Just noticed the review formatting has returned, thank god for that
Just noticed the review formatting has returned, thank god for that
Member since:29.08.2002
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It’s a common premise that WWF/WWE wrestlers don’t make the best movie stars. You just need to look at the movie career of Hulk Hogan to see they don’t normally land big parts. Or when they do the film is truly awful, I’m sure some of you can remember “Mr Nanny”. However now it would seem that the mould is being broken. With Triple H having a part in the new “Blade” film it seems a move away from bad roles is on the cards. The same can be said for The Rock, who has now made a couple of decent films, including this, “Welcome To The Jungle”.
The Rock plays a debt collector by the name of Beck. After retrieving a debt from a professional football player Beck hopes he can retire and buy the restaurant he has always dreamed of. But his boss has other ideas and has one final assignment for Beck. He wants him to go to Brazil and bring back his son, Travis (Seann William Scott).
Travis was last seen in the Gold Mining town of Hell Dorado, deep in the Brazilian Jungle. The town of Hell Dorado was built by Hatcher (Christopher Walken), a Businessman who spotted
an opportunity to become vastly wealthy. Hatcher has some form of hold over everyone in the town and Travis is no exception. So when Beck arrives to take Travis home, Hatcher isn’t too happy about it. As Travis has promised Hatcher a share in the profits of any archaeological find he makes. After months of looking he’s about to find what he’s been looking for, a Brazilian artefact known as The Gato Del Diablo.
However Beck isn’t interested in what Travis has or hasn’t found he just wants to get him back home and collect his cash. However after they crash their jeep escaping Hell Dorado Travis convinces Beck to help him find the Gato Del Diablo. So they set of into the depths of the jungle in search of the lost artefact, but do they find it? Well you’ll have to watch it to find out.
The plot is fairly easy to follow with no major twists and turns. I expected it to have a few comical moments but nothing prepared me for how much comedy is actually in the film. There is a love interest for Travis in the film but it quickly fades away. The action comedy world needed a film like this after some of the awful films released in the genre recently.
The film is director Peter Berg’s first major film. He’s directed episodes of a couple of US TV shows but hadn’t directed a major film before. From a first directing effort he has done a good job. Of course there were parts that were done better but overall I was impressed. It will have helped a lot that the plot is very straightforward, so he knew exactly what he had to work with. Although there was one scene where the lighting could have been a lot better he did well on that count too.
However the only major failing was the special effects. A lot of the explosions didn’t look that realistic and it was easy to tell they were shot against a screen in a studio. This probably wouldn’t be noticeable if they didn’t do close ups of both The Rock and Seann William Scott with the explosion behind them. Apart for that though the direction can’t actually be faulted. He is helped however by a good script that combines comedy and action well making it an enjoyable film to watch. It’s an easy film to sit down, switch off and laugh along with.
I feel though that Berg’s biggest success though is the performance he gets from the films stars. I think this is probably the first time I’ve seen Seann William Scott playing a different role to his normal American Pie type character. He puts in a really good performance and is still as funny as ever. The real surprise for me though was The Rock. I’d seen the previous 2 films he has been in and thought he put in a pretty good performance. However I just put that down to a one off performance.
However The Rock seems to be well on his way to becoming Hollywood’s new action hero. With Arnie now giving up acting to concentrate on Politics there is a void to be filled. And The Rock shows in this film he is one of the leading contenders. The fighting scenes do play to his strengths, using his wrestling training to make the fighting scenes appear a lot better than they otherwise would have. As for the support cast the only performance I felt that really stood out was Christopher Walken. He is excellent as the tyrant Hatcher and seems to be the right choice for the part.
From a film I really didn’t expect that much from I have to say that Welcome To The Jungle really surprised me. As I mentioned back at the start Wrestlers historically don’t make good movie actors, The Rock seems to have changed that theory. He has someway to go but with a few more films like this he could become Hollywood’s next big Action Hero. I’d recommend the film to anyone whose looking for a light hearted action film to sit back and enjoy.
Alternative Film name: The Rundown (US)
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Action/Adventure - Director: Peter Jackson - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Andy Serkis
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
The Rock teams up with Seann William Scott for this wildly entertaining, pulse-pounding, ... more
action adventure.Beck (The Rock) is a bounty hunter sent into a remote town, deep within the treacherous Amazon jungle to bring the rebellious Travis (Seann Willia...
Advantages: Funny, entertaining, good action Disadvantages: Childish at times
Great_reviewer07 10.04.2009 (10.04.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Welcome To The Jungle (DVD)
Advantages: great music videos, like 'November Rain', 'Don't Cry' and 'Paradise City'. Disadvantages: No extras. A few videos missing that I feel should have been on it.
![Welcome To The Jungle - Director's Cut [DVD] [2004]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/76771268.jpg "Welcome To The Jungle - Director's Cut [DVD] [2004]")
Apr 6th, 2004
exceptional by (1%):
very helpful by (99%):
