jungle cruise rating

Jungle Cruise

In the pantheon of Disney movies based on Disney theme park rides, “Jungle Cruise” is pretty good—leagues better than dreck like “Haunted Mansion,” though not quite as satisfying as the original “Pirates of the Caribbean.” 

The most pleasant surprise is that director Jaume Collet-Serra (“ The Shallows “) and a credited team of five, count ’em, writers have largely jettisoned the ride’s mid-century American colonial snarkiness and casual racism (a tradition  only recently eliminated ). Setting the revamp squarely in the wheelhouse of blockbuster franchise-starters like “ Raiders of the Lost Ark ,” “ Romancing the Stone ” and “The Mummy,” and pushing the fantastical elements to the point where the story barely seems to be taking place in our universe, it’s a knowingly goofy romp, anchored to the banter between its leads, an English feminist and adventurer played by Emily Blunt and a riverboat captain/adventurer played by  Dwayne Johnson . 

Notably, however, even though the stars’ costumes (and a waterfall sequence) evoke the classic “The African Queen”—John Huston’s comic romance/action film starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn ; worth looking up if you’ve never watched it—the sexual chemistry between the two is nonexistent, save for a few fleeting moments, like when Frank picks up the heroine‘s hand-cranked silent film camera and captures affectionate images of her. At times the leads seem more like a brother and sister needling each other than a will they/won’t they bantering couple. Lack of sexual heat is often (strangely) a bug, or perhaps a feature, in films starring Johnson, the four-quadrant blockbuster king (though not on Johnson’s HBO drama “Ballers”). Blunt keeps putting out more than enough flinty looks of interest to sell a romance, but her leading man rarely reflects it back at her. Fortunately, the film’s tight construction and prolific action scenes carry it, and Blunt and Johnson do the irresistible force/immovable object dynamic well enough, swapping energies as the story demands.

Blunt’s character, Lily Houghton, is a well-pedigreed adventurer who gathers up maps belonging to her legendary father and travels to the Amazon circa 1916 to find the Tears of the Moon, petals from a “Tree of Life”-type of fauna that can heal all infirmities. She and her snooty, pampered brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) hire Frank “Skipper” Wolff (Johnson) to bring them to their destination. The only notable concession to the original theme park ride comes here: Wolff’s day job is taking tourists upriver and making cheesy jokes in the spirit of “hosts” on Disney Jungle Cruise rides of yore. On the mission, Johnson immediately settles into a cranky but funny old sourpuss vibe, a la John Wayne or Harrison Ford , and inhabits it amiably enough, even though buoyant, almost childlike optimism comes more naturally to him than world-weary gruffness. 

The supporting cast is stacked with overqualified character players. Paul Giamatti plays a gold-toothed, sunburned, cartoonishly “Italian” harbor master who delights at keeping Frank in debt. Edgar Ramirez is creepy and scary as a conquistador whose curse from centuries ago has trapped him in the jungle.  Jesse Plemons plays the main baddie, Prince Joachim, who wants to filch the power of the petals for the Kaiser back in Germany (he’s Belloq to the stars’ Indy and Marion, trying to swipe the Ark). Unsurprisingly, given his track record, Plemons steals the film right out from under its leads.

Collet-Serra keeps the action moving along, pursuing a more classical style than is commonplace in recent live-action Disney product (by which I mean, the blocking and editing have a bit of elegance, and you always know where characters are in relation to each other). The editing errs on the side of briskness to such an extent that affecting, beautiful, or spectacular images never get to linger long enough to become iconic. The CGI is dicey, particularly on the larger jungle animals—was the production rushed, or were the artists just overworked?—and there are moments when everything seems so rubbery/plasticky that you seem to be watching the first film that was actually shot on location at Disney World.

But the staging and execution of the chases and fights compensates. Derivative of films that were themselves highly derivative, “Jungle Cruise” has the look and feel of a paycheck gig for all involved, but everyone seems to be having a great time, including the filmmakers.

In theaters and on Disney+ for a premium charge starting Friday, July 30th. 

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

• Dwayne Johnson as Frank Wolff
• Emily Blunt as Dr. Lily Houghton
• Edgar Ramírez as Aguirre
• Jack Whitehall as McGregor Houghton
• Jesse Plemons as Prince Joachim
• Paul Giamatti as Nilo

Cinematographer

• Flavio Martínez Labiano

Writer (story)

• Glenn Ficarra
• John Norville
• Josh Goldstein
• James Newton Howard
• Jaume Collet-Serra
• Joel Negron

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Jungle Cruise

July 30, 2021

Action, Adventure, Comedy

Join fan favorites Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt for the adventure of a lifetime on Disney’s Jungle Cruise, a rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton. Lily travels from London, England to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank’s questionable services to guide her downriver on La Quila—his ramshackle-but-charming boat. Lily is determined to uncover an ancient tree with unparalleled healing abilities—possessing the power to change the future of medicine. Thrust on this epic quest together, the unlikely duo encounters innumerable dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, the stakes reach even higher for Lily and Frank and their fate—and mankind’s—hangs in the balance.

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 2h 7min Release Date: July 30, 2021

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August 26, 2019

Join fan favorites Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt for the adventure of a lifetime on Disney’s JUNGLE CRUISE, a rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton.

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Jungle Cruise (2021)

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Jungle Cruise Reviews

The poor visual effects, questionable stylistic choices, and a dragging story with a poor script distract you from the good aspects the film has.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Sep 8, 2024

At best, Jungle Cruise is mildly entertaining, with traces of a better film peppered throughout. At worst, it reminds you that Pirates of the Caribbean did all this way better twenty years ago, and nothing seems to have progressed since.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 5, 2024

I think we would all agree to hop in a boat with these two as they take us on an adventure.

Full Review | Aug 22, 2023

The SUMMER ADVENTURE you all need to go on! With vibes from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Pirates of the Caribbean! this movie will bring a smile to your face the entire cruise.

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

Sometimes movies should exist to be entertainment, purely and simply. Jungle Cruise should have been that, and it’s a shame there was not enough charisma to keep it afloat.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Jungle Cruise is exactly what it makes itself out to be: a big-name summer blockbuster...

Full Review | Feb 23, 2023

A family adventure through familiar, albeit shallow, waters.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Feb 13, 2023

Any minor quibbles are outshone by the star power wattage generated by Johnson and Blunt. If Johnson is still the Most Electrifying Man In Entertainment, then Emily Blunt is a superconductor.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 12, 2022

Book your trip on Jungle Cruise now. It’s a first-class ticket.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 9, 2022

JUNGLE CRUISE (the movie) was based on "Jungle Cruise", a Disneyland ride, so I wasn't expecting much, and was definitely pleasantly surprised. All in all, this is a fun movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Sep 18, 2022

The script (from the trio of Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa) is silly and light-hearted, reminiscent of the late-1960’s pulp you would find at a Saturday afternoon matinee.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 17, 2022

Inspired, too inspired, on its titular Disney attraction ride. Dwayne Johnson is practically the attraction's tour guide. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jul 18, 2022

Jungle Cruise manages to coast on the charm of its two leads, making it a fun, if somewhat forgettable, adventure.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | May 18, 2022

JUNGLE CRUISE is a really enjoyable retro action-adventure film for the entire family, that shines with its great stars, wonderful chemistry and a surprisingly good and always entertaining story.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 7, 2022

Despite the flaws, theres something about Jungle Cruise that just works. Its a traditional summer blockbuster that combines charming leads with enough adventure to keep everyone happy.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 3, 2022

Unlike the vast majority of other recent Disney Live-Action features, Jungle Cruise is a film easy to have a good time with.

Full Review | Feb 22, 2022

If theres a ride that the Jungle Cruise feels more like than the Jungle Cruise, its Pirates of the Caribbean. And sadly, I have to say that this is this movies biggest downfall.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Feb 16, 2022

No amount of money, not even the reported 200 million budget, can help Jungle Cruise avoid tasting like a hunk of processed meat from the Disney conveyor belt.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Feb 12, 2022

Jungle Cruise is passable light-hearted family entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 12, 2022

As far as these things go, this one isn't half-bad, and that's almost entirely due to the presence of Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 21, 2021

‘Jungle Cruise’ Is Like Diet ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ But It Still Hits the Spot | Review

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It’s been almost twenty years, but when Pirates of the Caribbean was first announced, it was derided as a dumb money-grab. How could you adapt a theme park ride? There’s no story, so it’s just branding for the sake of branding. And yet Gore Verbinski ’s 2003 movie was a smash hit and a total delight thanks to its weird energy mixed with breezy adventure. Since then, various theme park ride adaptations have hit various levels of success, and Jungle Cruise is the latest to arrive from the Magic Kingdom. For those that have never been on the attraction, it’s basically a little boat cruise that gets its spark from the guide doling out jokes that are total groaners yet totally charming in the way dad jokes are charming. Director Jaume Collet-Serra ’s adaptation understands taking this light touch to the whole feature and it makes for a charming ride that may not reach the dizzying highs of the first Pirates movie but still channels its strong mixture of humor, romance, and action.

In 1916, the iconoclastic Lily Houghton ( Emily Blunt ) and her fussy-but-devoted brother MacGregor ( Jack Whitehall ) are on the search for the Tears of the Moon, a fabled flower that is said to have incredible healing powers. They make their way to the small town of Porto Velho in Brazil where they meet prickly skipper Frank Wolff ( Dwayne Johnson ). While Frank is at first reluctant to do the job, when he notices that Lily has procured an important arrowhead that supposed to help in the quest, he decides to assist the pair. However, in addition to everything in the jungle (which includes cursed conquistadors that tried to find the flower four-hundred years prior) trying to kill the travelers, they’re also being hunted by Prince Joachim ( Jesse Plemons ), a German officer who believes that the flower will help his side win the Great War.

RELATED: Exclusive: ‘Jungle Cruise’ Producer Hiram Garcia on the Story Idea That Unlocked the Movie, Sequel Possibilities, and More

Jungle Cruise is incredibly cute. Johnson and Blunt have terrific chemistry and bounce off each other wonderfully. They both see themselves as the true captain of this journey, so they’re constantly trying to one-up the other, which leads to a lot of fun conflict while still retaining the light sense of humor you get from the original ride. Whitehall then provides a nice counterbalance as well as an audience surrogate for those that would much rather avoid the jungle altogether and chill in a hotel room. Then you’ve got Plemons once again showing why he’s among the best actors around right now as he brings a cheerful, goofy energy to the villain that may not make Prince Joachim an iconic baddie, but he fits in nicely with the tone Collet-Serra is going for.

If I have one major qualm with Jungle Cruise , it’s that I wish it were crazier. It’s weird that the film even bothers to be PG-13 when it has the light approach of a PG movie. The only thing that’s really “scary” are the cursed conquistadors inhabiting the jungle who are made of various elements like snakes or bees. It makes for a fun visual effect, and I like that they’re a conquistador who’s just comprised of bees. But that madcap energy doesn’t really carry over to the rest of the film, which is really more on the level of something like The African Queen where you take two charismatic leads, play them off each other, and put them in adventurous situations. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but if you’re also going to be playing with Disney money and a VFX budget, you may as well go the Gore Verbinski route and take advantage of the fact that you’re basically writing the source material here rather than having to worry about any fidelity beyond “There must be a cruise in the jungle.”

By playing the adventure largely straight and with a light touch, there are times when Jungle Cruise starts to drag because it’s not doing anything particularly outlandish. For example, it takes a sizable chunk of the movie for the group simply to leave the harbor. It makes it feel like Jungle Cruise is stretching out a paper-thin story because all that’s really happening is that they need to leave to get on the river, but instead we have to go through not only setting up Frank and his conflict with a local rival ( Paul Giamatti doing his best Watto impression), which is fine, but then it becomes the scene for a whole dang set piece of our heroes fighting off people trying to stop them, and rather than starting the journey with a bang, it feels like the journey gets delayed before it even starts.

And yet it’s hard to begrudge Jungle Cruise because it’s such a lighter-than-air confection. Again, its PG-13 rating is a little baffling since the audience most likely to enjoy this movie are kids ages 9-12. That’s not to say it’s a slog for those older than that age group, but it’s a movie that feels ideally suited for families, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I would even argue that while the action is fine on the big screen, families would be fine ordering this on Disney+ Premiere Access if it makes it easier to wrangle the young ones.

Jungle Cruise is bright, colorful, and funny, and while it may not rival Pirates of the Caribbean , it has at least borrowed from that film’s DNA with its quest for a sacred object in a race against those (in this case, the conquistadors) who have been cursed in their quest for that object. The best compliment I can pay to Jungle Cruise is that it’s a lot like Pirates of the Caribbean or The Mummy (1999) in that I would have no problem flipping this on a Saturday afternoon and going on the adventure.

Jungle Cruise is in theaters and on Disney+ with Premiere Access on July 30th.

RELATED: Jungle Cruise Ride Reopens at Disneyland with an Expanded Storyline, New Characters and Easter Eggs

‘Jungle Cruise’ Review: A rollicking adventure like they used to make

Dwayne johnson and emily blunt share amazing chemistry in an adventure like we haven’t had in a long while..

What to Watch Verdict

The effortless chemistry of the two leads elevates a high-concept romp to something truly special.

🌿 The action and adventure are fun and inventive.

🌿 Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson have so much charisma and chemistry that it's hypnotic.

🌿 Jesse Plemons is hamming it up as the villain, and we love him for it.

🌿 Jack Whitehall's character feels like a third wheel.

🌿 Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" is prominently featured for some reason. Good song, but extremely distracting in this particular movie.

At the risk of sounding like the old person shaking their fist at the sky, we sure don’t get adventure films like we used to. Some of the most beloved films of the late 1990s and early 2000s were star-studded rollicking yarns, like 1999’s The Mummy and 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean , themselves throwbacks to the likes of Indiana Jones and the Golden Age adventures of Errol Flynn. Somewhere along the line, this kind of unadulterated fun went out of vogue, but thankfully Jungle Cruise is here to reignite this style of filmmaking, bringing the immense charisma of Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in service to a story that embraces its theme park attraction origins and delivers the kind of spectacular adventure yarn that could stand to make a comeback.

In 1916, scientist Lily (Emily Blunt) and her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) are in search of a mythical plant called The Tears of the Moon, purported to only be found in a remote, unknown part of the Amazon River and to possess the mythical ability to cure any ailment. They enlist the help of Frank (Dwayne Johnson), a riverboat captain who gives underwhelming boat tours to tourists whilst delivering puns so bad that his passengers beg him to stop. Frank knows the river better than anyone and desperately needs the money Lily offers for his services, but he finds Lily’s enthusiasm for discovery difficult to trust, while Lily can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to Frank than his fast-talking, self-serving persona.

The adventure pits the trio against the perilous dangers of river rapids, the machinations of a mad German prince (played by a marvelously eccentric Jesse Plemons) trying to take the mystic plant for himself, and a gang of river-cursed 400-year-old conquistadors doomed to live in forms like a sentient skinbag full of snakes, or a living honeycomb, bees and all. The setpieces are imaginative, the stakes are high but never so dire as to lose their sense of joy and wonder, and Jungle Cruise really leans into being a spectacle above all else. Director Jaume Collet-Serra, injects his action experience from Liam Neeson thrillers and some light body horror elements reminiscent of his early career, but all in service to a high-budget action-comedy that feels designed to be a crowd-pleaser without explicitly pandering.

But all the technical competence and computer-generated ingenuity wouldn’t be worth much without some astounding character work to back it up, and this is the core of Jungle Cruise ’s appeal. There is undeniable exuberance to seeing Emily Blunt strut around as a determined explorer unwilling to admit when she’s over her head, just as much of a blast as it is to see Dwayne Johnson bring his casual charm to a grifter with mysterious motivations. Their playful antagonism is a perpetual riot, both in terms of written dialogue and natural comic chemistry, embodying larger-than-life personalities that make us empathize with them as much as they make us laugh.

The weak link is, unfortunately, Jack Whitehall, and the film seems to acknowledge that fact while not necessarily knowing what to do with him. Whitehall’s performance is not without its own humorous charms, but MacGregor’s main narrative purpose is to be an effeminate, posh counterpoint to his more masculine-coded, pants-wearing sister, a joke that quickly grows tired until MacGregor is quietly shuffled into the background of most scenes. The gendered stereotype-flipping gets drawn into even sharper focus with the revelation that MacGregor is gay and a victim of institutional discrimination, which on the one hand is at least a somewhat explicit exploration of queer identity in a Disney film - though the word "gay" is frustratingly never actually uttered - but on the other hand is embodied in a character who is almost totally extraneous. One imagines that he was conceptualized at some point as a comic relief character for more serious leads, but the overwhelming personalities of Blunt and Johnson are more than Whitehall can keep up with, leaving him feeling largely vestigial. A CGI jaguar better supports Blunt and Johnson's dynamic without uttering a single line of dialogue.

There are some technical quibbles that bear mentioning as well in spite of how effective the filmmaking is otherwise. Some effects shots are explicitly made to be viewed in 3D, popping toward the camera with all the subtlety of a dart flying at your face, and the effect is more hokey than exciting. The score is also somewhat lackluster, aiming for epic but falling somewhere short of generic without a novel hook to elevate the action beats to the next level. The closest the music comes to a memorable theme is the bizarre inclusion of a reworked orchestral version of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters,” a choice so strange that its distraction outweighs any novelty.

These faults don’t prevent Jungle Cruise from being a blast, though. This is the kind of film that used to be the embodiment of blockbuster cinema, a silly, over-the-top adventure with characters who are having just as much fun exploring their surroundings and each other as you are watching them. The effortless chemistry of the two leads elevates a high-concept romp to something truly special, and we can only hope that any eventual imitators learn the right lessons.

Jungle Cruise releases to theaters and Disney+ Premier Access on July 30, 2021.

Leigh Monson has been a professional film critic and writer for six years, with bylines at Birth.Movies.Death., SlashFilm and Polygon. Attorney by day, cinephile by night and delicious snack by mid-afternoon, Leigh loves queer cinema and deconstructing genre tropes. If you like insights into recent films and love stupid puns, you can follow them on Twitter.

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Jungle Cruise review: Disney’s river adventure makes it easy to get swept away

Disney’s film vault is filled with blockbusters, but the studio doesn’t have the best record when it comes to turning its popular theme park attractions into movies. Out of six attempts at starting a new franchise, only Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl managed to achieve the kind of success one expects from a Disney feature. All of the rest — from 1997’s  Tower of Terror to 2015’s Tomorrowland — have been critical and commercial disappointments.

Three times the charm

• More Pirates, less Haunted Mansion

Dark and delightful

Rolling on the river.

Disney is persistent, though, and that’s good — because the latest ride-to-film adaptation, Jungle Cruise , feels like the fresh hit they’ve been searching for all along.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra , Jungle Cruise casts the wonderfully talented Emily Blunt as Dr. Lily Houghton, a scientist during the World War I era who refuses to let the oppressive, male-dominated scientific community hamper her quest for the Tree of Life, an arboreal enigma of the deep jungle rumored to have magical healing properties. Along with her brother, a dapper British bachelor played by Jack Whitehall, Lily embarks on a journey into the jungle guided by Frank Wolff, a charismatic steamboat captain played by Dwayne Johnson. The trio is menaced by threats from both the jungle itself and a sinister German royal played by Jesse Plemons, who wants the Tree of Life’s secrets for his own nefarious purposes.

It’s no surprise that both Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are endlessly entertaining to watch in  Jungle Cruise , as the pair have proven themselves many times over in roles that blend action and humor in films that also rely heavily on visual effects. They’re both in top form in the film, with great chemistry that makes every scene they share entertaining.

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More unexpected, however, is the energy and positive attributes that Jack Whitehall brings to the film in a role that could have easily become a disposable, third-wheel character. Whitehall’s character initially appears to be the typical caricature of a British dandy, but as the film unfolds, the combination of the Bad Education actor’s performance and the script’s unwillingness to let him disappear into the background make him one of the story’s most fascinating, fun characters.

While Johnson and Blunt hit all the right notes to keep  Jungle Cruise funny and sweep you along, it’s Whitehall’s character that keeps the story feeling fresh and less predictable.

More Pirates , less Haunted Mansion

On the surface, J ungle Cruise seems to follow the formula that made the  Pirates of the Caribbean franchise so successful: Take two, strong-willed lead characters destined for romantic entanglement, add a charming wildcard to the mix, and fill their adventure with plenty of dark, fantastic eye candy. It’s hard to argue against the formula, too, given the Pirates franchise’s $4.5 billion dollar haul across five films.

Fortunately, Jungle Cruise puts its own stamp on that basic structure, with Johnson and Blunt filling the film with a level of charisma and witty banter to match its impressive action, and Whitehall’s performance complementing those of the leads instead of distracting from them.

The story also strikes just the right balance of humor, heart, and horror — much like the aforementioned  Pirates films. There’s an emotional core to each of the characters in Jungle Cruise that comes across enough to give them depth without bogging down the story, and they play off each other well, whether they’re sharing a sad memory, spouting bad puns, or fleeing all manner of deadly threats — supernatural or otherwise.

Much like the  Pirates of the Caribbean films,  Jungle Cruise delivers plenty of impressive visual effects that are both beautiful and terrifying to behold.

Johnson and Blunt are no stranger to effects-driven features, and Jungle Cruise delivers some truly memorable moments of spectacle . As the story progresses, the trio of adventurers finds themselves contending with various magical threats in addition to dangers presented by humans and the usual range of jungle creatures. Without venturing into spoiler territory, these supernatural enemies are depicted in some creative, technically impressive ways that make each enemy stand out from the rest.

That attention to detail made Davy Jones’ crew of mutated, ghostly pirates in 2006’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest one of the film’s most memorable elements, and it’s on full display in Jungle Cruise when the story embraces its mystical dark potential.

Whether  Jungle Cruise kicks off a new franchise for Disney or ends up a standalone adventure, the film offers an extremely satisfying, exciting movie experience for the whole family.

Johnson and Blunt are at their best in the film, with Whitehall making a good story even better with his performance. All of that entertainment is supported by a great cast of secondary characters and breathtaking visual effects that make the world of  Jungle Cruise vibrant and enchanting throughout the trio’s adventure.

It’s no simple task to turn a theme-park attraction into a compelling big-screen adventure, but a great cast, impressive visual effects, and a fun story help Disney make it look easy in Jungle Cruise .

Disney’s Jungle Cruise premieres July 30 in theaters and on the Disney+ streaming service with Premier Access (at an additional cost).

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Jungle cruise.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 36 Reviews
• Kids Say 66 Reviews

Parents Say

Based on 36 parent reviews

Parent Reviews

Turn it off about an hour in..., report this review, action and adventure.

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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

The Mummy (1999)

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Romancing the Stone

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

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Disney’s Jungle Cruise Is Murder

“The jungle,” Werner Herzog used to say, “is murder.” Although Disney’s Jungle Cruise is ostensibly based on the popular theme-park ride, one could say that it has taken Herzog’s immortal maxim as a kind of surface inspiration. “Know this about the jungle,” Dwayne Johnson’s riverboat captain Frank says early in the film, “everything you see wants to kill you — and can.” There are other Herzog callbacks in the film: The villains include the Spanish conquistador Lope de Aguirre (the subject of one of Herzog’s best-known films, Aguirre, the Wrath of God ) as well as an obsessive German aristocrat named Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), who seems to sport Herzog’s accent ; there’s even an extended gag at one point about the Herzogian way Joachim pronounces “jungle”: “chonk-leh.” Whatever. I chuckled. Sue me.

Herzog is an odd reference point, surely, but that’s also in keeping with the central tension in Jungle Cruise , between the darker, more intense and exciting movie it clearly wants to be and the mealymouthed CGI panderfest that it is. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra — a filmmaker previously known for gonzo thrillers like Orphan and The Shallows and some of the more compelling entries in the Liam Neeson dadsploitation subgenre — the picture might have amounted to something had it been able to deliver on the one essential element any kind of adventure (even one made primarily for kids) needs: a real sense of danger.

It didn’t need to be this way, surely. The opening scenes show some promise. We first meet the spirited Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) as she sneaks around in the back rooms of the Royal Geographic Society, looking for an ancient arrowhead that holds the key to finding a magic, all-healing Amazonian blossom called the Tears of the Moon. But it’s 1916, two years into the Great War, and there’s a sinister German aristocrat — the aforementioned Joachim, who may or may not be Kaiser Wilhelm’s son — also after this artefact.

In his previous works, Collet-Serra proved quite adept playing with screen geography, and he brings charm and energy to these early scenes of Lily maneuvering around this place while Joachim pursues her, each of them using the various objects around them. Similarly, when we meet Frank “Skipper” Wolff (Johnson), the captain of a decaying, rickety Amazon riverboat, we see him conning tourists into seeing fake sights such as a phony giant hippo, a rickety waterfall, and a group of supposedly savage natives whom he’s secretly paid off to scare the foreigners.

There’s a Rube Goldbergian verve to these early sequences, and by the time Lily and her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) have employed Frank to take them into the heart of the Amazon, you might be fooled into thinking that Jungle Cruise is poised to recapture the swashbuckling magic of classics like Raiders of the Lost Ark , The Mask of Zorro , the 1999 iteration of The Mummy , or the original Pirates of the Caribbean , with a little African Queen thrown in. It certainly liberally borrows from just about all of them.

But such films were also not afraid to scare us, to make us care about their characters by putting them in real danger. And here, Jungle Cruise sadly falls back on its corporate theme-park origins. It’s a safety-first kind of movie, seemingly too afraid to ever make us fear for our heroes. A jaguar that attacks early on quickly turns out to be Frank’s pet, Proxima (another aide in his many scams). It would probably constitute a spoiler to give more details about other elements that are initially presented as sources of fear but turn out ultimately to be harmless. (Even the supposedly psychopathic Prince Joachim comes off as weirdly cuddly at times, with Plemons playing him as a subdued bore. Why exactly is this movie set during WWI anyway? Were they afraid to make Joachim a Nazi?) It feels at times like the filmmakers are reluctant to suggest that the Amazon might actually be a dangerous place. Maybe that sort of thing makes for admirable messaging (does it?), but it certainly doesn’t quicken the pulse.

The exception to all this winds up proving the rule: When the aforementioned Lope de Aguirre (Edgar Ramirez) and his men, who all supposedly vanished upriver in the 16th century, come back as a ragtag supernatural phantom army to fight our heroes, they’re clearly meant to provide the menace that the film has been so lacking. And to be fair, a flashback to how they got their curse is one of the film’s highlights; if nothing else, it gives Collet-Serra an opportunity to briefly show off his horror chops. But once these villains enter the story, their presence, even in its finer details and twists, so recalls the far-superior Pirates of the Caribbean that we might wonder if we’re just watching something created on the same software as that earlier picture, only with a different set of features selected from the drop-down menus.

Even so, derivativeness and predictability aren’t always fatal flaws. Jungle Cruise could have been saved had it at least provided some decent comedy and romance. On the latter front, Johnson and Blunt don’t have much chemistry. The film has a good idea in positioning them as opposing temperaments — the more bickering, the more chance of a spark, cinematically speaking — but even that winds up being half-baked. In the end, they don’t argue all that much.

Over and over, we can see the far superior movie Jungle Cruise wants to be: a freewheeling, romantic, swashbuckling epic about a couple of beautiful, brave souls who bicker their way into each other’s hearts, all the while facing off against the many dangers of the jungle and a variety of villains both human and supernatural. But it is so not that movie. And the clarity of its aspirations just makes the film’s downfall that much more pathetic, like a baseball player pointing to the home run he’s about to hit and then completely whiffing and landing on his ass.

Meanwhile, Whitehall is given the thankless task of portraying what is supposedly Disney’s most “out” gay character yet. The film still plays it kind of coy: Talking to Frank one night about how he couldn’t get married, MacGregor says that he “had to tell the lady in question that I couldn’t accept the offer — or indeed any offer, given that my interests happily lay elsewhere.” He then adds, “Uncle threatened to disinherit me. Friends and family turned their backs, all because of who I love.” Maybe this could have been a touching character note, but it doesn’t actually do much to develop MacGregor; his confession seems to exist primarily to show what a decent guy Frank is in accepting him. MacGregor, meanwhile, remains the butt of many of the movie’s (mostly unfunny) jokes — a hopelessly vain dandy who pees himself at the first sign of danger. I’m not sure any of this is progress. The jungle might not kill you, but Jungle Cruise could kill your soul.

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Review: Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are fun, but not enough to make ‘Jungle Cruise’ see-worthy

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The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials .

Starting this Friday, if you’re willing to spend the time (a little more than two hours) and money (either the price of a theater ticket or a $29.99 Disney+ Premier Access fee), you can watch the new “Jungle Cruise” movie, a technologically newfangled, dramatically old-fashioned action-adventure inspired by the long-running Disney theme-park ride. Alternately, in much less time (eight minutes) and for no money at all, you could watch a video recording of said theme-park ride on YouTube.

I don’t mean to suggest that these are equivalent experiences exactly. Personally I prefer the YouTube version, which may have been filmed in a giant Anaheim water tank festooned with imported plants and mechanical elephants, yet still somehow manages to offer up the less artificial, more persuasively inhabited jungle scenery of the two. Enthusiasts of Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and the color orange, however, will probably want to spring for the longer, shinier, digitally enhanced version, perhaps hoping that, like Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies — the first one , anyway — it will succeed in turning a slow-moving boat ride into an energetic, nostalgia-tickling cinematic diversion.

And to be sure, this “Jungle Cruise,” serviceably directed by Jaume Collet-Serra ( “The Shallows” ), does reproduce some of the ride’s signature pleasures in elaborate computer-generated form: the leafy overgrowth, the exotic wildlife, the gently flowing stream. By that I also mean the stream of puns rattled off by the skipper, who is played by Johnson. That he represents an upgrade over the average Disney park employee — no offense, average Disney park employee — is hard to deny. And whether you’re wordplay-averse or (like me) think the whole enterprise should have been retitled “Pungle Cruise,” the mischievous wit that has always undergirded Johnson’s brawny physicality serves him well in this department. What a dorky, deadpan delight to hear him say things like “toucan play that game” or point out that certain rocks are “taken for granite.” (Certain Rocks too, surely.)

Being a full-length feature, of course, “Jungle Cruise” does have to traffic in niceties like plot, character and mythology, even if the result, scripted by Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, is derivative to the point of desultory. Johnson is Frank, the wily captain of a rickety Amazon River tourist trap, trying to eke out a semi-honest living amid stiff competition from a local bigwig (Paul Giamatti). Blunt plays Frank’s latest passenger, Lily Houghton, an apt name for a high-minded English botanist who’s trying to find the “Tears of the Moon,” a legendary flower known for its astonishing healing powers. Fate brings these two singularly stubborn individuals together for a long and bickersome journey downriver, pitting Frank’s cynical self-interest against Lily’s naive idealism and pairing Blunt’s reliably withering eye rolls with Johnson’s famously expressive eyebrows.

The chemistry generated by all this ocular sparring is not negligible, and it powers this waterlogged star vehicle through its busy, semicoherent action sequences and squalls of narrative incident. It’s 1916 and World War I is raging, which at least partly explains Jesse Plemons’ over-the-top turn as Prince Joachim, a mustachioed German villain who will butcher any person or vowel that stands in his way. He’s determined to harvest the Tears of the Moon before Lily does, even if it means steering a U-boat down the Amazon in hot pursuit. And hot is the operative word, given the sweltering Brazilian temperatures, hinted at by the oppressive ochre tones of Flavio Labiano’s digital cinematography and the sweat beads you can practically see clinging to Paco Delgado’s costumes.

Speaking of which: Also along for the ride is Lily’s brother, MacGregor (Jack Whitehall), who has dapper tastes, packs way too many suitcases and, as the movie seldom tires of reminding us, is comically ill equipped for any kind of rugged living or heterosexual entanglement. But worry not: Once it’s done poking fun at an effeminate male stereotype, the script swoops in with a cautious coming-out monologue perfectly tailored to generate a fresh round of headlines celebrating and/or criticizing Disney’s latest LGBTQ milestone. This being Disney, of course, we’re quite a long way from, say, the family-unfriendly subversions of “I Love You Phillip Morris,” Ficarra and Requa’s joyous 2010 comedy of queer awakening. Even within these ostensibly punny parameters, the only jungle cruising that goes on here is all too literal.

Still, MacGregor’s blip of a backstory isn’t the only instance in which this early 20th century epic nods to a decidedly 21st century audience. As my Times colleague Todd Martens recently examined in a thoughtful, deeply reported piece , the Jungle Cruise ride, a Disneyland fixture since the park opened in 1955, recently underwent a significant overhaul that jettisoned its racist depictions of Indigenous people. The movie, through some clever tinkering, accomplishes something similar, turning its gallery of spear-brandishing headhunters into a sly joke at the expense of Western colonialist assumptions. The real villains here are Plemons’ power-hungry prince and his army of undead Spanish conquistadors, one of whom (played by Édgar Ramirez) is none other than Aguirre himself. That historical nod conjures some wishful Herzogian overtones in a movie otherwise conceived under the spell of “The African Queen” (itself a design influence on the original ride), Indiana Jones, “Romancing the Stone” and other films from an earlier era of cinematic adventure seeking.

To watch those films again may be to plunge back into a world of cheap jokes and retrograde attitudes. But it’s also to be reminded of what mainstream American movies looked like before the era of wall-to-wall visual effects, the kind that’ve turned the modern blockbuster into a shiny, increasingly soulless and sometimes flat-out ugly proposition. “Romancing the Stone” had live snakes and snapping alligators and an appreciably real sense of peril; this movie has a digitally fabricated jaguar, among other computer-generated creepy-crawlies, and not a real thrill or scare among them. “Jungle Cruise,” despite its more-than-capable leads and its much-vaunted attention to detail and verisimilitude, never feels transporting in the way that even mediocre blockbusters were once able to muster. It’s less an expedition than a simulation, a dispatch from a wild yet oddly pristine world where seeing is never close to believing.

‘Jungle Cruise’

Rating: PG-13, for sequences of adventure violence Running time: 2 hours, 7 minutes Playing: Starts July 30 in general release; also available as PVOD on Disney+

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Justin Chang was a film critic for the Los Angeles Times from 2016 to 2024. He won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in criticism for work published in 2023. Chang is the author of the book “FilmCraft: Editing” and serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics and secretary of the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.

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Jungle Cruise Review

24 Jul 2020

Jungle Cruise

Sometimes, it’s not the reboots and remakes that make you despair of Hollywood’s lack of originality. Sometimes it’s a theoretically original film like this, another attempt to turn a Disneyland ride into a big-screen franchise. As you watch Jaume Collet-Serra ’s adventure, you’re haunted by the unpleasant feeling that this is a supposedly fun thing that’s already been done before. It’s only thanks to Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt that the result holds the attention, and it’s a credit to them that it’s entertaining at all.

The ride that inspired this is a slightly insipid glide past animatronic animals. For the big screen we’re in the Amazon in 1916, where Captain Frank (Johnson) is engaged to take scientist Lily (Blunt) on a hunt for “ el flor de la luna ”, a mythical flower that can cure all ills. Her brother MacGregor ( Jack Whitehall , about whom the less said the better) is along for the ride as they follow in the footsteps of conquistador Aguirre ( Edgar Ramirez ).

It’s not badly done by any means, yet it's deathly derivative.

If you enjoyed Rachel Weisz’s plucky librarian in The Mummy , you’ll love Blunt’s plucky scientist, also tottering about on a library ladder and railing against the sexist scholars who won’t grant her the academic recognition she deserves. Johnson’s scoundrel captain, meanwhile, may recall a certain Corellian smuggler, or a Caribbean pirate. He shares a loose moral sense with both, drives a beaten-up craft that he claims is the fastest in the sector, and is in hock to a rich local boss ( Paul Giamatti , wasted). And it’s a shame that Ramirez’s Aguirre doesn’t draw from Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski to add some demented intensity, because those flashbacks play more like a limp Pirates Of The Caribbean .

It’s not badly done by any means, with lovely animal effects, big, well-staged chases and lots of antics for Blunt and Johnson. Yet it’s deathly derivative. Action beats are lifted from Raiders Of The Lost Ark , music comes (mystifyingly) courtesy of Metallica (in collaboration with composer James Newton Howard), and there are endless references to The Mummy . Orphan filmmaker Collet-Serra manages to inject some nuance into the portrayal of an Amazonian populace, led by Veronica Falcón’s Trader Sam, and gives Jesse Plemons an entertainingly outrageous accent as a German princeling. The script even pulls off a surprise or two — though one of those, involving Whitehall’s character, is horribly misconceived.

But with a budget this big and a crew this talented, the film shouldn’t be this reliant on Blunt and Johnson’s bickering to hold the attention. In his fourth jungle outing (after Welcome To The… , Journey 2 and Jumanji ), His Rockness gives good world-weary, and Blunt’s bossiness sparks off him nicely, in a dynamic straight out of The African Queen . They don’t have much romantic chemistry but they do make for a fun odd couple, and at times they’re the only thing stopping you from throwing yourself to the piranhas. When did on-screen adventure start to feel so planned?

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• DVD & Streaming

Jungle Cruise

• Action/Adventure , Comedy , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• July 30, 2021
• Dwayne Johnson as Frank Wolff; Emily Blunt as Lily Houghton; Jack Whitehall as MacGregor Houghton; Edgar Ramírez as Aguirre; Jesse Plemons as Prince Joachim; Paul Giamatti as Nilo; Veronica Falcón as Trader Sam

Home Release Date

• Jaume Collet-Serra

Distributor

• Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

Conquistadors were suckers for a good legend.

They scoured the New World looking for El Dorado. They discovered Florida seeking the Fountain of Youth. And one intrepid Spaniard—a fellow named Aguirre—even dared brave the mighty Amazon in search of the Tears of the Moon, petals from a hidden tree that would supposedly cure any disease.

Those petals would’ve been nice, given all the diseases that Conquistadors introduced to the New World, but no matter. Aguirre and his cohorts disappeared in those Brazilian jungles long ago, and the Tears of the Moon faded into barely remembered myth—a bedtime story for a few, perhaps, but nothing more.

But Lily Houghton and her brother, MacGregor, heard those bedtime stories and believed . And Lily believes something else, too: That she can succeed where Aguirre and everyone else has failed.

And given that the year’s 1916—the middle of the Great War, when millions of people are dying from battle and disease—the Tears have never been more needed.

Lily has maps of important twisty, turny Amazon tributaries—maps allegedly made by Aguirre’s own cartographer. Soon she has an important arrowhead, too, which she thinks may be the key to unlocking the Tears’ centuries-old secret. Now all she and her brother need is a boat captain to take them upriver, through the mysterious and perilous jungle. Someone brave. Strong. Honest.

Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

Frank Wolff isn’t honest. In fact, he makes his living lying. He takes gullible tourists upriver and shows them the (ahem) wonders and terrors of the Amazon, be they fearsome headhunters (actors in Frank’s employ) or horrifying hippopotami (not native to Brazil) or the skeletonized remains of dead conquistadors (well, the skeletons look real enough). He glories in terrible puns and proudly shows his guests the “eighth wonder of the world”—a pitiful little manmade waterfall that Frank sails behind. “The backside of water!” he proudly exclaims to his less-than-impressed clientele.

Why, when he first meets Lily, Frank is even lying about being Frank . She finds him in the office of another (much more successful) riverboat captain, apparently picking a lock. She mistakes him for the (much more successful) riverboat captain, and who is Frank to say otherwise?

Still, Frank is roughly the size of a boat himself, which suggests he’s strong. He must be brave, too, living as he does in this little-explored jungle. And he works cheap.

But the dangers Frank, Lily and MacGregor face are no lie. To get to where the Tears of the Moon supposedly can be found, they’ll have to brave wild animals, fearsome rapids and maybe even a German U-Boat or two.

And the deep, dark jungle hides a secret, as well. Those old, lost conquistadors might not be quite dead yet. Yes, the Tears of the Moon make a tantilizing bedtime story—one that Lily banks on being much more. But before this jungle cruise is over, she might be shedding a few tears of her own.

Positive Elements

Lily wants to find the Tears of the Moon for a whole bunch of reasons: To redeem her family name; to mark herself as a scientist of note; and because it’d be fun. But above all, she believes the Tears can save lives—lives that, at this juncture in history, are being lost at a staggering pace. “I don’t have to know someone to care,” she tells Frank.

The riverboat captain respects that. But for him, he needs to be closer to someone to truly care for them—and he’s been looking for that connection for a while now. “One person to care about in this world—that’s enough for me.” Which is also a nice sentiment.

All that caring leads all of them (MacGregor, too) to take risks for each other—even to the point of making the ultimate sacrifice.

In flashback, we also see an indigenous group show great kindness to a handful of conquistadors. And we learn that at least one of those conquistadors sought out the Tears for a pretty good reason of his own.

Spiritual Elements

The Tears themselves were a gift from the gods, it’s suggested, and Frank named his boat after the goddess of the moon (Quilla, an actual Incan deity). The history of the tears is filled with magical happenings and elements, too, including a very effective curse. Part of that curse involves an element of undead immortality. Apart from that, though, there is little apparent hope of an afterlife, but rather eternal rest.

Lily spies some Brazilian dolphins. Frank cautions her to not look them in the eyes: Those dolphins, he says—repeating a real Brazilian legend—are said to be shapeshifters who might just steal you away. “If you believe in legends,” he cautions, “you should believe in curses, too.” Indigenous tribespeople don masks made out of skulls, and the leader has painted an eye on her hand—suggesting an adherence to some sort of mysterious religion.

There’s a reference to the Garden of Eden. It’s said that Lily wants to be the “Darwin of flowers,” a reference to the naturalist who popularized the notion of evolution.

Sexual & Romantic Content

Before diving into water, Lily strips down to her modest 1916-era skivvies. (“Are you wearing pants under your pants?” Frank asks.) We also see some indiginous folks go shirtless or (in the case of women) shoulder-baring garb. Life-saving, underwater swaps of oxygen resemble a pair of lip-to-lip kisses. Some banter over treating a wound—with Frank asking Lily if it’s her “first time”—is filled with possible light double entendres.

MacGregor, Lily’s brother, is apparently gay. He tells Frank that he had to break the truth to a would-be female match that his “interests lie elsewhere,” and that he would’ve been disinherited and completely ostracized from society for “who I loved,” had it not been for Lily. This is the only reference to MacGregor’s sexual leanings, and it could sail over some younger viewers’ heads. Yet, the context of the conversation might make it more likely that those younger viewers will ask questions later.

Violent Content

The movie opens in earnest in London, where a villain quickly and cartoonishly dispatches a number of bearded scientists. We see no blood, but given the blades involved, there’s no doubt as to the fates of these unfortunates. Someone nearly tumbles to her death during the melee, as well, but instead lands safely on a double-decker bus.

But if London’s a dangerous place, it doesn’t hold a candle to the Amazon. We see creatures nab other creatures, only to get snatched up in turn—the suggestion being that pretty much everything’s subject to being gobbled up and eaten. People are stabbed and shot and nearly drowned, and a couple of unfortunates fall from terrific heights, bouncing off branches and rocks on the way down. Someone is skewered by a pretty nasty blade (we see the end jut out from the other side) but survives—and someone else is forced to pull the blade out. Someone is crushed by a falling rock.

A leopard attacks Frank and bites his wrist. He and the animal wrestle in a bar for a bit (threatened by a nearby tarantula and scorpion, who just minutes before had been locked in an apparent fight-to-the-death). Someone’s foot is seriously injured. A man is thwacked by a golf club. A couple of guys get whacked in their privates (momentarily disabling them). Men burn their hands. People comically run into various hard surfaces, knocking them down or, in one case, plunging from a zip line. People are bitten by snakes, and at least a couple seem to die from the bites. Sunburns look pretty painful. Animals are shot and caught for food. We hear some joking references to beheadings. Piranhas attack Frank.

[ Spoiler Warning ] We should mention those undead conquistadors. They commit plenty of acts of violence, to be sure, but more than that, these guys are just plain scary. Each seems to be cursed as a different jungle avatar: The body of one is alive with slithering snakes, some of which slide out of his skin (which sometimes splits rather grotesquely). Another seems built partly out of honeycombs, with portions of his body missing. If you remember the undead pirates from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie, you can get a sense of the level of ookiness we’re talking about here, but something to be aware of.

Crude or Profane Language

Someone uses the German equivalent of the s-word. We hear one “h—” and about three misuses of God’s name. The movie purposefully calls to mind a harsher profanity, though, when a character rejects an invitation to a prestigious educational body—telling its members that they can “shove it up your association.”

Drug & Alcohol Content

Frank imbibes quite a bit (most likely a nod to Humphry Bogart’s hard-drinking character in The African Queen). He quaffs liquid from a glass flask he always has with him, and he partakes elsewhere, too (ordering, for instance, “two beers and two steaks”). When MacGregor tries to bring seemingly dozens of trunks along, Frank throws most overboard but pointedly keeps the trunk full of liquor.

Frank’s pet leopard laps up some of the alcohol from one of those bottles (wine or port, most likely) and gets drunk. During a visit with an indigenous tribe, MacGregor seems quite impressed with the alcohol they give him, until he learns …

Other Noteworthy Elements

… that the alcohol in question is, in Frank’s words, “fermented spit.”

Three characters (including the leopard) vomit, either on the boat deck or over the rail. Frank tells Lily that she can take a bath in the Amazon itself—slyly mentioning that he warmed it up for her earlier (that is, urinated in its waters). When Lily gets splashed, Frank looks at her trousers and says, “Looks like you wet your pants, Pants (his nickname for her).”

Lots of characters—including the good guys—lie and steal here. Indeed, the arrowhead that Lily needs to complete its quest is snatched from its apparently rightful owners (an act she would frame as one of “liberation”).

The inspiration for Jungle Cruise isn’t found in ancient legend or turn-of-the-century storybook, but rather a ride—the beloved Jungle Cruise ride found at most Disney parks.

The ride itself is considered a classic. It opened along with the original Disneyland way back in 1955, and countless guests line up to experience its charm—the animatronic animals, the wisecracking captains, the “backside of water”—every year. And while it has undergone its share of revisions (redesigning the boats and stripping the scenery of some uncomfortably racist elements), the ride that 7-year-olds experience today isn’t that much different from the ride their parents might’ve loved decades before. You could argue that the Jungle Cruise, the ride, is timeless.

The movie? Not so much.

Paradoxically, it embraces a few truly timeless films: It definitely exhibits a strong Indiana Jones vibe, and the characters Lily and Frank strongly echo (in word and garb) the characters from one of the ride’s big sources of inspiration: The African Queen .

But this Jungle Cruise —despite being set more than a century ago and paying homage to a ride nearly 70 years old—is a product of our secularly moralistic age. It’s concerned with issues that our society is concerned about, from feminism to the environment to LGBTQ issues.

That’s not all bad, of course. But it does stamp Jungle Cruise with a “best buy” date, because what society values shifts as society itself does. The morals culture embraces today may feel retro and even embarrassing 40 years from now. And even in this age, Jungle Cruise can feel a bit proselytizing.

In addition, the movie has more content issues than you might expect. While its pretty innocuous when it comes to skin and sensuality, Jungle Cruise is surprisingly violent and pretty scary. And I’ve not seen so much drinking in a film designed for families since Bogey and Hepburn sailed up the Congo on the African Queen .

The film boasts some delightfully hideous puns and stars a couple of charismatic Disney vets in Emily Blunt and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. It can be fun. But in many ways, Jungle Cruise sails off course. And for some families, some unexpected rapids loom downstream.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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‘Jungle Cruise’ Review: Amazon Subprime

Not even Emily Blunt, doing her best Katharine Hepburn impression, can keep this leaky boat ride afloat.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

Like Vogon poetry , the plot of Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” is mostly unintelligible and wants to beat you into submission. Manically directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, this latest derivation of a theme-park ride shoots for the fizzy fun of bygone romantic adventures like “ Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) . That it misses has less to do with the heroic efforts of its female lead than with the glinting artifice of the entire enterprise.

Emily Blunt plays Lily, a sassy British botanist weary of being disrespected by London’s chauvinistic scientific community. The Great War is in full swing, but Lily is obsessed with reaching the Amazon jungle to search for a flower that’s rumored to cure all ills. A roguish riverboat captain named Frank (Dwayne Johnson) is hired, and soon Lily and her fussy brother (Jack Whitehall) — whose discomfort with all things Amazonian is a running gag — are heading upriver into a host of digital dangers.

As snakes, cannibals and maggoty supernatural beings rattle around the frame, “Jungle Cruise” exhibits a blatantly faux exoticism that feels as flat as the forced frisson between its two leads. The pace is hectic, the dialogue boilerplate (“The natives speak of this place with dread”), the general busyness a desperate dance for our attention. Jesse Plemons is briefly diverting as a nefarious German prince, and Edgar Ramírez pops up as a rotting Spanish conquistador named Aguirre. Werner Herzog must be thrilled.

Buffeted by a relentless score and supported by a small town’s worth of digital artists, “Jungle Cruise” is less directed than whipped to a stiff peak before collapsing into a soggy mess.

“Everything you see wants to kill you,” Frank tells his passengers. Actually, I think it just wants to take your money.

Jungle Cruise Rated PG-13 for chaste kissing and bloodless fighting. Running time 2 hours 7 minutes. In theaters and on Disney+ .

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