- Location: Cinemark Century Point Ruston
- Mere weeks after I complained that Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a disappointment unworthy of its talented cast, Jumanji: The Next Level arrives as a study in improvement. This time around, the teenagers are much less annoying, the action sequences are much more lively, and the average age of the cast is much older with the welcome addition of Dannys DeVito and Glover. The plot of the film is almost precisely that of its predecessor except that the video game has become glitchy in ways that lead to unintentional avatar selection and unexpected body-swapping. It sounds corny, sure, but it's also good for quite a few laughs.
- Although Jumanji: The Next Level continues the series' generic glowering bad guy tradition with a Game of Thrones knockoff literally played by an actor from that series (Rory McCann), everybody else in the film looks like they're having fun. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and newcomer Awkwafina deliver amusing impressions of Danny DeVito, although Kevin Hart's impersonation of Danny Glover takes the cake (figuratively speaking, of course). The film features a raging herd of ostriches and a fearsome pack of mandrills, and more than one character finds themselves swapped into the body of a flying horse. I'm not sure the film series is quite strong enough to merit its implied sequel, but I guess I'd rather see another one of these than anything from a couple of other much lousier franchises I could mention.
