"Jumanji" is entertaining fluff with the flimsiest of storylines. Good, if not terribly realistic, effects bring a wild jungle full of dangers to a suburban home and neighboring community. Robin Williams stars as a little boy who gets trapped in the board game Jumanji for 26 years. Upon being released from the game by a pair of kids playing it themselves, he is forced to join them in order to dispel the catastrophes happening all around him.
Each turn of the game releases into the real world a threat such as a stampede, a typhoon, or a rogue hunter. Only when someone wins the game will these things cease to exist. Williams must enlist the aid of the girl (Bonnie Hunt) he started the game with long ago if things are ever to be set right.
"Jumanji" is mindless fun with a critical flaw: if everyone participating in the game had quickly rolled the dice on their turn, ignoring what was going on around them, it would have been over in a matter of minutes. Oh, well. This caveat aside, the film is probably too frightening for young children, but older ones should get a kick out of it.