Over the years Disney have had varied success with movies based on their
theme park rides, everyone remembers Pirates Of The Caribbean but Country
Bears and Haunted Mansion are two that are better forgotten.
Now in an effort, I imagine, to create a new franchise comes Jungle Cruise.
Jungle Cruise is based on a ride at Disneyland and Disneyworld where guests
are taken on a riverboat through perilous jungles. Along the way, skippered
by a captain who tells really bad jokes, the boat passes various model
animals and characters. In all honesty having experienced the ride on more
than one occasion I never found it that exciting so it was always going to
be interesting how the folk at house of mouse were going to exploit this
particular ride.
Now having experienced both the movie and the ride I’m pleased to say that
Jungle Cruise the movie is everything and more than you could have hoped
for as it’s an exciting thrill a minute adventure that has overtures of
Pirates, Raiders of the Lost Ark and even Prince of Persia.
The story, set sometime during the first world war, the first 10 minutes
are a homage to the ride and easily, if you know the ride, the best part of
the movie, sees Dr Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) and her brother MacGregor
(Jack Whitehall) enlisting the services of wisecracking skipper Frank Wolfe
(Dwayne Johnson) to take them up the Amazon River in search of the fabled
tree of life.
Unfortunately for them they are not the only ones interested in the tree as
German Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons) is also after the same thing and will
stop at nothing in order to find the tree before the Houghton’s’.
The action moves along at a cracking pace as Frank and Lily move from one
action set piece to another. Throw in some terrific onscreen chemistry
between Blunt and Johnson and Jungle Cruise and what you have is the family
adventure movie of the summer.
Don’t miss and also don’t forget to watch out for the backside of water.
