A child living in an up-and-coming town in the 1960's discovers a crate which was buried a long time ago (1869 - as established at the start of the film). Inside the crate is a board game. One night, he and his friend Sarah, start playing the board game. The board game, however, isn't all it seems to be, as the children soon learn. Allan is sucked into the board game and Sarah is chased out of the house by bats. Twenty six years things are different. The town is a run-down ghost of its previous self, the disappearance of Allan is a folklore in which his dad supposedly cut him into pieces and hid his body parts, and Sarah is a psychic with emotional issues as nobody believed what she witnessed as a child. Allan's old house has new inhabitants. Orphaned children and their aunt are moving in. The children discover the board game and start playing. Unbeknown to them, they free Allan Parrish, now, much older. They also free the board game to continue its mayhem and chaos in a jungle theme. To stop all the mayhem and chaos they must first finish the game, to finish the game they need all the players, including Sarah. All the random events that the board game throws up come face to face with modern 1990's living.
This is a great family film from the 1990's and is a lot of fun for everybody. It used special effect techniques at the time which were revolutionary but haven't aged that well. The story and plot too are a bit generic, but are by no means weak - just occasionally predictable (but hey, it's a family film, it's hardly going to randomly kill off half the cast). The casting and acting throughout was good. I'm not usually a fan of Robin Williams because I tended to find his approach a little to full-on and in-your-face, in this film however he has a wider array of emotions to show off. As well as Williams, there are stars of yester-year and the future littered amongst the scenes, notably Kirsten Dunst appears as a child actor here. It's clear to see why this was a blockbuster of its time.
Beyond the obvious situations/events on-screen which younger audiences will primarily follow, there are more subtle events unfolding which offer a lot of depth to film savvy minds; such as multiverse's, fragmented realities, time travel, butterfly effects, inanimate objects with powers. Packaged the way it is, there is something for all in this classic.
FTR, I'm watching this as an adult in 2018, prior to watching the current Jumanji film, although some of the effects in this original look a little dated, it's nothing that'll put you off. I can confidently say that almost twenty years after it was released, this film is as good as it was in the 1990's. 7 out of 10 from me, thanks for reading and enjoy
This is a great family film from the 1990's and is a lot of fun for everybody. It used special effect techniques at the time which were revolutionary but haven't aged that well. The story and plot too are a bit generic, but are by no means weak - just occasionally predictable (but hey, it's a family film, it's hardly going to randomly kill off half the cast). The casting and acting throughout was good. I'm not usually a fan of Robin Williams because I tended to find his approach a little to full-on and in-your-face, in this film however he has a wider array of emotions to show off. As well as Williams, there are stars of yester-year and the future littered amongst the scenes, notably Kirsten Dunst appears as a child actor here. It's clear to see why this was a blockbuster of its time.
Beyond the obvious situations/events on-screen which younger audiences will primarily follow, there are more subtle events unfolding which offer a lot of depth to film savvy minds; such as multiverse's, fragmented realities, time travel, butterfly effects, inanimate objects with powers. Packaged the way it is, there is something for all in this classic.
FTR, I'm watching this as an adult in 2018, prior to watching the current Jumanji film, although some of the effects in this original look a little dated, it's nothing that'll put you off. I can confidently say that almost twenty years after it was released, this film is as good as it was in the 1990's. 7 out of 10 from me, thanks for reading and enjoy