If you put Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Pirates of the Caribbean (only the first one), Romancing the Stone, and The African Queen in a blender, you’d get Disney’s Jungle Cruise. Yes, this movie is based on the legendary Disney ride and stars Emily Blunt as an intrepid scientist named Lily Houghton searching for a mythical cure-all called “Tears of the Moon.” The action is set in 1916 with World War I raging. A German Prince also wants the “Tears of the Moon” for evil purposes. So, the race is on to the Amazon to find the mysterious magical MacGuffin.
Dwayne Johnson (aka, The Rock) plays a riverboat captain called Frank who has a lot of baggage in his Past. Johnson’s character is perfect for his slapstick wit and proclivity for action. Lily can’t stand Frank, but ends up hiring him to take her down the Amazon with the fiendish German Prince chasing them.
There’s plenty of action and silliness in Jungle Cruise. But, I’ll watch anything with Emily Blunt it in. And, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a High Adventure movie. Enjoyable and fun! GRADE: B+
I like Emily Blunt too – she even made Tom Cruise palatable in EDGE OF TOMORROW – by no Disney Plus and, frankly, no interest in this one. I used to like The Rock but his recent movies have not been good. Also, I have always thought AFRICAN QUEEN was overrated.
Have a safe trip home! Great seeing you guys yesterday.
Jeff, we had two problems on our trip to Buffalo today. The first was the Marriott Renaissance’s elevators died. Diane and I waited for an elevator for five or six minutes and when none came, we took the stairs to the floor below us. Same thing: no elevators arrived. We asked the cleaning woman on that floor and she told us all the elevators weren’t working. Only the “emergency” elevators (mostly used by the staff) were operating. So Diane and I took a ride on the emergency elevator to have breakfast. It was a far cry from the Clinton Street Baking Company. And, the emergency elevator left us off in the kitchen area so we got to see what what going on behind the scenes.
We finally made it to the Ground Level with our bags and took a cab to JFK. It only took us an hour! But, jetBlue didn’t have a pilot to fly the plane so we had to wait an hour until they found one. When the replacement pilot showed up, we took off and had a routine flight to Buffalo. But the delay landed us in the middle of Rush Hour so it took extra time to arrive home. We were also welcomed by snowfall! North Tonawanda got hit with a half an inch snow today. More on the way!
I’ll add it to the list — Thanks!
Dan, just keep the bar low and you’ll enjoy JUNGLE CRUISE!
This would have been a DVD possibility, until I read you calling it “slapstick”. And “silliness”. Too bad, the trailers made it look like fun.
Rick, silliness and slapstick can be fun. Here’s a review that might give you a fuller perspective of JUNGLE CRUISE: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/jungle-cruise-movie-review-2021
I just had to look this up on IMDB – warning:
Spoilers!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0870154/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl#synopsis
Kind of crazy story, but all’s well that ends well.
Wolf, Diane and I enjoyed JUNGLE CRUISE. Fun viewing!
I saw the trailers and the first thing I said was, “African Queen ripoff!!” I’ll pass, as usual!
Bob, yes, JUNGLE CRUISE has some distant similarity to AFRICAN QUEEN, but you’d enjoy it. And, so would your grandchildren!
This looks good to me – one of the few movies out that may tempt me back into the theaters.
Beth, JUNGLE CRUISE is pure fun. You would enjoy it!