Jungle Cruise (2021)

[Greg]

Disney+ fought me for an hour, but finally I was able to watch this. Every time I tried to play this, I received and error message. Maybe it was a warning.

Granted, it wasn't as bad as I expected but still wasn't all that good. Dwayne Johnson plays a riverboat captain on the Amazon. Emily Blunt is the woman in search of a mysterious flower hidden in the depths of the Amazon that can cure any illness. She needs a riverboat captain to get her there. Her competition in that race is crazy German Prince Jesse Plemmons. Along for the ride is Blunt's brother Macgregor. Even more fun is rival boat captain owner Paul Giamatti.

How many times now have we had a movie with a special tree with healing properties at the center of a movie? The most recent Dr. Doolittle. Medicine Man with Sean Connery. Aquaman had something similar. It's getting to be it's own genre.

The riff on the actual Jungle Cruise at the beginning was kind of amusing. It would have played better if I hadn't seen pretty much the whole segment when I watched the making of the Jungle Cruise Ride in Behind the Attraction.

Of course Blunt and The Rock fight until they learn to work together. Is there any other kind of Rock film? After the weird Cleopatra's eggs theme in Red Notice and now this strange Congquistador theme in Jungle Cruise, I think the Rock also really likes bad fake history. I think The Rock can act. He played well against type in Get Shorty where he was a bodyguard desperate to get an audition.

But now I can say I've seen it. I don't know if that was a goal I really need to attain.

[Greg]

One more note, I found it funny they use Metallica's "Nothing else Matters" as an instrumental motif throughout the film (At least I think it was this film...)

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

This movie was just the right brainless, kind, action pic I needed. Zero pretense, just amusement. Excellent de-stresser.

[Drunk Monk]

Totally concur with the Yeti. It was an obvs spin on Pirates of the Caribbean with the conquistadors and the Rock mcguffin (which I did not see coming but should have). I wasn’t expecting much so it met my expectations satisfactorily. The Blunt v Rock buddy flick chemistry worked well enough for what it was. Stacy giggled a lot but bailed when the cursed conquistador got grotesque. I liked the sword scenes - not quite a sword fight but swords appear and were used well.

Pleasantly distracting from not being to watch myself in the Karate Kid doc. I may have dozed off at some point because there were some plot leaps that didn’t make sense but they seemed inconsequential. 

Not recommended for D00Mers who haven’t seen it yet.