The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 11

When I included 1995’s Jumanji in last year’s iteration of my advent calendar I received a couple of comments that suggested that the 2017 relaunch of the franchise might actually be one of those rare instances of a reboot being better than the original.

And those comments were absolutely spot on – Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is not only an interesting reimagining of what was already a pretty decent concept, it actually manages to be more entertaining than the original. And, lest we forget, the original had Robin Williams.

It is obviously pure popcorn entertainment, but it’s thoroughly enjoyable escapism with some interesting twists and some genuine laugh out loud moments along the way.

Score for Christmasishness

Much like the original movie, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is not overtly a Christmas movie, but like its predecessor, there are some quite Christmassy scenes at the end of the movie. Indeed there are actually some subtle hints that ’tis the season’ at the beginning, but they are ‘blink and you’ll miss them’ moments and as most of the movie takes places within a demonic video game, where there are no signs of Christmas at all, then Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is really only a bit Christmas(ish). But it’s no less entertaing for that.