Word: hensleigh
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Jumanji's plot (from Chris Van Allsburg's book and a script by Jonathan Hensleigh, Greg Taylor and Jim Strain) is the 486th rewrite of a Spielbergian fantasy: lost child meets the Dead Parents Society. The story doesn't advance; it just piles up, like a multiple-car wreck. And its whimsy is spiked with way too much spite. In this nightmare replay of Toy Story, everything is demolished: a pretty old home, a local mall, an innocent town. It's destruct-o-rama, kids! Fun for the whole dysfunctional family! Because it exploits children's weakness for noise, clutter...
Having seen concepts for sequels pre-empted by Under Siege (Die Hard on a destroyer) and Speed (Die Hard on a bus), director John McTiernan and writer Jonathan Hensleigh turned the tables and appropriated a device sure to be used in this summer's Batman Forever. Like the Riddler, Vengeance's evil genius (Jeremy Irons) taunts the hero with word games, history quizzes and math problems -- riddles, see? This keeps the plot clock ticking as McClane and a good-hearted black racist (Samuel L. Jackson) dash around Manhattan at Irons' bidding...
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