User Score
7.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 46 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 39 out of 46
  2. Negative: 0 out of 46

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  1. ShlumGuy
    Jul 10, 2006
    9
    Metacritic got this one WRONG, this was a great movie. Too many people compare the book to the movie directly which is horribly bias, and unfair. Judge this movie without the book in mind, it is unfair to do otherwise. If you do, which you should since every other movie should be judged that way, this way a great movie!
  2. BobS.
    May 31, 2008
    10
    Awesome movie. Action, adventure, comedy.
  3. Sep 29, 2011
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I consider this movie as one of my all time favourite movies, and also Robin Williams as one of my favourite actors.

    This is the story of Alan Parish who finds a board game, which unknown to him releases the inhabititants of the game, depending on the role of the dice.
    While playing the game with a girl called Sarah from his street, they both decide to stop playing the game, but Alan un-wittingly throws the dice, and the game punishes him, by sucking him into the game with the message ' In the jungle you must wait, till the dice reads five or eight'.
    Many years later Judy & Peter who have moved into Alans house, find the game, and begin playing it, and Peter eventually throws an eight, thus releasing alan from the game.
    What follows in an action paced film, with great special effects.

    If you want to watch a great film then get this one.
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  4. [Anonymous]
    Dec 18, 2005
    7
    Liked it as a kid. It was no masterpiece, but it was quite fun.
  5. JamesH.
    Dec 7, 2006
    8
    This movie should have been PG-13 as it's much more graphic, and intense than the book. The book and this movie have virtually nothing in common. They are two totally different wholes. This is a much more mature, and adventure/thrill seeking movie with lots of intense moments. I was surprised by how much the critics rely on comparison rather than individuality.
  6. Louis'sb.
    Mar 27, 2007
    9
    I agree with all you guys, this was a very good movie, and the critics were wrong. I didn't know there was a book though.
  7. patrickd.
    Nov 12, 2005
    8
    It was good! I used to love this movie!
  8. Sep 5, 2011
    8
    It's amazing that most fantasy movies (aside from the ones with British actors) have American protagonists and British antagonists as well and that's the reason why we get Joe Johnton's fantasy comedy adventure Jumanji, loosely based on a children's literature book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg.

    It revolves around two children named Judy and Peter Shepard as they discover an anci
    ent board game known as Jumanji. Once they started playing it, mystical jungle animals started to appear and cause trouble to their home and the town of Brantsford. Then, they realize that they released a grown man named Alan Parrish, who has been stuck inside the game for 26 years and needs the children's help along with an old friend of his named Sarah Whittle to survive the dangers that lie within the game's magical power.

    The reason that I'm reviewing this is because it has been my childhood favorite next to Disney's The Lion King ever since from the classic 1990s. If you understand this, then I'll make my opinion about it just to make it easier for you.

    The only problem that I had with this movie was the slow pacing. It was very tiresome when it comes to other movies from the eighties and nineties until the climax of the movie, it started to become faster than before it gives the characters some development.

    As for the rest of the movie, everything about this film blew me away with a lot of good things. The fantasy elements of the CGI animals from Industrial Light and Magic was very damn cool they just looked exactly like the book (except the snake for some reason). The actors like Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Kirsten Dunst, Bradley Pierce, and the rest have done a great job at their performances and the comedy in this movie was very clever in my opinion though it didn't give me any laughs, but I think it might as well when I watch it again someday.

    The action sequences were very good when it comes to other fantasy movies with fantastic action sequences. The scenes with the animals were given some screen time and they were very good, but when it comes to very frightening scenes in fantasy movies, the most scary scene of all was the lion because it was scary and too dark for the kids, but I've enjoyed it though. The script, in my opinion, was pretty decent. Not outstanding, but not that bad either. The music score from from the brilliant James Horner was thrilling, epic, and very emotional.

    It told a very good story and the climax near the end of the movie was amazing. Even though it's not completely faithful to the book (unless you could check it out if you like), I've found this movie to be Joe Johnston's greatest work ever made and it's in no doubt one of the best movies, in my opinion, from the classic 1990s. A big thumbs up from me.

    8/10
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  9. Jun 11, 2012
    9
    Robin Williams has played in quite a few crappy movies. Thankfully, this isn't a crappy movie. It has memerable use of jungle animals in a city. Its also kinda funny.
  10. May 3, 2012
    7
    Jumanji is a movie that revolves around a board game in which your rolls change and possibly destroy the environment around you. This idea is excellent. But, Jumanji didn't make me feel the intensity that it could have shown. I think this movie would have been a masterpiece if it wasn't aimed toward a young audience. It's something that could have been dramatic and tense, not humurous. If you decide to avoid this issue, other plotlines such as a history of the game's affect on people will make you love this movie. Overall a good movie worth an encore! Expand
  11. Sep 2, 2012
    9
    Jumanji is an extremely enjoyable movie. Love the action scenes and everything in between. Great cast and for movie about a board game it was very creative.
  12. Sep 2, 2012
    9
    I didn't know this movie got such bad reviews. I thought it was excellent. Love all the actors and is such a fun movie. There is a whole lot going on in this movie, and it is just exciting.
Metascore

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 18
  2. Negative: 6 out of 18
  1. 30
    The script boasts more writers than the computerized menagerie's got megabytes, but they haven't come up with much variety or humor in what is essentially a string of catastrophes.
  2. 38
    The film is a gloomy special-effects extravaganza filled with grotesque images, generating fear and despair.
  3. 50
    Jumanji takes approximately one-hundred minutes for four people to play a board game. The result isn't much more fun or involving than watching a few friends play Monopoly.