Alright, let’s get right down to it. I’ve been listening to the At Odds with Wrestling podcast from the beginning and when they do something, I try to be part of it. That includes sending in my thoughts for the semi weekly homework assignments in which something wrestling related is watched and discussed. This week continues the Wheel of Rock feature gimmick and we watched the second Jumanji film (third overall) Jumanji: The Next Level. 

I watched the movie years ago, probably when it first debuted on streaming. My son and I have watched both of the movies in this incarnation and had a fun time, but it was long enough ago that he has no recollection of the movie and I had to rewatch it this week to remind myself. I know I had fun when I watched it years ago. I’m positive of that. Yet here I was this week feeling that something was lacking. There’s funny scenes, exciting scenes, good action – all of that, but still I felt myself feeling frustrated and disinterested. Many times these columns go on for thousands of words but this week I spent thousands of minutes figuring out my feelings about the movie. 

This movie has one thing it does better than the previous one but it’s not the one thing that anyone would expect to be better. 

The action scenes aren’t better than in Welcome to the Jungle. There are jokes and bits that are repeated. The villain is barely in the movie. Familiar characters either get less to do or come across weaker than they were in the previous movie. Out of our returning four, the two young men show a lack of ambition and make stupid decisions when things get hard, either in the real world or in the game. The girls may have gotten it even worse because Karen is Karen but the other girl isn’t around and then when she is around has a non speaking roll for half of her remaining time. Sure we know no one will die but there’s not the fear of possible death that the other movie provided. Overall, the stakes and the excitement were not a bit better in the sequel. 

What was shockingly better though is the acting. In a movie where no one would expect good acting. The gimmick of two old men being dragged into the Jumanji world with zero understanding of video games or really many other things could have been annoying (and borders it at times) but this change of avatars compared to the first movie led to some great work. Not from the Rock though. He tries to channel his inner Danny DeVito impression but it sounds more like a thinly veiled ethnic stereotype. Kevin Hart however impressed the hell out of me with his old man Danny Glover impression. Kevin Hart has always felt like the same person to me every time I see him on camera but this was a completely different acting work than anything I’ve previously seen from him. Honestly, I gained some new respect for Hart. Awkwafina does a much better job channeling DeVito than the Rock did. I have never seen bad work from her. She made Shang Chi, and if you haven’t watched Raya and the Last Dragon, that’s a great animated movie. Finally, Jack Black being the avatar for both Fridge and Bethany throughout the movie and changing every thing about the character for either player was brilliant work. Everything about his voice changes, his body language, the way he moves, it is all different. The shorter one from Tenacious D is putting on a clinic here. 

A third movie is teased at the end and maybe that could create an equal level of good action and good acting, with the score now 1-1. Also, as I said at the beginning, if you haven’t seen the movie yet it’s lots of fun the first time. It’s just not worth putting another quarter in.