SECONDSCREEN
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (12A) ★★★★gets you chuckling within moments and keeps you chuckling all the way to its unexpectedly poignant ending. The first Jumanji film, from 1995, which saw Robin Williams’s character being released from a jungle board game, bore only a passing resemblance to American writer Chris van Allsburg’s original 1981 short story. Now the board game has become a video game and this time it’s four teenagers who, Tronstyle, get trapped inside the game. To be released, they must complete the game by avoiding hazards such as man-eating hippos, restore a stolen jewel and lift the curse on the jungle nation of Jumanji.
Much of the humour derives from the role reversals that result as the four teens are transformed to the adult characters of the game. So the nerdy game-player who’s never kissed a girl becomes the muscled-up Dwayne Johnson, the high-school line-backer becomes the diminutive Kevin Hart, and the shy girl becomes Karen Gillan in safari hot pants. Best of all, the pretty, phone-addicted prom queen is reborn as a portly Jack Black. Great stuff and all four leads are on top form. The Pitch Perfect franchise has well and truly run out of creative steam. Pitch Perfect 3 (12A) ★★ is by far the worst yet. By now the former members of The Barden Bellas are all grown up, but when Beca (Anna Kendrick) loses her job it’s time to hit the road one last time. Some of the musical numbers are still modest fun, as the girls tour US army bases in Europe. But the plot is paperthin and too much of the comedy relies on the one-note battering ram that is Rebel Wilson.