Jungle Cruise

Another Disney theme park ride is given the big-screen treatment with a slapstick, supernatural take on John Huston’s The African Queen.

Romancing the river: Emily Blunt, Dwayne Johnson and Jack Whitehall

Oh dear, another new franchise. This opening adventure, like the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Mission to Mars (2000) and The Haunted Mansion (2003), is ‘inspired’ by a Disney theme park attraction. Tapping into the no-holds-barred exotica of Around the World in 80 Days and Raiders of the Lost Ark – with the accent on wild travel, madcap antics and dastardly Germans – it chugs along nicely at the start, propelled by some inventive slapstick. Emily Blunt, in her Mary Poppins mode, is the feisty fortune hunter pitted against Dwayne Johnson’s dodgy jungle guide, a hulking homage to Humphrey Bogart's Charlie Allnut from The African Queen. For comic relief, there’s also Jack Whitehall as the hapless Englishman abroad, although he’s no funnier than the pun-popping Johnson, who seems perfectly at ease in whichever genre he’s trying out for size. Indeed, it’s remarkable that he can keep a straight face while chewing on some of the dialogue here, co-constructed by Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. Johnson: “We're headed into headhunter territory, which is a terrible place to be headed.” In fact, there are way too many cooks cooking up an overbaked dish, in which everything but the kitchen sink is tossed into the mixing bowl.

Essentially, it’s the story of Lily Houghton (Blunt), a spirited botanist who is determined to track down a fabled Brazilian tree – the Tears of the Moon – whose blossoms can apparently cure any sickness. But, being 1916, there’s a war on, and the unscrupulous Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons with funny accent) wants to harness the tree’s powers for his own nefarious ends and world domination. However, in order to access the realm deep in the Amazon jungle, there is an arcane key, an arrowhead, which Joachim has bought at some cost and which Lily has stolen from the vault of the Royal Society in London. All she needs now is a reliable steamboat and a guide to steer her down the Amazon towards the tree, whose location she has divined from an ancient map. In the event, she has to settle for Frank Wolff (Johnson) as her guide, whose river rides are booby-trapped to better thrill his passengers. And then there’s Lily’s brother, MacGregor (Whitehall), who comes along to keep an ineffectual eye on her.

Blunt and Johnson strike genuine comic sparks off each other, while Whitehall, as the damsel-in-distress, is consistently droll in a part formerly reserved for the fairer sex. There is a nod to political correctness throughout, including the presence of the headhunters, who are led by a female chieftain, a welcome but historically suspect device. Not all the CGI works, but much of it is inventive and inspired, with perhaps the high bench mark being a recreation of an Edwardian Piccadilly Circus. More soul-destroying is the introduction of the supernatural element, a facet carried over from Pirates of the Caribbean. For a while there, the physical comedy and the chemistry sparked by the three leads was quite fun enough. It’s all quite a ride, though, but by the 100-minute mark it becomes a bloated and tiresome one.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti, Veronica Falcón, Dani Rovira, Quim Gutiérrez, Dan Dargan Carter, Andy Nyman, Raphael Alejandro.

Dir Jaume Collet-Serra, Pro John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia, Screenplay Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, from a story by John Norville, Josh Goldstein, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, Ph Flavio Labiano, Pro Des Jean-Vincent Puzos, Ed Joel Negron, Music James Newton Howard, Costumes Paco Delgado, Sound John Marquis and Brandon Jones, Dialect coaches Carlos Garcia, Michael Floyd and Jennifer Gerndt.

Walt Disney Pictures/Davis Entertainment/Seven Bucks Productions/Flynn Picture Company-Walt Disney.
127 mins. USA. 2021. Rel: 30 July 2021. Cert. 12A.