To say that I was less than convinced by good reviews of this film would be an understatement. But come on! Surely anyone who’d seen The Scorpion King would have been sceptical at The Rock’s second chance at a lead role?
I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that Welcome To The Jungle is actually quite a decent film.
The Rock is quite a good actor, but that’s no surprise given his day job. Seann William Scott is good also, still having to pretend that he’s not a huge muscle-bound hulk of a man (honestly, he’s so big… he looked ridiculously out of place in American Pie: The Wedding). Christopher Walken is Christopher Walken… good as always, and, as always… pausing mid sentence… for no… particular reason.
Even the humour works (except for a stupid scene with a monkey – why do American films have a fascination with animals copulating? In this particular film it’s definitely not funny, it’s puerile and stupid.)
Now I have to take a moment to turn my attention to the atrocious accents in WTTJ. Couldn’t they have spent some of the budget on a dialect coach? It’s ridiculous – Rosario Dawson’s attempt at a Portuguese accent is terrible! And don’t get me started on Ewen Bremner’s crazy Irish/Scottish blend (what’s his excuse? Isn’t he from the same landmass?) I can only think that the filmmakers wanted the accents to be over the top rather than accurate, but it certainly pissed me off (and is much, much worse than the Aussie accents in Mission: Impossible 2.)
Welcome To The Jungle is good, solid action fare that only failed to entertain in the last fifteen minutes or so. I’m actually looking forward to Dwayne’s next movie.