"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."

Big Al and The Rock

Capsule Critical Commentaries.....

Saw a movie and finished a book this past week.  First, the book.

Jonathan Eig is a meticulous researcher and an excellent writer who had given us terrific biographies of sports stars Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, and, most recently,  Muhammad Ali.  I have written extensively about the Ali book:

https://grandstander.blogspot.com/2017/11/critical-commentary-ali-life-by.html

It was only after reading that book that I learned that Eig had written this book about America's most famous gangster back in 2010, so I went scampering to the local library to secure a copy of it.  Everybody knows everything about Al Capone, or thinks they do.  Bootlegger, pimp, killer, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, got sent up the river for not paying his taxes, right?  Well, there's more to Capone.  A case can be made that in the decade of the 1920's, Capone was perhaps the most successful businessman in America, and he accomplished all of this at a remarkably young age.  It amazed me that by the time Capone got nailed on the tax rap and was sent to federal prison, he was all of 33 years of age. He was only 47years old when he died.

And everyone has heard of Elliot Ness, the G-man who got Capone, and looked a lot like Robert Stack (or maybe Kevin Costner), right?  Well, maybe Ness wasn't so important in hauling down Big Al, and maybe the real hero was a bland United States Attorney named George E.Q. Johnson.  Ever hear of him?  Neither had I, until I read this book.

Anyway, it's a fascinating story. A portrait, not only of Al Capone, but of America in general, and Chicago in particular, in the "Roaring Twenties".  Well written, and I would recommend it to both true crime buffs and history buffs.

Three stars from The Grandstander.

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And the movie we saw.....

This is a movie which is based on a video game, which should tell you all you need to know, that features giant mutations of a gorilla, a wolf, and an alligator, evil corporate villains, blundering military folks who won't heed the warnings of the hero, insipid dialog (classic line: "You're going to have to evacuate Chicago."), plot holes through which you could drive a truck (or fly a stealth bomber, one of which makes an appearance in this flick), and totally ridiculous situations.  

So why should you see this movie?  Easy answer....The Rock!!!

 

Dwayne Johnson is appealing, fun, charismatic, and doesn't take himself seriously.  He knows that he's not making "Citizen Kane" here, but he's having fun with the material, and you will too if you just suspend all sense of belief for a couple of hours.

Two stars from The Grandstander.

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One of the featured players in the Capone book was the 31st President of the United States, Herbert Hoover.  You'll have to read the book to find out just what role Hoover played in the Capone Saga, but in the book's epilogue, author Eig includes an anecdote about Hoover that included this following quote, which strikes quite a chord here in 2018, and I include it here for your consideration.

Critical Commentary - "Jumanji, Welcome To the Jungle"

It is that time of the year when Hollywood is showcasing all of it's serious, awards worthy movies, and we have been doing our part to see those movies.  You know, "Darkest Hour", "The Post", "I, Tonya".  We've been trying to see them all, and they are great movies, but it has been interesting to note that for at least the last three weeks none of those films have led the pack in box office receipts.  Nope, that movie, the one that people are actually paying money to go see has been this one....

So, we decided to forgo serious and important movies, and take this one in yesterday.  Let me tell you, this movie will never win any awards, and, yes, it was silly, but it was also funny, charming, and entertaining.  Isn't that what it's supposed to be all about?

It's all about a bunch of misfit high school kids who somehow get transported into a video game (told you it was silly) and are transformed into the bodies of Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black (who has to act like a teen aged girl), and Karen Gillan, with whom I was not familiar, but was totally charming.  It also featured an interesting cameo by an unbilled actor at the end.  I won't spoil it for you.  

Former pro wrestler Johnson has really found his niche as  an action movie actor ("I love The Rock" said Mrs. Grandstander as we left the theater), and he and Hart make a great team, as the two of them did in "Central Intelligence" a few years ago.  They could be this generation's Hope and Crosby or Martin and Lewis.

"Jumanji, Welcome to the Jungle" is mindless entertainment, to be sure, but it's fun, and you could even take your kids to see it with you and not be uncomfortable about it.

Two and one-half stars from The Grandstander.

Hart, Johnson, Gillan, and Black