Jungle Cruise

Jungle Cruise
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Kategori : 2021 action adventure comedy Disney Dwayne Johnson Emily Blunt Jack Whitehall Jesse Plemons Jungle Cruise review Stream thousands of movies and TV shows free INCINEMAX

***DISCLAIMER*** The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion (or other commenters), that's fine. To each their own. These reviews are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay. 4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on Twitter (@RevRonster) for links to my reviews and the occasional live-Tweet session of the movie I'm watching!  Next up, a movie about the spinning tea cups!

Jungle Cruise – 4 out of 5

In 2004, Disney made the Pirates of the Caribbean:  The Curse of the Black Pearl.  I initially wrote off the film because the idea of making an entire movie out of a ride that has no story seemed ludicrous.  However, the trailer did strike my interest, so I checked it out and enjoyed the hell out of it.  The situation with Jungle Cruise was a little different.  I was a little more open-minded to the idea of a movie about the iconic ride and, additionally, the trailer made it look loads of fun!  Well, I hit the theater and checked it out and I enjoyed the hell out of it!

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Don't let Dwayne Johnson fall into the water.  He'll sink...like a rock!
Get it?  Because he's The Rock!
I'm sorry.

In the early 1900s, botanist Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) has been researching a legend called the Tears of the Moon.  The legend states that a mystical tree exists deep in the Amazon and its petals can cure any illness, injury or curse.  She has a map that was created by a conquistador that attempted to find the tree and she hopes she will succeed where they failed.  To get to the tree’s location, she hires Skipper Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) to get her down river and soon learns that not only is the journey far more dangerous than she could have possibly imagined, but Frank might be a bit of a con man and is harboring a shocking secret.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

"This trip will be dangerous...if you smell what I'm cooking."

Jungle Cruise basically takes the same basic formula that was used to make Pirates such an enthralling and entertaining film.  It works in a lot of fun nods and winks from the ride and is able to incorporate a lot of the attraction's core elements into the story without feeling these elements are gratuitous and too fan service-y.  Additionally, it is able to translate a ride with no story and turn it into a magical and fun adventure, and is able to once again showcase that terrific escapism that Disney is known for.  At the end of it all, Jungle Cruise proved to be just this really fun and exciting adventure film.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The German has a lot of pew pews!

One of the strongest aspects of the film is the chemistry between Johnson and Blunt.  They are an incredible amount of fun together and their playfully antagonism towards one another is endlessly entertaining.  Both of them are already very talented folks, so they are already playing their characters terrifically but when they come together they just make every scene they are in overflow with amusement.  And the way they evolve their characters to go from two folks constantly giving each other the business to two folks that genuinely care for them felt incredibly natural and evolved very authentically. 

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

I'd see more movies with these two in the lead.

The other members of the cast are no slouches either, mind you.  Jack Whitehall plays Lily’s brother and he is very amusing and a lot of fun as the primmer and more proper Englishman who isn’t ready to get rough and dirty on an expedition in the jungle.  Paul Giamatti has a small role as a dock owner that isn’t the biggest fan of Frank and, while his part is small, he has his moments.  Finally, Jesse Plemons plays a German aristocrat whose motives are kinda glossed over rather rapidly but still plays an entertaining foil for the heroes.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

I feel like this could be me as I approach my midlife crisis.

One aspect of the ride that they perfectly brought over was the bad puns and dad jokes the ride operators are renowned for delivering.  Johnson, being the skipper of the boat, is the one delivering these “bad” jokes and he is doing a tremendous job with them.  There is a special way one must commit to cheesy jokes to make them legit funny (and still a little groan-inducing) and Johnson absolutely nailed it.  I’m not going to lie, the eye-rolling gags had me legit cracking up because of how the film was able to commit to them.  It was a great way to honor the ride and show that this really was a project that was out to show reverence to the attraction and not just a hollow cash-grab by the House of Mouse.  I mean, it still is kinda that because all big blockbusters are vehicles to make money, but some are hollower than others and this one definitely shows that, along with the cash, this one also wanted to be fun and entertaining.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Um...you got something on--well, in--your face.

On the “meh” side of things, the film does have a queer character for the purposes of representation (and starting this sentence with "meh," makes it sound like I'm against this inclusion--I'm not, please keep reading, I'm going somewhere with this).  Disney has a rocky track record with this sort of thing as it can sometimes be decent, sometimes be bad, and sometimes it is neither one and is just…kinda…a thing.  This last one definitely feels like it applies to Jungle Cruise.  This character isn’t egregious, nor does it feel self-congratulatory with their inclusion (something Disney has been guilty of in the past), but they do feel a tad tacked on; however, sometimes progress requires the “tacked on” approach, so it isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Additionally, the character is treated pretty respectfully when it is revealed who they are but, more importantly, the character plays off of some tropes about how some characters like this one can read as queer.  This dynamic that plays directly into tropes and stereotypes was fairly amusing and was interesting in the respect that this certain type of character will read as queer and the movie was like, guess what, they were this entire time.  So, on one hand, the inclusion is good and I like how it played off expectations, but the forced inclusion did sorta come out of nowhere in the story and isn’t really explored that deeply.  So, this element was a little on the mixed side.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Their faces suggest they are reading the endless "Go Woke, Go Broke"
comments from the homophobes.

One drawback I did find was some elements of the CG were a tad wonky.  In the story, Frank and Lily encounter cursed conquistadors who once tried to find the Tears of the Moon and they have been essentially turned into monsters due to a curse.  The CG to bring these characters to life isn’t terrible but there were points where they looked a little silly.  However, one big drawback to them was they were occasionally hard to see.  The action scenes they are involved in are usually dark and fast pace, so there are a lot of times where it is incredibly difficult to see them or even get a sense of their detail.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The People's Skipper.
Don't worry, that is the last reference to his wrestling career...because
this is the end of the review.

These small issues aside, I still found Jungle Cruise to be a lot of fun.  It is overflowing with charisma and chemistry from the leads, the story is a magical and exciting adventure, it honors the ride terrifically, and it is just a whole lot of fun and very amusing.