Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle

Turning a classic children's book into a successful film is hard enough. But to revisit the story 20 years later, hoping to strike gold again, is near impossible. When the original "Jumanji" came out in 1995, it was a huge hit, but times have changed. Updates needed to be made for modern audiences, and the result is "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle", which serves as both a quasi-sequel and reboot all in one.

This time around, four high school students discover the game while stuck in detention. However, it has magically transformed from a board game to video game. What the quartet don't realize when they plug the gaming system in is that by turning on the game they will be transported to a jungle land known as "Jumanji." Once there, they embody game avatars and must battle their way through different levels to break a curse and eventually find their way home.

Each of the teens picks their avatar based on a brief description, which leads them to being the opposite of who they are in real life. Nerdy Spencer is afraid of everything in the world, but ends up embodying Dwayne Johnson's fearless leader. Martha is concerned with getting into Princeton and doesn't know anything about flirting or boys, so, of course, she ends up in a boobalicious body with short shorts. The biggest departure is Bethany, the self-centered popular girl, who is addicted to her phone, ends up as a chubby, middle-aged cartographer.

"Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" does slightly reference the original movie. Both take place in the same town, and one of the characters is living in the tree house built by Alan Parrish (Robin Williams) during his time in the board game. That's where the similarities end, with much of the logic from the original film not applying to this one. No time passes while they are in the game and you don't age, two of the major plot points from the film. Instead, "Welcome to the Jungle" follows the rules of video games, offering the characters multiple lives and specialized powers and weaknesses.

To be honest, "Jumanji" is more fun that it has any business being. The plot points don't always work, but the cast is more than game to sell it. Many of the jokes come from the actors playing against type. Jack Black has the most fun tapping into the psyche of teenage Bethany. Both he and Karen Gillan do well to mimic mannerisms of their younger, real world counterparts. Kevin Hart, on the other hand, doesn't make much of an effort to deviate far from his regular persona, while Johnson occasionally acts like a nerdier version of himself.

"Jumanji" might also be the most subliminally gay film to come out this side of "Call Me By Your Name," even featuring a noticeable age difference between the characters involved. While Black is technically a teenage girl in a middle-aged man's body, he teeters the line between embodying the teen and that of a gay man -- he yells "YAS QUEEN" at one point. The attraction between him and Nick Jonas' character is strong, and the actors have more chemistry than the film's central romantic players.

With a budget near $100 million dollar, one must wonder how much was spent on the salaries of leading men Hart and Johnson because there's nothing on the screen that looks overly expensive. The CGI animals throughout the film look so fake that the only explanation is that it had to be done on purpose. The effects are actually so bad at times that it will take you out of the film.

Fans of the original source material or film may not be won over with the updates that "Welcome to the Jungle" has to offer. You'll have to suspend belief to get past the rhino-size plot holes and rudimentary special effects, but the kids in the audiences won't mind. For them, the film will be delightful. Those adults that aren't purists may even find it entertaining enough. This is a movie that works solely based on the actors and how willing they are to sell their roles. Without that, it would be game over.