Jungle

The fundamental intensity of Ghinsberg’s story is hard to totally squander. When it doesn’t give in to the desire to be a more traditional crowd-pleaser, Jungle provides a graphic and unvarnished account of a genuinely incredible story.

There’s not much new here, but it’s as engrossing as the better entries in this formulaic quest and that’s largely owing to [Radcliffe’s] charisma and focused self-martyrdom.

Jungle eventually leads to an exciting survival story with an intense performance by Daniel Radcliffe and suspenseful scenes that might make you squirm. But it might not be worth the journey it takes to get there.

Daniel Radcliffe does what he can to elevate the survival story at the heart of Jungle, but the film's awkward pacing and over-reliance on cliche hold him back.

Taut and rattling in setup, before losing its bearings in more ways than one as no end of jungle fever seizes Daniel Radcliffe’s agonized protagonist.

Slow to get moving and dramatically slack, Jungle cares only about Yossi, whose solo suffering and speed-enhanced hallucinations dominate the narrative.

Greg McLean and screenwriter Justin Monjo faithfully hit the key plot points of Yossi Ghinsberg's 1993 book Back from Tuichi but fail to sell the severity of the threats Yossi confronts.

Before the movie I had no idea about the real story behind it. Big plus for keeping script as close to the events as possible. "Jungle" is a very well shot showing beauty and also danger of surrounding nature. Plus great performance by Daniel Radcliffe and other cast members. Definitely one of the better man vs nature movies of recent years.

A director for horror movies takes a stab at making a survival film that's based on a true story. It's a well put together movie on the surface, but there's nothing going on underneath. Yossi is never given any room to become anything more than a faceless guy who got lost in the jungle. The stuff that happens to him is surprisingly tame compared to other films of the like out there. I get that the slower pace is probably more realistic, but despite Greg McLean's penchant for horror it's the more brutal things that actually happened to Yossi that failed to make the cut here. The presence of McLean's previous filmmaking experiences can be felt here. The soundtrack and trippy hallucination sequences feel ripped straight from a horror flick, and are among the movie's more interesting elements. One particularly grotesque moment in the movie is brought to life by some impressive gore that is not for the eyes of the squeamish or those with a fear of parasites. There is something inherently watchable about a person surviving by themselves in the unforgiving world of nature we so often avoid. While some of that still shines through here, "Jungle" never manages to transcend to anything beyond just watchable. The shiny exterior can't make up for the hollow interior. It's missing that uplifting element one can feel when witnessing a story about a man overcoming the odds and surviving by finding that very special, very human driving force for life that exists within all of us, but is found by so few. Daniel Radcliffe is all there really is. It's impressive just how much that means though. The incredibly talented and likable actor carries things much further than they otherwise would have gone.

Daniel Radcliffe still on his way of pushing his career further trying to get rid of his Harry Potter image, let's be honest, he will never do it, but he's doing a good job taking risky roles. Jungle is a film focused on survival, inspired by the memories of Israeli explorer Yossi Ghinsberg who was stranded in an unexplored part of the Bolivian Amazonian jungle in 1981. Jungle is directed by Greg McLean, a director more focused on terror, he's the director of Wolf Creek 1 and 2 and the recent The Belko Experiment, although Jungle is more focused on other topics, the tonal and structural aspect of the film follows much of the rules of his previous films. His direction is neat and successful but keeps everything in the grounds he knows, certain narrative points feel irregular and certain sequences will test your patience. Radcliffe is solid, he carries with fluency and credibility the protagonism but in the end the role does not seem to require more of him from what he already delivered in Swiss Army Man. Forgettable, but it has enough quality to stand out a bit.

Has some strong moments but is ultimately a quite poorly-executed survival story.

Unfortunately, it became uninteresting already fifteen minutes into the film. A rather boring and insignificant film.