As a movie inspired by a theme park attraction, I highly doubt ‘Jungle Cruise’ is going to be a project picked apart in film schools anytime soon. But for what it IS – not only a summer popcorn thrills-and-spills ride, but one that’s a suitable fit for the family – hey, it’s tough to go wrong.
Besides, any time you get to see Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson try to fit his massive frame into an Indiana Jones mold, well isn’t that worth the price of admission?
Really, ‘Jungle Cruise’ IS a little bit ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, a touch ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, a smidge ‘National Treasure’, and dashed with pretty much any fantasy/action/adventure cliche you can imagine. The year is 1916, and Johnson is Frank, a pun-filled Amazon river guide, hired by archaeologist Lily (Emily Blunt) to find a mythical flower with curative powers. Through a spectacularly UN-frightening supernatural sub-plot (it’s a family friendly ride, remember), the duo, joined by her hapless brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall), has to wrestle 400-year old thugs to achieve their goal.
It’s the chemistry between the stars that makes ‘Jungle Cruise’ especially enjoyable. Along the way, director Jaume Collet-Serra (a filmmaker, ironically enough, who has carved out a niche in legit fright flicks), gets to play with elements that provide cute nostalgia for fans of the Disneyland attraction on which this movie is based. There are raging rapids, menacing beasts, mean serpents, hungry orchids, poisonous darts – it’s as overstuffed with ambitious diversions as it is bad jokes, but it never, ever pauses long enough to allow any kind of boredom to settle in. And that’s what you want in escapism.
