Jumanji -- 1995 -- PG

I watched the movie that was tentively titled Jumanji 2 (final title: Zathura) quite some time ago and this movie was along the same lines, of course. It involves a game far too interactive for anyone's taste. It's from a story by the guy who did would do Zathura who also the same guy who wrote The Polar Express.

The movie opens in a series of two tableaus. The first shows a pair of boys burying a trunk in New Hampshire. They are afraid someone may dig it up, and comment that "may God have mercy on his soul." We fast forward a hundred years to our young hero finding this trunk and discovering inside it is a well preserved board game name Jumanji. African drums accompany this game's presence, and apparently only certain people can hear them. This particular facet was never explained as to who can and who can't hear the drums. Our hero opens the game with a girl he knew at the time, but on his second turn, he is sucked into the jungle. The girl runs off, leaving him trapped in the game.

Fast forward about 26 years to the "present day" of 1995. Two kids who recently lost their parents move into that same house with their aunt (I believe). They discover the game and all hell breaks loose. They realize that to end all the madness, all they need to do is finish the game. Trick is, to finish the game, they have to finish the game that was started 26 years ago. Everyone only took one turn, so once the young hero (now 26 years older) is released, he is forced to play as well as the girl, who has undergone years of therapy by now over her attack back then.

So begins the singular largest problem in the entire film, and it is exactly the same problem Zathura has (will have). To end it all, they have to finish the game. Sounds easy right? What would I do if I were in their shoes? I'd keep rolling the dice anywhere and everywhere I had the chance to. Do they do this? Not till near the end. No, instead (for the sake of the plot), they roll and wait for the effect. They grab the game and run around trying to avoid the effect, and then they find themselves a quiet place to roll again. In one instance, they were taken completely out of the house, and decided they needed to walk all the way back before they could open up and roll again.

That shortcoming is kind of a shame because the movie as a whole was very, very clever. The characters are fairly well drawn and it's easy to get into their situation. Alan is a sympathetic hero who lost everything to the game. Sarah is good as the heroine who ended up a shell of a woman because of her experience with the game and losing Alan so long ago. The kids, for children, are also well done in that they had a significant loss in their life and are trying to make the best of their situation. We have several other characters who were caught up in this whole deal and though we don't get to know them as well, they work well for their parts. I actually did like it, though my desire to have them keep rolling the dice when they have a chance did pull me out of it fairly often.

In the end, it was a very enjoyable film, and despite its big flaw and a handful of character plot contrivances to make everything work, it's rather decent, and not a big waste of time.