Jungle Cruise - Movie Review

Dwayne Johnson has been a reliable big budget star for some time now, and while not all of his films are great, you can always tell how much effort he's putting into them. This is very true with his latest flick, Jungle Cruise. Also starring the ever-reliable Emily Blunt, it's a mostly fun watch, aside from when you're being beaten over the head by the kind of backstories and exposition you'll have heard a million times in other films like this. Its very much a formulaic ‘looking for mysterious treasure' story, with everything you've come to expect. There's a reluctant hero, somebody who believes deeply in the legend when no one else does, the person who gets reluctantly dragged along for the ride, a cartoony villain who just seeks power and/or money, and a set of rules that seem to be made up as the film goes on. It's clear everyone is having fun throughout, and that feeling does transmit to the audience. 

Its popcorn cinema at its most shamelessly unabashed, and after the terrible time we've had over the last year and a half, it makes sense why films like this are somewhat necessary, and are a powerful method of drawing audience back to the multiplexes. There's plenty of things that don't make sense, and nothing that hasn't been done before, but this film was made with 1 clear goal in mind: to entertain, and if that's what you're looking for, then I'd say give it watch. I wasn't bored at all. I felt like I had gone back to the 90's a bit because the humor was similar and I also felt a bit of "The Mummy" with Brendan Frasier nostalgia. I hope more movie directors take the cue of mixing up stories from different perspectives because that helped build the characters and move the story along. This movie is around 2 hrs and 45 min but it felt less because it was so entertaining. That being said, this is for a movie-goer that loves cheesy dad jokes, approves of no "sexy" scenes to show the children - which there are none here, and okay with freaking out the children with snake jump scares.