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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\u201cJumanji:\nWelcome to the Jungle\u201d was one of the more successful reboots in recent memory.\nThe 2017 film managed to make over $400 million at the domestic box office\ndespite opening in the shadow of \u201cStar Wars: The Last Jedi.\u201d The appeal was\napparently a combination of nostalgia for the 1995 Robin Williams original and\nthe bankability of stars Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Jack\nBlack. The formula was such a winner that it would have been crazy if we didn\u2019t\nget a sequel. \u201cJumanji: The Next Level\u201d recaptures what \u201cworked\u201d about the 2017\nfilm (even if it didn\u2019t always work for me) while adding a twist that makes it\nunique in its own right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like\nthe 2017 film, the sequel sees young adults Spencer (Alex Wolff), Fridge\n(Ser\u2019Darius Blain), Martha (Morgan Turner), and Bethany (Madison Iseman) sucked\ninto the \u201cJumanji\u201d video game. Spencer goes in on his own volition because he\nwants to feel like a hero again and his friends have to go in and rescue him.\nBut the game is broken and not only doesn\u2019t let the players choose their\ncharacters, it also sucks in Spencer\u2019s nearby grandfather Eddie (Danny DeVito)\nand his visiting former business partner Milo (Danny Glover). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martha\nonce again gets to play as Ruby Roundhouse (Gillan) but everyone else is mixed\nup. Fridge now has to play as mostly-useless map reader Shelly Oberon (Black).\nEddie is ready-made hero Smolder Bravestone (Johnson) and Milo is the brainy\nMoose Finbar (Hart). Spencer and Bethany are initially nowhere to be seen;\nBethany shows up later as a horse named Cyclone after persuading former player\nAlex (Colin Hanks) to reenter the game as his player Seaplane McDonough (Nick\nJonas) and Spencer is a new character whose casting is a secret. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eddie\nand Milo have a tough time adjusting to the adventurous and tech-heavy setting.\nIt\u2019s understandable that they\u2019d be confused at first, but after a while I have\nto insist that they at least know that there is such a thing as a video game.\nJohnson and Hart have fun taking on old-man affectations, which is a lot more\nenjoyable than the cringing I did while watching Black take on African-American\naffectations from Fridge. Eventually the two get the hang of their characters\nand see it as something of a new lease on life, with Eddie beating up scores of\nbystanders (I felt sorry for those \u201cpeople\u201d until I remembered that they\u2019re\njust video game characters) and Milo dedicating himself to those who can\u2019t\ndefend themselves (noble, but again, not real people). Actually, the Eddie\/Milo\nstoryline is much more engaging than any of the tired action or comedy\nsequences. It\u2019s easy to make fun of how many movies Johnson and Hart do\ntogether, but the upside is that the two have developed a chemistry that\ncarries them through any kind of scene, including the dramatic, serious ones we\nget in the latter half of this film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJumanji:\nThe Next Level\u201d succeeds in what it does differently from the 2017 film, but\nfalls flat on its face any time things seem familiar. Eddie and Milo have a\nmature discussion about an old grudge? Fine. We get not one, but two\nanimal-attack sequences? Boring. Cyclone the horse shows personality? Funny.\nJokes are made at the expense of Kevin Hart\u2019s height? Way, way, way played out.\nI actually think there\u2019s more to like about this movie than there was in the\n2017 film, but the pitfalls are as grating as ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: B-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJumanji: The Next Level\u201d is rated\nPG-13 for adventure action, suggestive content and some language. Its running\ntime is 123 minutes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver \u201cJumanji: Welcome to the Jungle\u201d was one of the more successful reboots in recent memory. The 2017 film managed to make over $400 million at the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":45500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}