JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

It's back to the magic/cursed game Jumanji in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.  This movie has teens transported to a video game jungle -- in new bodies.

The movie starts in 1996, when some kids find the Jumanji board game and one says no one plays board games anymore, returning to his video game.  The game magically transforms into a game cartridge, and the boy disappears.

Jump to the present, and four teens have gotten detention.  Spencer (Alex Wolff) is a thoughtful student and nervous hypochondriac who got busted for writing papers for Fridge (Ser'Darius Blain), a football player who used to be good friends with Spencer.  Bethany (Madison Iseman) is a high school popular beauty who couldn't stay off her iPhone.  And Martha (Morgan Turner) is a quiet thinker who speaks out against gym class.  While the four are stuck cleaning a room, they find the Jumanji game (now a video game console) and find themselves zapped into the world of the game.

The teens are now the video game characters, with their skills and weaknesses.  Spencer (Dwayne Johnson) is the muscular leader with no weaknesses.  Fridge (Kevin Hart) is a zoologist who's slower and weaker, plus he carries everyone's stuff in his backpack.  Bethany (Jack Black) is now a pudgy male -- but she still can't deal with not having a phone.  And Martha (Karen Gillan) is a beautiful martial artist in a skimpy outfit.  Their mission: Find the magic gem stolen by evil explorer Van Pelt (Bobby Cannavale, who has little to do but look menacing) and return it to its place in a giant statue.  Each teen has three lives, and when they die they fall from the sky to continue the game.  NPCs show up, with limited reactions and often repeating the same lines over and over.  And the four run into Alex (Nick Jonas), the teenager who got sucked into the game back in 1996 and has been trying to get out ever since.

Despite enough cursing to get this movie a PG-13 rating, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle feels a lot like a kids' movie.  The teens start as strangers or former friends who grow to be good friends, and their characters' skills let them work together to complete the game.  A lot of the humor comes from the stars acting atypically (Dwayne Johnson constantly scared, Jack Black effeminately) or video game cliches brought to life, and the movie doesn't give any surprised or take any real chances.  This is a cute movie, but not terribly funny or exciting.

Overall grade: C
Reviewed by James Lynch

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE

Buddy comedies usually rely on opposites working together -- and it's hard to picture two more physically opposite actors than Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson and Kevin Hart.  The two actors are brought together for a light, dopey, but enjoyable little comedy: Central Intelligence.

The movie opens at a high school in 1996, where Calvin "the Golden Jet" Joyner is speaking at a student assembly.  He seems to have it all: popularity, grades, ambition, hot girlfriend Maggie.  When some bullies humiliate "Fat Robbie," Calvin is the only one who helps him.

Jump ahead 20 years, and Calvin (Hart) is unhappy.  He's an accountant, good at his job but passed over for promotion and surrounded by idiots.  He's still married to Maggie (Danielle Nicolet), but she wants them to attend their 20th high school reunion and Calvin feels like a loser who peaked back in high school.  Then a Facebook invite changes everything.

Calvin runs into Robbie, who's now Bob Stone (Johnson), a fairly nerdy guy who's incredibly enthusiastic, an instant friend to Calvin, and a buff guy who beats up bullies with ease.  When Bob asks Calvin for a little help with his online payroll account, things get complicated.

Bob says he's actually a C.I.A. agent, out to retrieve some stolen satellite codes and find a rogue agent called the Black Badger -- who killed Bob's partner Phil (Aaron Paul).  But C.I.A. Agent Pamela Harris (Amy Ryan) is convinced that Bob is the Black Badger and a dangerous psychopath -- and she wants Calvin to help bring him in.  What follows is a lot of shooting with very few deaths, a predictable storyline, and no real surprises.

Despite that, Central Intelligence has plenty of enjoyable moments.  Dwayne Johnson plays up the giant lovable goofball from start to finish, and he does it very well.  Kevin Hart manages his yelling and frantic delivery pretty well, as the nervous everyman suddenly thrust into the middle of gunfire and international espionage.  Central Intelligence is pretty much pure fluff, but it still manages to be funny.

Overall grade: C+
Reviewed by James Lynch