Twenty-two years after the board game was found, Jumanji is back and waiting to claim more victims.

“In the jungle, Welcome to the jungle” describes this action, adventure, comedy film, the second in the Jumanji series. It’s been awhile since the board game has claimed a victim, so it lays deep in the sand, waiting for someone to stumble by.

At the beginning of the film, a jogger is running along the beach when he discovers the game, which he brings back home. Upon returning home, he gives the board game to his son and his name Alex Vreeke (Nick Jonas), who quickly discards the game onto a shelf, returning to his video game. Later that night, as he is sleeping, he begins to hear drums and see flashing lights coming from the box. Opening the game, he soon discovers there is a video game card inside the box, quickly putting into his gaming system.

Fast forward 20 years. It’s 2016, and 20 years since the disappearance of the jogger’s son. We soon meet the main characters of the film. First, we meet Spencer Gilpin (Dwayne Johnson), a gamer/geek who gets in a lot of trouble when he cheats or doing the second main character Anthony “Fridge” Johnson (Kevin Hart) homework because of that they both wind up in detention after school. Later that same day we get to meet our third character Bethany (Jack Black) who gets into trouble because she makes a phone call in middle of class and she wouldn’t put the phone down when the teacher said to, resulting in an after school detention. Finally, we get to meet our last main character Martha (Karen Gillan) who winds up in after school detention because she wouldn’t join in during P.E and disrespected the teacher during the process.

Fast forward later in the day, we see that our four main characters are in the principal’s office meeting each other, getting a lecture and learning they would spend their detention in the basement removing staples from magazines. Fifteen minutes into their punishment, Fridge, and Spencer decide to look around the basement and during that process, they both stumble on a box that says “donated.”

Taking it back to the group, Spencer opens the box, reading the title aloud.

“Jumanji.”

Because it was a video game Fridge, Spencer, Martha, and Bethany decide to plug it in and start to play. Sparks came out of the system, which is clearly broken, causing green lights to shoot out in every direction. Spencer decides to unplug the system, but five seconds later, green lights appear again, this time to the sound of drums. One by one the main characters gets sucked into the game, becoming avatars.    

Jake Kasdan, notably from Bad Teacher, Bad teacher 2 and Orange County, directed this amazing films.  Kasdan was a great choice for this movie because it follows the classic movie, with a fun twist and a more feel to it.  Lions, deadly spiders and others come out of the board game, just like in the original.

Rottentomatoes gave this move an 89%, and with a strong cast, this movie was a great start to 2018. Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart are a dynamic duo that brings both intelligence and humor to the film. Throwing Jack Black, notably from School of Rock and Kung Fu Panda, and Karen Gillan, Guardians of the Galaxy and the upcoming Avengers, into the mix just makes this must-see film even better.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was an amazing film that in my opinion, is deserving of some awards. With a 90 million dollar budget, you’re sure to get sucked right into the scenes like I did.