Jumanji: The Next Level Cert: 12A, 2hrs 3mins
When he’s in the right mood and in the right film, Danny DeVito is a class act, as you’d expect from an actor who trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and whose film career is now well into its fifth decade.
So when he’s bad you tend to notice, which brings me to the uncomfortable opening ten minutes of Jumanji: The Next Level in which he is… er, close to terrible.
Thankfully, as he gurns, over-acts and bumps into the scenery, there turns out to be method in his apparent madness, although to explain exactly why I’ll have to remind you what Jumanji is all about.
Spencer has returned to the game alone. Martha still wakes up as Ruby (Karen Gillan) but ‘The Fridge’, the one black teenager, is now the very white Professor Sheldon Oberon (Jack Black)
Based on a much-loved 1995 film that starred Robin Williams and a young Kirsten Dunst, two years ago the rebooted franchise involved four teenagers being sucked into an old video game.
The only way they could escape their Tron-like predicament was to avoid all the man-eating hippos, deadly snakes and other hazards, restore a long-missing jewel to its rightful place, and generally lift the curse on the kingdom of Jumanji.
The engaging twist was that the teenagers didn’t play themselves in the video game – they chose avatars that were one part fantasy, one part alter ego. So shy, nerdy Spencer became muscular man of action Dr Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson), while wouldn’t-say-boo-to-a-goose Martha became sexy, shorts-wearing Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan) and so on.
Turns out Dwayne Johnson’s character – all 6ft 5in of him – is now the avatar of Spencer’s (Alex Wolff) grandfather, Eddie (4ft 10in Danny DeVito, both pictured above)
The twist this time is that no one gets to choose their own avatar in the rush to rescue a depressed and lovelorn Spencer, who has returned to the game alone. Martha still wakes up as Ruby but ‘The Fridge’, the one black teenager, is now the very white Professor Sheldon Oberon (Jack Black), while prom queen Bethany hasn’t made it into the game at all.
So who are the other two?
Turns out Johnson’s character – all 6ft 5in of him – is now the avatar of Spencer’s grandfather, Eddie (4ft 10in DeVito). While Eddie’s long-estranged and equally elderly former business partner, Milo, played by Danny Glover, comes in the form of Kevin Hart’s Franklin Finbar.
Now you see where DeVito’s over-acting comes in – he’s giving Johnson (above), an actor of enormous charisma but limited range, something to work with
Now you see where DeVito’s over-acting comes in – he’s giving Johnson, an actor of enormous charisma but limited range, something to work with.
The film is complicated to explain and, frankly, it’s just as complicated to watch – at least early on – as we wrestle with trying to remember who was who last time and who is who this time around, and wonder whether any of it really matters.
Which is a shame because the 2017 original was really good fun.
Slowly, however, the equally silly and enjoyable sequel begins to win us over. Johnson may not be quite up to the job of channelling his inner DeVito but Hart’s impersonation of Glover’s ageing but reliably verbose Milo is close to brilliant and very funny.
With Gillan clearly relieved to be playing an almost real human being again (in Guardians Of The Galaxy and Avengers she plays the cyborg Nebula) and every bit as much fun as she was the first time, suddenly Jumanji: The Next Level is looking up.
Yes, the basic plot is the same – a stolen jewel needs to be recovered to lift the darkness that engulfed much of Jumanji – but what with black characters being put into white bodies, old into young and male into female, there’s some quite brave stuff going on here in these harsh, instantly judgmental times.
Only the sight of the very white Black wringing laughs from a ‘black’ accent made me wince for a moment.
White comedians just can’t do that sort of thing any more and, perhaps aware of the danger, director and co-writer Jake Kasdan soon reins him in and then reduces everything to the enjoyably absurd when we discover Spencer’s avatar in the new game is a small, female Asian character played – rather well – by Awkwafina.
Don’t tell The Rock but she’s better at being Danny DeVito too.