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Fri/Sat/Sun January 12~14, 2018

(January 12)

TheatersTheatersChina Film CinemaTel: 8661-7199Add: Block A, Building 2, Qushui Bay, OCT Bay, Baishi Road 8, Nanshan District (南山区白石路东8号欢乐海岸园区内的曲水湾2栋A区)

UA KK MallTel: 2290-6660Add: 4/F, KK Mall, 5016 Shennan Road East, Luohu District (罗湖区深南东路5016号京基百纳空间购物中心四楼)

Golden Harvest ShenzhenTel: 8266-8182, ext: 0Add: 3/F, The MixC, 1881 Bao’an Road South (罗湖区宝安南路1881号万象城三楼)

South Movie CityTel: 8261-1138Add: 3/F, Kingglory Plaza, Renmin Road South, Luohu District (罗湖区人民南路金光华广场三楼)

New South Movie CityTel: 2594-4588Add: 3/F, City Plaza, 1095 Shennan Road Central (深南中路1095号新城市广场三楼)

Shenzhen Jinyi Intl. CinemaTel: 8280-1168Add: G/F, Central Walk, Fuhua Road, Futian District (福田区福华路怡景中心城内G楼)

Broadway CircuitTel: 8881-1222Add: 2/F, Coco Park, Fuhua Road 3, Futian District (福田区福华三路Coco Park二楼)

China Film Antaeus Intl. CineplexTel: 8253-1188Add: 3/F, Jiaxinmao, intersection of Nonglin Road and Qiaoxiang Road, Futian District (福田区农林路和侨香路交汇处嘉信茂三楼)

MCL Cinema CityTel: 2685-8870Add: 5/F, Garden City Center, Nanhai Boulevard, Nan-shan District (南山区南海大道花园城中心五楼)

Holiday CinemaTel: 8269-8989Add: L3, Yitian Holiday Plaza, opposite Window of the World, Nanshan District (南山区世界之窗对面益田假日广场L3层)

Coastal City CinemaTel: 8612-9988Add: 3/F, Coastal City, 33 Wenxin Road 5, Nanshan District (南山区文心五路33号海岸城三楼)

ScheduleScheduleCurrently playing

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle(English)

——————————————Star Wars: The Last Jedi

(English)——————————————

Legend of the Demon Cat(Mandarin)

——————————————The Ex-File: The Return of the Exes (Mandarin)

——————————————Keep Calm and Be a Superstar

(Mandarin)——————————————

Forever Young (Mandarin)

《勇敢者游戏：决战丛林》

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Bobby Cannavale, Alex Wolff Director: Jake Kasdan

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle

A scene from “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.” File photo

TWO decades after Joe Johnston’s family fantasy adventure “Jumanji” (1995), which was based on a slim

children’s book by Chris Van Alls-burg, Sony has dusted off the property and delivered a sequel that doesn’t depend much on fading memories of that likeable fi lm — though its original fans may now have children of an age to enjoy the new take, which reverses the premise.

It’s an entertaining, engaging, colorful picture in its own right with decently handled action-adventure set-pieces and sly comedy, detouring from the expected thrills and spills into body-hopping comedy drama.

In the fi rst fi lm a magical board game unleashed jungle creatures and vegetation on a small New Hampshire town; here, modern-day kids from the same town are transported into that world. The beautifully crafted board game of the earlier fi lm is glimpsed in a 1990s prologue, but transforms into a game cartridge that has now become a retro item itself, enabling the movie to join several recent nos-talgic explorations of now-primitive games like Beyond the Gates, Pixels and Wreck-It Ralph.

Likeable rather than overwhelm-ing, it should appeal to holiday audiences who’ve already seen “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” or are looking

for something with broader family appeal.

The prologue, which mimics the original by having a teenager dis-appear into Jumanji, is followed by a necessarily lengthy introductory sequence that establishes a “break-fast club” assembly of high school-ers — nerd Spencer (Alex Wolff), jock “Fridge” (Ser’Darius Blain), brain Martha (Morgan Turner) and princess Bethany (Madison Iseman) — who stumble across the Jumanji cartridge while clearing out a school storeroom.

They load the game and pick ava-tars, then get sucked into the jungle world (which more closely resembles a catalogue of Hollywood clichés than anywhere in Africa). Gifted three lives apiece, they get instructions from a nonplayer character (Rhys Darby) to restore a jewel to a giant statue in order to complete the game and return to the real world.

The major innovation here is that the kids are stuck in archetype avatar bodies that don’t fi t their personali-ties.

Nerdy Spencer is indomitable Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), hulking Fridge is jittery sidekick Moose Finbar (Kevin Hart), wallfl ower Martha is badass babe Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan) and shallow pretty girl Bethany is tubby

middle-aged male boffi n Professor Oberon (Jack Black).

The multi-authored script is surprisingly clever, intertwining character comedy with fantasy adventure, and several key points depend on players being willing (or forced) to sacrifi ce their allotted lives to achieve a goal.

The perils are standard for a jungle romp — mercenary bikers, stamped-ing white rhinos, hordes of snakes — but director Jake Kasdan handles thrills with solid professionalism. Having arrived here after quirky dramas (“Zero Effect,” “Orange County”) and midlist comedies (“Sex Tape,” “Bad Teacher”), he seems more interested in the business of the characters relishing or resenting their new bodies.

Johnson and Gillan especially enjoy acting against the images they present, with the muscular alpha hero revealing his inner nerd and the Lara Croft-looking jungle fi ghter complaining about her ridiculous outfi t and making a grotesque hash of the art of fl irtation. Black and Hart get more obvious jokes but carry them off with aplomb. Other characters are all game-generated, but Bobby Can-navale brings fl ashes of bug-infested menace to the token villain.

The movie is now being screened in Shenzhen. (SD-Agencies)