JUMANJI

title: JUMANJI
year: 1995
cast: Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, Jonathan Hyde, Bonnie Hunt, Bradley Pierce
rating: ***1/2

Completely entertaining kid's flick (that adults can enjoy) about a board game bringing safari animals to life: first pillaging a mansion and then a small town: including lunatic monkeys (liken to the protagonists in GREMINS), bats, mosquitos, rhinos, elephants, and a lion. The special effects, right after JURRASIC PARK's CGI paved the way… are manned by Speilberg student Joe Johnston, directing Robin Williams as a grown-up who, when younger, was sucked into the board game: this where the movie begins. Williams joins two present day kids to finish the game – each move bringing more and more animals, and one lethal hunter, into frantic reality. The pace never lets up, but there are essential pockets of downtime to build the characters: investing you in their, and the game's, outcome.