There’s (wild) life in board games yet

Films based on video games have been dependably awful since Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo pulled on their overalls for the Super Mario Bros movie in 1993. But films that draw inspiration from games – riff on their visual grammar and toy with their odd formal conventions – are often much more fun.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle falls somewhere between the two groups, insofar as it’s based on a video game that doesn’t exist. This older-skewing children’s adventure is a long-range sequel to the 1995 family film Jumanji, in which an African menagerie, plus Robin Williams, came stampeding out of a magical, jungle-themed board game. “Who plays board games?” grimaces a teenager in the winking prologue – prompting the enchanted box to shape-shift into a video game cartridge, which is unearthed by four teenagers in detention. Clutching controllers, they’re sucked into the game’s treacherous tropical world, where escape to the real world lies at the end of a five-level quest.

It is made all the peppier by the teens’ struggle to acclimatise to their new in-game avatars. Geeky Spencer is the muscle-bound hero (Dwayne Johnson), while strapping football jock Fridge is demoted to pint-size sidekick (Kevin Hart). Introverted Martha becomes a pneumatic Lara Croft type (Karen Gillan), while selfie-mad mean girl Bethany turns into … well, Jack Black in a bow tie and pith helmet.

Laughs flow fast thanks to all actors committing gamely to the bit, and the four-strong writing team doing their damnedest to winkle out every last gag. Director Jake Kasdan pushed silliness and send-ups to such heights in his 2007 satirical biopic Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story that it’s hard not to feel a sharper version is somewhere out there. But, in its present form – hyperactive, dopey and hammered into shape like a Hollywood sitcom – it’s a passable school holiday jaunt.