| I caught this on a sneak, too (fancy that). I also liked it, although
I am a fan of the book and even rather like the animated version(s) by
Disney and Chuck Jones.
The original story *is* significantly changed, and the movie was a
pretty loose adaptation. On the other hand, it was fun to watch, had
lots of lovely scenery, animals, game performances by folks like Sam
Neill, John Cleese, Jason Scott Lee, and Cary Elwes (who really did
need to be born when they made swashbuckling movies, really). Nothing
is too terribly unpredictable here, and the villian of the story is
sort of turned into an eco-terrorist (and also doesn't get enough
screen time, in my opinion), but hey, it's the 1990's. Whaddya want?
I saw it in a theater with OODLES of young children and while their
attention was occassionally seized by dramatic or funny parts, by and
large, it was a theater experience I'd not want to suffer through
often. We could have stayed to watch "The Santa Clause" for free
afterwards, but my "kids in the theater" threshold had been exceeded so
we went home and did the video thing instead. Yeah, I'm old and
crotchety.
There's a point to the above paragraph though, which is to say that
older children may well be entertained (along with adults), but small
children, based on our sample size of oh, a billion 8-and-under tots
surrounding us, will probably get bored during most of it.
It's a sweet, harmless, lovely to behold film. I'd recommend it if
you're in the mood and like animals. I was and I do, so there ya go.
:)
*** out of ****
kim
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| I took my two squirts to see this, 4 and 6, and they loved it, in spite
of being scared to bits most of the time.
Come to think of it, when I see something like "younger children might
be scared" in reference to a movie, I don't get it. So what? My kids
love to be scared by wild tigers and such.
I liked it too. Great scenery and especially animal work. The credits
listed about fifty animal trainers. And Jason Scott Lee is perfectly
cast.
Re. -1, I don't think you missed much not seeing The Santa Clause.
Kids weren't scared at that, and it didn't make much of an impression
on them any other way either.
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| This is just out on video; I rented it last night. (Between Jason
Scott Lee and Cary Elwes, how could I resist?)
If you have little kids, you might stick to the animated version. This
one has gruesome deaths and mouldering skeletons, rather like an
Indiana Jones movie. Not a lot of gore though. But you might do what
my mom did -- preview the film, then cover their eyes if there's
something you think they'd rather not see.
It's a good-looking movie, the performances are all entertaining (kudos
to Jason Scott Lee; the "wild boy" thing is often overdone), and the
animals all perform with verve, too. Definitely worth renting.
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| We rented this last night, and except for my 5-year old son, were
pretty disappointed. True, the scenery was beautiful, too much so, if
you know what I mean (we were watching a PBS program on Indian
railroads prior to watching this, so the comparison really hurt), in
fact, almost all of it looked like it was filmed in a backlot rather
than on location. The animals were great, but this was Disney
at its worst. What I mean is that everything was taken to extremes.
More after the ff:
Sam Neill was his usual wooden self. Can he act at all? His character
was just a caricature. Cleese was OK, but I expected him to break out in
a Monthy Python skit any moment.
Jason Scott Lee was miscast, IMHO. He is SOOO much better in martial
arts type stuff, and wasn't given enough chance to show his stuff. Cary
Elwes was good, but his character was comic-book bad.
The story was completely changed to a supposed romantic comedy-drama,
but didn't deliver. For any adults with the most rudimentary knowledge
of British-Indian history, the situations are extremely improbable, and
very '90's PC.
When this was being previewed in theaters I expected a modern
treatment of the topic, and instead got an almost carbon copy of
Greystoke, the legend of Tarzan.
How do I know? The latter was shown on local TV Saturday, and we
watched it, then rented JB on Sunday. The scene with Mowgly catching
the fly was lifted almost exactly from Greystoke.
A good film for younger children (4-8), older will probably be bored.
Marilyn
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