"Jungle Cruise"

The reviews that I have read from the professional critics for Disney's new "Jungle Cruise" can best be described as "tepid."  And not without reason.  However, as we left the theater yesterday after seeing it, Marilyn, aka, Mrs. Grandstander, offered the best review of all:

"Is there anyone" she asked "cooler than The Rock?"

Throw in the wonderful Emily Blunt, who has proven that she can play "spunky heroine" better than anyone since, perhaps, Katherine Hepburn, and there you have the reasons that make "Jungle Cruise" worth seeing.

The movie is based on the Disneyland/Disney World ride of the same name.  A cruise ride on a jungle river that is loaded with dangerous animatronic animals.  The plot of this one concerns a tree that has magic petals capable of curing any illness, a native curse upon Spanish conquistadors from the 16th century, the undead, an evil son of Kaiser Wilhelm - oh, yeah, the movie takes place during World War I - and sexism among the stuffy British Historical/Science/Exploration Society.  There are plot angles - and plot holes - and MacGuffins all over the place in this movie, but so what.  You don't go to a movie like this to see "Citizen Kane" or a Hitchcock classic, and it is upon that curve that a movie like this should be judged.  You  go to a movie like this to relax and have fun, and to that end, "Jungle Cruise" delivers.

Blunt, Johnson, and Whitehall

She looked GREAT in that hat!

To expand upon my wife's take on this one, Dwayne Johnson can match anybody when it comes to screen charisma.  Blunt has proven herself to to be both a terrific dramatic actress (A Quiet Place, Girl on the Train) and an equally charming comic actress (Mary Poppins Returns), and she handle herself nicely as the Don't-You-Dare-Take-Me-Lightly action adventuress in this one.  Johnson and Blunt may not be the next William Powell and Myrna Loy, but if they teamed up for another movie (but, please, not a sequel to this one), I'd buy a ticket to see it.

Oh, and Jack Whitehall does a great turn as Blunt's stiff upper lipped brother. He has packed more clothes and gear on Johnson's jungle cruise boat than Thurston Howell III packed for his three hour tour on the Minnow.

Like I said, when you rate a movie like this, you have to realize that a Star for this one is different than a Star for, say, "Some Like It Hot", so with that in mind, The Grandstander bestows Two and One-Half Stars on "Jungle Cruise."