Comedy, action in plenty

Director: Jake Kasdan

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Karen Hart, Jack Black, Danny Devito

Columbia Pictures Jumanji-The Next Level came out this week. This is a sequel to Jumanji from 1995 and 2017. It is an adventure comedy, at times sticking to the original, and, at times, slipping away too far. We have grandfather Danny Devito recovering from surgery, a warlord killing parents, a magic necklace, drought, snowy mountains and crime syndicate as major ingredients of plot. Things revolve around exploring unexplored video games.

The film has been looked down for having no relevance to our life, with too many characters, making the plot messy. It also reminds us of what we have seen before( Raiders of the Lost Ark to The Lord of the Rings). However, it carries both comedy and action in plenty and should keep the young audiences involved with locations from Atlanta, New Mexico, Hawaii coupled with computer generated effects at a neat budget of $125 million. The film offers new twists and turns even with faded magic. This keeps the things pretty much lively crossing gender and racial barriers with swift pacing. And then there is exciting ostriches chase.

For background score, comes main theme from David Lean’s all-time classic Lawrence of Arabia in the desert, scored by Award winning French composer Maurice Jarre.

— aijazzgul@gmail.com