. And the script (adapted by Chris Van Allsburg, and a string of others, from his book) pursues the least exciting avenues possible.

Something bad happened on the way from the book to the movie. [15Dec1995 Pg. F.01]

Director Joe Johnston's elaborately dressed kids' movie--about a board game that sucks its players into a perilous jungle overrun by lions, rhinos, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders--spends so much time on the how of special effects that it neglects the why of characterization.

Good movie, and the rating on IMDB is abysmal because of like 5 reviews here on Metacritic. So I’m trying to change that.

I guess this movie was interesting because of its visual effects in 1995. Today they are not special any more of course. Other than that the movie is just average. The many screams by girls and women were annoying.

When Jumanji came out in 1995,it instantly became a piece of everyone's childhood,and most of it is due to the one and only Robin Williams (Rest In Peace). As of today,it is that,but sometimes it's not really a board game,but a ''Bored'' game. Joe Johnston had this concept about a magical board game with the ability to summon animals and more,and this could be a fun ride,especially if you have Robin Williams as one of the main leads,so... What almost went wrong here? It's nothing huge by any means,but sometimes the story can drag with its execution. The 1st act is flat-out serious in certain moments,but progressing onto Act 2 and 3,it ''kind of'' gets lighthearted,especially with some funny jokes and an amazing performance by Williams. The score (by Jerry Goldsmith) tends to be a little adventurous at times,and that's a great thing,since I wanted this movie to be a fun ride. However,there may be some cons sparkled here and there. The editing sometimes seems out of place,and this is the movie that i'll point out as an example of bad CGI,and I understand this is some 1995 stuff,but come on,there was also Apollo 13 back then. Summing it up,Jumanji is fun for what it is. It's a ''bored'' game,sure,but you can't deny the effort Johnston put in to try and make this movie a wild ride,and that's why i'm saving this movie with a positive grade,even if,again,it could've been better.

Dull special effects make this movie look dated. Jumnaji is aged pretty bad right now. Watch Zathura because it's better than Jumnaji in any way because it's still aged great.

Clairement un film d’emblée complètement con pour mômes (plutôt ****) qui seront moins regardants sur la faible qualité des effets spéciaux et/ou le scénario traînard qui bat de l’aile assez vite, pour ne pas dire quasiment… immédiatement ! il faut dire que c’est tellement idiot ce film de gogolitos qu’on s’y emmerde en moins de deux !Petite surprise, on y voit la charmante Kirsten Dunst quand elle avait… ouais à peu près. Et encore. Quant à Robin Williams, il dépense beaucoup d’énergie pour se ridiculiser en permanence dans cette petite et infâme chierie à mongolitos. Pour son bien (et le nôtre), il vaut mieux oublier cette comédie à gogols coincés en première base, pour lui et sa mémoire (il valait mieux que ça !).