Alex, Martha, Fridge and Bethany have all moved forward in life, but college life has been disappointing for Alex and he has become distant from the others.
When everyone returns home for Christmas, Alex decides maybe what he really needs is to recapture the confidence he gained from the last time they went through Jumanji. When he never shows up for a planned breakfast, Fridge, Bethany and Martha find themselves forced to enter the game. But due to damage to the console, the group find themselves lost in a new part of the game and in the wrong avatars (well, except Martha). To make matters worse, the game has pulled in Spencer’s grandfather and his old business partner Milo.
The Next Level faced a challenge. How to convincingly argue the kids would re-enter the game and how not to lose the magic of the interplay of the last film. The previous film was one of those rare films that did not depend on Johnson basically being himself. The cast was convincing and fun playing the roles of teens trapped in a video game.
Kasdan ups the ante with this one. Gillan, Black, Hart and Johnson all get to play multiple inhabitants of their avatars (with Hart and Johnson doing fun takes on Glover and Devito for much of the film).
This was a real fun follow up that manages to carry over the character growth of the last film while still capturing what made the previous so much fun. The cast is great and the action is fun.
The gods of Olympus are celebrating the birth of the son of Zeus and Hera (um…slight change from myth, Disney cannot be seen as endorsing extramarital god flings) Hercules. Everybody seems happy except brother Hades. Hades attempts to turn Hercules mortal…but is only half successful, forcing Zeus to allow his son to be raised on earth by a poor couple of peasants. Hades is unaware that his plan was unsuccessful, mislead by his minions Pain and Panic, and believes Hercules is dead.
Jack Nicholson kind of established the villains would always be played by big names. Danny DiVito was brought in to play the Penguin. But this was not the traditional Penguin from the comics. Not merely a short round guy is a top hat, Burton envisioned an origin in which Oswald Cobblepot is born to an affluent family who are repulsed by his grotesque appearance. His father (played by Paul Reubens, who would play Penguin’s father on Gotham decades later) and mother (Diane Salinger) dump him over a bridge where he is found by penguins.
Tripping Through Gateways 