Jungle Cruise

 Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Jaume Collet-Serra

Screenplay:  Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa from a story by John Norville, Josh Goldstein, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, based on Walt Disney's The Jungle Cruise ride

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti

Genre:  Fantasy adventure

Running Time:  127 minutes

1916: While the First World War rages in Europe, Dr Lily Houghton (Blunt) and her brother MacGrgeor (Whitehall) arrive in Brazil intending to head down the Amazon in search of the legendary "Tears of the Moon", which has the ability to cure illness, heal wounds and lift curses.  They hire steamboat captain Frank Wolff (Johnson), who conducts cut-rate jungle cruises for tourists, to ferry them down the Amazon.  Along the way they encounter various natural and supernatural threats, as they are pursued by the ruthless Prince Joachim (Plemons) who is determined to claim the Tears of the Moon for the German war effort.

Inspired by the popular Disneyland theme park ride, Jungle Cruise hearkens back to old school adventure films.  Mixing elements from Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, The African Queen (1951) and the Uncharted video game series, it is a mixed bag.  The story is pretty disposable and unoriginal, there is an over reliance on CGI effects, but it works due to the chemistry between Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, both of whom are hugely charismatic and engaging performers.   Édgar Ramírez is buried under layers of CGI as an undead conquistador, but Jack Whitehall is funny as Lily's foppish posh brother.  It's a funny, charming film and there are some exciting sequences.  However it is overlong, and there is a lack of a strong villain.  It's the kind of film that in years to come will probably be a staple of bank holiday weekend TV.  It's certainly worth watching and enjoyable, but really nothing special.

  

Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson in Jungle Cruise   

Orphan

Year: 2009
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Screenplay: David Leslie Johnson, from a story by Alex Mace
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett, Aryana Engineer
Running Time: 123 minutes
Genre: Horror, thriller, psychological

Summary: Recovering alcoholic Kate Coleman (Farmiga) and her husband John (Sarsgaard) find their already strained marriage stretched to breaking point after their third child is stillborn. They decide to adopt a nine year old Russian girl named Esther (Fuhrman) from a nearby orphanage. At first glance Esther, who is a talented painter, appears firendly and intelligent, if slightly strange.
At the Coleman household Esther is welcomed almost immediately by the Coleman's deaf-mute daughter Max (Engineer), but she is disliked by the older child, Daniel (Bennett), who immediately takes exception to Esther's mannerisms and eccentric taste in clothes.
Before long Esther begins to display increasingly violent and manipulative behaviour. However, as Kate becomes increasingly suspicious of her John refuses to believe that Esther is anything but misunderstood. As their relationship begins to disintegrate Kate becomes determined to uncover the secrets of Esther's past.

Opinions: This film belongs to the "evil child" sub-genre of horror (which includes The Bad Seed (1956), The Omen (1976) and The Good Son (1993) among many others) as well as the "cuckoo in the nest" sub-genre in which a family comes under attack from an enemy within.
The film is slow to get going and the final half hour gets ludicrously over the top, but mostly it is an impressively atmospheric slice of horror. Moving at a deliberate pace the film builds up it's characters and their relationships, allowing for a number of elements to be dealt with more subtly (such as John's infidelity and Kate's guilt over an accident involving Max). The film, which was shot near Montreal, also gets a lot of milage out of the wintery landscapes.
The performances all round are superb, with Isabelle Fuhrman delivering a standout performance as the murderous child, seemingly all sweetness and light, but with a cold, dead-eyed stare which makes The Omen's Damien look about as threatening as Dennis the Menace. Vera Farmiga also impresses as the increasingly suspicious mother.
It's a good and effective psychological chiller up until the last half hour or so when it all goes into slasher movie territory. Still, it is more than watchable and provides plenty of good chills, and is worth watching for the perfomances if nothing else.



Vera Farmiga and Isabelle Fuhrman in Orphan