UPGRADED ★★★ THE JUNGLE BUNCH 2: WORLD TOUR
Cert 15 Cert U ★★
Rom-coms trade unabashedly in wish-fulfilment and we buy wholeheartedly into the fantasy.
The fairytale of Upgraded isn’t that two single, attractive 20-somethings, serendipitously sitting in adjoining first-class suites on a transatlantic flight from New York to London might spend seven hours quaffing champagne and fluttering eyelashes. The delicious delusion is the fairy godmother – a harangued airline check-in agent – would generously upgrade the heroine from economy to first class without prompting.
Director Carlson Young’s frothy confection hangs on that outrageous good fortune, which neatly facilitates a cute meeting between New York auction house intern Ana (Camila Mendes) and British advertising executive William (Archie Renaux) en route to the city of “big clocks and pirate accents”.
Ana tells fibs to numb the reality of her humdrum existence, and a whirlwind romance threatens to come crashing down when her exaggerations are exposed.
Mendes and Renaux sweetly submit to the script’s predictable contrivances, while Marisa Tomei has a blast as Ana’s sociopathic boss, whose haughty perfectionism is indebted to Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada. Eye-catching support from Lena Olin and Anthony Head (as a flamboyant artist) are welcome daubs of colour.
In cinemas now
Feathers and fur fly without fuss in a jaunty computeranimated escapade in the jungle – approximately six-and-ahalf years after an English language-dubbed version of the original Jungle Bunch roared politely in UK cinemas.
A wholesome central message of cross-species cooperation is retained for a second big screen adventure, which possesses the kind of simplistic, naive charm that could appeal to audiences with single-digit ages.
Linear storytelling spoon-feeds the episodic plot, explicitly when the valiant hero – a lovable tiger penguin named Maurice (voiced by Scott Humphrey) – neatly summarises the sequel’s noble intent to save lush African habitat from ecological disaster perpetrated by a Machiavellian beaver.
“OK, let’s recap...” chirps Maurice, helpfully. During a one-sided fight between the flightless champion and a black and white robot bear, Maurice charges at his overstuffed opponent and meekly quips: “Two can play kung fu, panda.”
That’s as close to a pop culture reference as the film dares to stray. Is this animal magic? Sadly not, but the animation has improved since 2017 and the gag of a hungry gorilla’s tongue stuck to an ice-sculpted banana merits a smile.