Jungle Cruise Review

Jungle Cruise

Dir: Jaume Collet-Serra

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti

2h 7m

 

My first ride, on my first trip to Disneyland, was The Jungle Cruise.  The mechanical boat tour into the Amazon was pure joy. The scary rhino, the underwater hippos, and the mysterious 8th wonder of the world all combined for a magical experience. It was fun, exciting, humorous, and very silly.

 

The same can be said of director Jaume Collet-Serra's harmless "Jungle Cruise," a sometimes amusing and completely summer popcorn-worthy journey into the Disney ride adaptations. Part "Pirates of the Caribbean," part "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Jungle Cruise" wears its influences proudly on its sleeve. It even features not one but two charming heroic leads pushing the film forward. 

 

Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) is a reckless and confident explorer trying to lead an expedition into the Amazon to find a powerful secret deep in the jungle. With the help of her brother McGregor (Jack Whitehall), Lily must steal an ancient arrowhead stone to find the path to the old treasure. Traveling from England to South America, Lily and McGregor need a boat and a captain to make their journey. They find help from Skipper Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson), a hustling tour guide who owes money to a grumpy riverboat dealer (Paul Giamatti). Skipper Frank cons Lily and McGregor into hiring him, unaware that the dangerous German Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons) is hot on their trail. The hunt for the secret treasure leads all groups into a supernatural conflict with the cursed ancient conquistador Aguirre (Édgar Ramírez). 

 

 

Amid a story combining a bevy of complicated and distracting influences, "Jungle Cruise" maintains much of its momentum because of the chemistry and charisma between Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson. Their banter, wisecracks, and insults are humorous and add an element of fun to almost every scene. Jesse Plemons and Jack Whitehall are also good in supporting roles. Plemons, with a thick accent, chews up the scenery with glee. Whitehall, with a haughty attitude and a trail of suitcases in tow, shines consistently. 

 

The story struggles to keep up with the many other stories it's trying to tell. Aguirre, composed of snakes, and his undead jungle inhabited conquistadors, are trying to break their curse. Prince Joachim travels in a submarine and wants to rule the world. Add Skipper Frank and Lily's combined, and sometimes different, motivations to find the treasure, and "Jungle Cruise" gets lost on its journey. 

 

"Jungle Cruise" doesn't do anything completely different from other Disney adventures of recent memory, but that doesn't keep it from having a whole lot of fun. Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt keep the cruise cruising for over 2 hours. Their chemistry is infectious. "Jungle Cruise" is fun, a popcorn film with a little bit of everything for viewers looking for a nice summer cinema distraction. 

 

Monte's Rating

3.00 out of 5.00

Jumanji: The Next Level Review

Jumanji: The Next Level

Dir: Jake Kasdan

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Colin Hanks, Danny Glover, Danny DeVito, and Nick Jonas

What started with a mystical jungle board game in the ‘90s, then reinvented to an adventure video game for a new modern audience, the mischievous “Jumanji” continues to play its wicked games with a group of young people who narrowly escape being entrapped inside it forever in “Jumanji: The Next Level”. 

The sequel to the 2017 reboot, directed again by Jake Kasdan, continues the adventure with the same cast, adding three new players to the mix with the grumpy duo of Danny DeVito and Danny Glover and a thieving in-game burglar played by Awkwafina, and much of the same thematic adventure storytelling that made the 2017 film such a hit with audiences. 

The young group of friends who barely escaped Jumanji have returned to normal life, graduating high school and moving to different colleges, though they still remain close friends after their video game adventure. Spencer (Alex Wolff) however is having trouble adjusting in New York City after leaving his larger-than-life video game personality Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson). Spencer is also struggling to maintain a relationship with his girlfriend Martha (Morgan Turner), who helped him inside Jumanji as Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan). After coming home for the holidays Spencer is tempted by Jumanji to return to play the game one more time, leaving Spencer’s friends to return to the game to try and save him.

Returning for the fun and laughs is the lively cast lead by the charismatic Dwayne Johnson, the hilarious talents of Kevin Hart and Jack Black, and the spirited Karen Gillan.  This cast is a major reason this film, which often retreads much of what it does well in the first film, works so well. The chemistry of the group, who are game to do the silly stuff with the most serious face, keeps the film very lighthearted, entertaining, and fun. It has an odd Saturday morning cartoon tone. 

As the film likes to reinstate numerous times, “the game has changed”. It has, well…it wants to…but it never fully deviates in any way that would cause the film to stray too far from the formula that found success a few years ago. It has changed some of the flaws from the first film, this time strengthening the big bad guy known here as Jurgen the Brutal (Rory McCann) and allowing the lone female actioner Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan) more time to lead the group. Also, a nice narrative touch found in a body of water that allows the video game characters to switch avatar personalities provides the funniest moments in the film.

Still, this doesn’t prevent “Jumanji: The Next Level” from feeling very familiar and more formulaic than the last outing. Some scenes here are directly replicated from the last movie, replace CGI hippos with CGI anacondas or squabbling young people with irritable old people and repeat scenes that worked before. Still, the focus here is fun and laughs, and even though the film doesn’t try to reinvent the story it proudly understands its own entertainment value. 

Monte’s Rating

3.00 out of 5.00

Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw Review

Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

Dir: David Leitch

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Helen Mirren, and Cliff Curtis

“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”. “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”. “Freebie and the Bean”. “Tango and Cash”. “Turner & Hootch”. 

“Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” continues the story tradition of the “buddy” film formula; two unlikely, often complete opposite, characters are somehow forced into cooperation and are whisked into a narrative that involves hijinks, adventure, crime, even romance. We’ve had follies with escaped convicts, escapades with rogue cops, and jaunts that pair human and animal. 

“Hobbs & Shaw”, two foes who first threw each other through windows and broke each other over furniture in “Furious 7” and then continued their fighting while working together in “The Fate of the Furious”, somehow has a little bit of everything thrown into its lofty narrative structure. This is an action movie plain and simple, a summer blockbuster extravaganza with enough “boom” and “bang” to fill two movies. It completely understands how to utilize its action movie super humans to the fullest extent, allowing enough witty one-liners and tree-chopping put downs to fill the spaces between action set pieces with enough humor to distract from the glaring lapses in narrative design. Still, if you’ve seen all eight “Fast and Furious” films, watched all four of the “The Transporter” movies, or watched Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson deliver wrestling moves in World Wrestling Entertainment, you know exactly what to expect from “Hobbs & Shaw”. 

A genetically enhanced bad guy (Idris Elba) with a physics-defying motor cycle is trying to steal a dangerous, world-ending virus but is thwarted by a special agent (Vanessa Kirby) who steals the weapon and retreats into hiding. Lawman Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and outcast Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) are called in, unbeknownst to each other, to form a team to save the world. 

Director David Leitch, who helmed “Atomic Blonde” and “Deadpool 2”, understands how to craft an action scene and how to provide that crucial element of fan service. When working with a franchise, “Fast and Furious”, that has built expectations so high for death-defying action scenes, applying the right amount fan service can be a difficult task. “Hobbs & Shaw” hits all the obvious marks, fans get a few explosive car chases, tough guy humorous banter between Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, and several  bone-crushing fist fights. The film is checking all the boxes. 

But there is unfortunately something missing, the element of coherence and logic in storytelling that has all but been erased from the “Fast and Furious” films as they have grown in action franchise dominance. The element of drama and emotion that fleshes out their over heroic characters which has been replaced with heavy-handed emotional scenes that feel out of place and, in the case of “Hobbs & Shaw”, a “bromance” that plunges awkwardly between moments that are trying to be heartfelt and humorous. This dramatic element succeeds a handful of times when Johnson and Statham work individually with other characters in the film, unfortunately it seldom exists between the two leads. 

“Hobbs & Shaw” highlights the primary expectations fans of the “Fast and Furious” franchise are looking for. The action moves closer to comic book movie status while the humor works on the most superficial terms. For the last film of the 2019 summer blockbuster movie season, “Hobbs & Shaw” is an easy, simple, unremarkable distraction. 

Monte’s Rating

2.25 out of 5.00

  

Skyscraper Review

Skyscraper

Dir: Rawson Marshall Thurber

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Pablo Schreiber, Noah Taylor, Roland Moller, and Chin Han

Take the barebones plot of “Die Hard”, now add fire to the building like “The Towering Inferno”, and lastly let Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson fight some bad guys. The elevator pitch for director/writer Rawson Marshall Thurber’s “Skyscraper” probably went something like that. And for a summer popcorn movie I’m sure that was more than enough information to greenlight this 80’s-esque action throwback. Having Dwayne Johnson as the foundation for a behemoth building-on-fire film is a pretty good way to guarantee that even though your film might check every single genre cliché, it will still have charm and entertainment value.

Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson) is a retired FBI hostage rescue agent, also retired soldier, who is doing building security contract work in Hong Kong. However, this isn’t just a regular building, this is the tallest building in the world. It is Will’s job to make sure it is also the safest building in the world. Will’s wife Sarah (Neve Campbell) and their two children (McKenna Roberts and Noah Cottrell) are the only people living inside the luxury rooms located high up in the skyscraper. While checking an offsite facility, where the sophisticated building operations system is located, the building is suddenly set on fire and blamed on Will who soon finds out his family is still in the building and he is the only one who can save them.

During one of the pivotal action scenes, the moment in the movie when our everyday hero moves from ordinary to extraordinary, Mr. Johnson’s character utters the line, “This is stupid”. The same may be uttered by some audience members during the movie as well. However, taking a look at the movie poster, which shows Dwayne Johnson jumping from construction equipment into a burning building, it’s obvious the kind of movie you are paying for. It’s a nonsensical, physics defying popcorn film in the vein of the movies teens from the 1980’s fondly recount. 

The story is simplistic and idiotic at times, however the composition of Will Sawyer as a determined tough guy who, after an accident, must deal with having a prosthetic limb adds some nice moments of suspense. And it also limits the physicality of the character and specifically, for someone with an intimidating physique like Dwayne Johnson, it seems to give the bad guys an advantage during combat scenes and it makes the high-flying action scenes have increased suspense. Yes, we know nothing is going to happen to the character, that’s not how these kinds of films work; but when fire is blazing, when the ground seems miles away, or when our hero is dangling from a building by his prosthetic leg (as seen in the trailer), it’s intriguing to see how the character will escape his predicament. 

Dwayne Johnson fits perfectly into the mix as the good guy out to save his family. Think about the Bruce Willis’ character John McClane in “Die Hard”, an everyday officer trying to save his wife, and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character John Matrix in “Commando”, a masculine soldier trying to save his daughter; Dwayne Johnson’s character here is a mix of both of them and he is completely likable in the performance. Add Neve Campbell, who could easily transition her career with this type of tough character, and the character development nicely accompanies, and many times carries, the hampered script.

“Skyscraper” is a good action film, if you can overlook the fact that coherency will play no prime directive in the film. Still, Dwayne Johnson is a better actor than Arnold Schwarzenegger and has more charm than Sylvester Stallone. If he could only get that Jean-Claude Van Damme roundhouse kick, Johnson would have it all.

Monte’s Rating 

2.75 out of 5.00

Rampage Review

Rampage

Dir: Brad Peyton

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jake Lacy, Joe Mangiello, and Malin Akerman

There was this video arcade at the local mall in my neighborhood; when mom would go to the department store she would give me a few dollars to get quarters for the video games. I would feed quarters into the machines but in particular, when “Arkanoid” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” were taken, a game called “Rampage” caught my creature feature attention. It was a simple multiplayer destruction game where you would pick a gigantic monster, a gorilla named George, a lizard named Lizzie, or a wolf named Ralph, and wreak havoc on a city. Simple and entertaining. 

Simple and entertaining is the whole mission of the new Dwayne Johnson starring action film “Rampage”. Taking primary cues from the video game from the 1980’s, the film adds the biggest action star in the world, some computer generated monsters, and a lazy narrative to piece everything together and composes a film that feels situated for that mind-numbing Sunday afternoon movie time waster.

Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson) is a primatologist working with an albino silverback gorilla named George in the San Diego Zoo. Davis has a connection with George, being able to communicate via sign language with the animal. A genetic science experiment on a space station laboratory goes terrible wrong, it explodes sending debris along with genetic mutation materials throughout Earth. Soon three animals, including George, are infected and grow to enormous size all on a destructive path towards Chicago.

Director Brad Peyton does a competent job of making the visuals enticing and monsters clearly identified amongst the mayhem, it’s not as much of a confusing mess as some of these other CGI laden films. Dwayne Johnson is mostly reliable throughout the film, here the actor does his best to make the most of a bad script by letting his charming personality come through in as a many scenes as possible. 

Unfortunately the script is a complete mess. Dialogue is strained with awful one-liners and pointed statements articulated solely for the next plot device. Mr. Johnson plays a primatologist who, when the military comes in for information, reveals that he use to be a special ops soldier in the military. This is solely done for the sake of the character being able to fly a helicopter and pick up weapons for the ensuing fight. At another point the two sibling villains (Malin Akerman and Jake Lacy) need to capture their creations and conveniently reveal that they have the equipment to do this on their building, it’s a line that feels so blatantly forced that it’s awkward when spoken.

“Rampage” will be defended as simplistic entertainment, and for some of the visual moments in the film it feels exactly like that. But it’s hard to completely commit to the film because of the narrative issues. While it sounds like a great idea watching Dwayne Johnson jump around and fight monsters based from a simple video game premise from the 80’s, “Rampage” the movie ultimately feels like a waste of quarters.  

Monte’s Rating

1.50 out of 5.00

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Review

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Directed by: Jake Kasdan

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Rhys Darby, Nick Jonas, Alex Wolff, Ser’Darius Blain, Madison Iseman, Morgan Turner, and Bobby Cannavale

A magical board game called Jumanji wreaked havoc on two kids in the 1990’s, unleashing a jungle of wild animals, dangerous challenges, and a long lost man who had been trapped in the game for decades. The 1995 film starred Robin Williams at the peak of his stardom and brought a playful adventure tale to life in a family friendly way. 

Continuing the gameplay in the sequel “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” are a group of high school students stuck in detention. Here the group of teenagers are transported into a video game jungle adventure world. Director Jake Kasdan takes a somewhat mediocre computer generated fueled action film and injects it with extremely likable cast of characters, making this film a fun and funny adventure romp. 

Spencer (Alex Wolff) is a high school nerd who loves to play video games and has terrible allergies. Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain) is a football player struggling with his grades, he makes Spencer do his homework. Bethany (Madison Iseman) is a self absorbed popular girl more concerned about getting the perfect selfie than paying attention in class. Martha (Morgan Turner) is a defiant loner who doesn’t understand the purpose of gym class and would much rather be learning than making friends. These four students cross paths in detention and find an old video game while cleaning, but after picking their characters in the game they are transported into another world. 

Now the students must survive the game playing as their adult avatars; Spencer becomes Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), a muscular hero with zero weaknesses, Fridge becomes Moose Finbar (Kevin Hart), a small in stature zoologist and weapons holder, Martha becomes Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), a dance fighting commando, and Bethany becomes Professor Sheldon Oberon (Jack Black), a middle-aged man who is also a cartographer.

“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” moves pretty quick for a film that runs about 20 minutes too long. Much of the story operates in the basic format as the 1995 film, except this time around the method of transportation takes the gamers into the adventure rather than the adventure coming to them. CGI hippos, elephants, jaguars, rhinos, and a slew of other creatures and jungle backgrounds take the visual spectacle to lengths that hamper some of the better storytelling elements. But it’s hardly the story that will entice audiences into the theaters for this one.

What saves “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” from being another half hearted sequel is the cast, both the young actors and the adult actors compose a nice blend of characters with simple traits played genuine. Dwayne Johnson leads the cast as the heroic tough guy who is embodied by an unconfident, scared teenager. Mr. Johnson’s natural comedic charm makes this character believable. Kevin Hart plays the sidekick although he is embodied by the football playing jock. Mr. Hart is always the biggest character in the room, even when Dwayne Johnson is present; this confidence is played for laughs many times throughout the film. Karen Gillan is also good as Ruby Roundhouse, though her character is sometimes overshadowed. Still, she has a few moments to shine, in particular a dance fighting scene played to an amusing soundtrack choice. Jack Black steals the show here playing Professor Oberon with all the physical and verbal touches of a teenage girl. 

Playing the in-game characters opposite their teenage players gives the journey a few nice touches, especially when the scared teenager must become confident, when the jock needs to be a team player, or when the self-absorbed girl must sacrifice to save someone else. While these moments come in the most obvious ways, the actors do a good job of selling the performance.

“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” may not be the most ingenious sequel to the original 1995 film but it doesn’t seem too concerned about oneupmanship. This is one of those films that seems perfectly suited for easy laughs and simple fun.

Monte’s Rating

3.00 out of 5.00

Baywatch Review

 

Baywatch 

Dir: Seth Gordon

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario, Priyanka Chopra, Kelly Rohrbach, Ilfenesh Hadera, Jon Bass, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II 

It's summertime, the beaches are open, and the water is nice. If this were the mid-90's the moment you arrived to the beach the soundtrack to your day would include the theme song to "Baywatch", the lifeguard beach drama that consistently remained serious through its 12 year run yet also wore its silliness like a badge of honor. Making a cultural icon, again, out of David Hasselhoff and solidifying Pamela Anderson as the sex symbol of the 90's, "Baywatch" was one of the most watched television shows of the time. 

The foolish and sexy characteristics of the television show are combined for a modern day remake starring Dwayne Johnson. Placing more emphasis on the comedic elements and the action sequences, the 2017 "Baywatch" wants to have a whole lot of fun, and for the first twenty minutes it actually accomplishes just that. But very quickly it turns into something similar to a blooper reel, lots of the same jokes told in different ways without much of a story.

Mitch Buchanan (Dwayne Johnson) is a no-nonsense tough guy with a perfect physique who's work as a lifeguard on the Bay is the stuff of legend. Matt Brody (Zac Efron) is a former Olympic swimming champion, also with a perfect physique, who has fallen on hard times because of his selfish, hard partying ways. Mitch is forced to add Matt to his team and the two immediately bump heads. While the new lifeguard team is working out their growing pains, a crime wave is bringing trouble to the Bay.

For those looking for a tame comedy with the somewhat risqué appeal that made the television show such a guilty pleasure, this film is not for you. The language warrants a hard R rating, the jokes are raunchy, and the sight gags are crude. It's a sign of the times for bigger comedies in the multiplex these days. For those that love films like last year's "Vacation" remake or another television remake "21 Jump Street", you'll be thoroughly entertained by "Baywatch". 

Dwayne Johnson, who seems to be in everything these days, is the perfect character to lead this film. He has the masculinity to pull off the action hero attitude and the charm that has sold comedy for him since his wrestling days. Add the stunning good looks of Zac Efron to the mix, place them in a situation to ridicule one another, and you have at least 15 minutes of scenes for your film right there. Unfortunately most of their jokes have been done before, some that both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Efron have done better in other films. Also, Mr. Efron's comedic efforts aren't utilized to their potential here, he has played this cocky character before and it would seem a perfect match across from a wisecracking character Dwayne Johnson is playing as Mitch Buchanan. Instead his character moves along the usual arc of self-realiance, self-realization, and redemption in the most basic of developments. 

After the first act the jokes get a little stale, the characters get less interesting, and the story moves in every familiar direction these action-comedy films could go. Even the cameos, which you know are coming, are completely uninteresting. "Baywatch" attempts to build on the indulgent quality the television series offered but instead opts for lazy comedy and boring action. 

Monte's Rating

1.75 out of 5.00

San Andreas Review

San Andreas

Dir: Brad Peyton

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Paul Giamatti, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Art Parkinson, Ioan Gruffudd, Archie Panjabi, and Will Yun Lee

114 Minutes

Rated PG-13

I remember in grade school when my science teacher talked about how a big enough earthquake would eventually drop California into the Pacific Ocean. Call in the summer blockbuster movie makers to make this story a realization through the extravagance of special effects. We’ve seen New York flood and freeze over in “The Day After Tomorrow”, we’ve seen a dormant volcano spew lava over the streets of Los Angeles in “Volcano”, we’ve even already seen an earthquake destroy most of Los Angeles in 1974’s “Earthquake”, it was only a matter of time before the natural disaster would return to the big screen. This time the film adds exceptional special effects to make the collapsing Golden Gate Bridge and crumbing Los Angeles skyline feel as realistic as possible. For those that have seen the movie trailer, you know what you are getting into and why you are going. It’s not for science factual filmmaking or in depth narrative structure.  It’s for the rumbling and tumbling visual stimulation of the disaster film; everything else is merely an afterthought.

Ray (Dwayne Johnson) is a rescue helicopter pilot in California. Fresh off a rescue that saved the life of a young woman, Ray is eager to help his daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario) move back to college. Unfortunately an earthquake forces Ray back to work and sends Blake to San Francisco with her mother’s (Carla Gugino) new boyfriend (Ioan Gruffudd). A seismologist (Paul Giamatti) at CalTech discovers that a program he has been researching can predict earthquakes, however not before one destroys the Hoover Dam. Los Angeles is the next target, but it’s an appetizer for the main course of San Francisco. This leads Ray and his wife to venture across California to save their daughter.

“San Andreas” is directed by Brad Peyton, who last helmed “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island”, and stars the frequently reliable Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Johnson has a screen presence reminiscent of the larger-than-life action stars of the 80’s and a sense of humor, humility, and hubris that brands his characters; this quality has saved many of his films. However, in a film stuffed with this much visual flair as “San Andreas”, Johnson is surrendered to playing the heroic role from the back seat, yelling cautionary warnings and motivational one-liners amidst falling debris and shaking camera work. Though he is given the opportunity to rip the door off an SUV in one early scene.

While the script offers a few moments for the characters to grow, a glossed over storyline about a broken family dealing with the loss of their daughter offers a small glimmer of character development, most of the performances are reactionary or physical. These narrative moments are simply bridges to connect the demonstrations of destruction. While the film attempts to establish some sort of relationship between the viewer and characters, one that makes the viewer care about the spotlighted people in danger, the short interactions don’t allow proper time to establish a connection when all around them are millions of people perishing.

 “San Andreas” is a spectacle of visual indulgence, an overload of devastation that lessens the impact and interest of the scenes. It’s a film that doesn’t waste time with an overwhelming plot, there is barely one here, or characters that do more than direct the film from one bang and boom scene to another. Instead “San Andreas” is comfortable with the simplistic quality associated with disaster film entertainment, which it achieves quite well, but unfortunately this alone is not enough.

Monte’s Rating

2.50 out of 5.00