What the hell did I just watch?

Ok, wasn't my choice but, tagged along with my sis and her fam since I was 'helping' to mind the kids as their favorite uncle.

I stomached and gritted through 2-hrs of this ride-turned-into-a-movie, as Disney attempts to recapture its success formula of Pirates. I won't go too deep but, seeing Dwayne Johnson, who's a giant of a man, is attempting to play a part living in early 20th century Brazil. Emily Blunt as always, very pleasant on the eyes, and Jack Whitehall plays the effeminate lightweight. Thank god I didn't pay for this ticket....

What sucked about it? Was it woke?

Was it at least funny?

African Queen + Indiana Jones = mediocre Jungle Cruise

quote:

Originally posted by benny6:
What sucked about it? Was it woke?

Was it at least funny?

So, its an adventure-comedy, based upon the ride at the parks, which originally took visual inspiration from the Bogart-movie African Queen. Johnson and Blunt play off each other like Bogart and Hepburn, with Whitehall playing the part of Hepburn's useless brother. Like the ride in the park, Johnson plays a riverboat tour guide, who dishes out endless puns and snarky wisecracks, the first 10-15mins are jammed down your throat to enforce the concept that it's JUST LIKE THE RIDE.

The wokeness isn't over the top but, plays on endless stereotypes and preconceptions.....every male in post-Victorian England is a male chauvinist, all businessman are up to something nefarious, the lone women Blunt is virtuous, just and undaunting. There's a predatory animal side-kick and of course there's a German bad guy. The bad guy is naturally portrayed as ridiculously villainous and cartoonish.

Without giving it all away, the plot is fantastical like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Only this movie doesn't take several movies to parse it out, this one dives right in. Its made for middle schoolers and is simply a constant tempo of searching, finding, escaping and racing.

Mrs.BurtonRW and I went and saw it yesterday. Had the theater to ourselves, which was nice.

Corsair’s comments are spot on. I was actually surprisingly entertained (in a mindless way) since I mostly expected it to be much fluffier and kid-oriented. The PG-13 rating, however, is understandable since there’s quite a bit of menacing character imagery (for a fantasy Disney family film, at least) and enough violence (again, for a fantasy Disney family film) that I can imagine slapping a PG on this would result in quite a few irritated parents of young children.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it overall for what it is. Probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it quite as much if we hadn’t just been happy to be able to go to a theater and turn off our brains for a couple of hours in general.

-Rob

..and one more thing, in a departure for a Disney movie, Metallica's 'Nothing Else Matters' is the key movie tune.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
..and one more thing, in a departure for a Disney movie, Metallica's 'Nothing Else Matters' is the key movie tune.

That’s not saying much, I have been in an elevator where the “elevator music” was an elevator music version of “For Whom The Bell Tolls”.

This movie looks fun and that’s all I really want in a movie these days.

I don't think Dwayne Johnson says no to any role offered to him.

As soon as I saw the trailer with him wearing that hat, it was a hard no.

I fell asleep in it twice. The theatre had recliners and it was dark and I was holding my wife's hand...

I walked out thinking, "The plot was really thin and the special effects were good". Johnson and Blunt are perfect for this kind of movie.

It would give my five-year-old grand children nightmares.

It's a Disney movie, expect it to be Woke.

I refuse to give Hollyweird a dime of my money. They hate people like us, why should I support them?

I was looking forward to this movie (really enjoy the ride). It had great potential. My hope was that it would be a cross between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Pirates of the Caribbean (Black Pearl). Wide miss on both marks. Dwayne Johnson did not fit the lead role. It was entertaining, but not nearly what it could have been and definitely not worth the price of admission.

The family especially my wife loves to go to Disneyland and world. Jungle cruise has become my favorite ride, so the puns in the movie were worth it for me. The movie is kind of campy, but entertaining enough.

Our 6 yo granddaughter (Janie) is staying with us this week. My wife determined that this is the movie the three of us should go see. She showed Janie a trailer or two to see if she balked at it, and she didn’t. It wasn’t aimed at me, I knew that going in. It was aww-ight. Shared popcorn with Janie and didn’t hate it. What do you expect?

We just went and saw this.
Over all it was enjoyable and worth the $15 entry. I liked the overall plot and liked the silly jokes just like the ride at Disney.
The Disney Train and Castle intro was nicely done to Metallica.
I could have done without the unnecessary LGBTQMNOP insertion, the gay sex jokes, and innuendos.
Our kids won’t be seeing it.