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Friday, October 23, 2020

Jumanji (1995)


Jumanji is a fantasy adventure film.  The setup to the plot takes a bit longer that you would expect.  A mysterious board game, hinted at being more horrible and scary that you can imagine, is buried deep, only to be dug out a hundred years later.  The game itself is called Jumanji and once you participate, you must be there until it finishes (which is actually quite a significant flaw).  The twist here is that on every turn, after your dice roll, it reveals a passage and that passage turns into reality.  The things that come out from the board game such as killer plants, a stampede of animals, quicksand and other dangerous events stay until the game finishes.  Naturally, the pair of children who rediscovers the game struggles with these obstacles.  Despite the interesting premise the pacing of the film is not that great.  In between all the action are heaps of dead moments which just aren't that engaging.  The physical props used hold up though and are fantastic.  It does build to a nice climax packing in a lot of meaning but the ending is wonky in that it undoes a portion of history.
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