Word: jumanji
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...sort of Jumanji for adults, Terry Gilliam's new film at least gets points for trying something completely different, says Corliss. Starring Bruce Willis as a time traveling hero sent back in time to find out about a virus that killed most of the world in 1997, this all-star, megamovie chases time backward to a painful image. It's just what you'd expect from the director of that brilliant dark-side retro-futuristic vision, Brazil. But this film is no Brazil, says Corliss: "Intent on both dazzling and punishing the viewer, Gilliam gets lost in creepy spectacle...
...Jumanji finds an audience, our point will be proved. Director Joe Johnston's elaborately dressed kids' movie--about a board game that sucks its players into a perilous jungle overrun by lions, rhinos, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders--spends so much time on the how of special effects that it neglects the why of characterization. Jumanji wastes the gifts of two terrific comic actors, Robin Williams and David Alan Grier, and some other good people (Kirsten Dunst, Bonnie Hunt). Like the viewer, everyone on-screen pretty much sits back, gets strapped in and takes a bumpy techno-thrill ride through...
...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...