Jungle (2017)

_Jungle_ is certainly not my worst film of 2017, but I think it might just be the most disappointing. I'm a **massive** fan of Greg McLean, and the trailer had me proper on board with _Jungle_. Unfortunately, the end result was something capable of capturing my interest only once, and for no longer than a couple of minutes.

_Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product._

**Jungle, is not a place for humans anymore as thousands of years ago!**

A much better, in fact, one of the best biopic about the survival in the wilderness. It is an Australian film about a young Israeli named Yossi, who went for a trekking in the Bolivian jungle with three others, but had got lost and fought for survival. It's 1981, the rainy season is just a corner away, but the four went to find a lost Indian village. After everybody got separated, the remain story told from Yossi's perspective, how he faced the nature's challenges to keep alive and make safely to the human civilisation.

The film was very good compared to what the trailer and teaser hinted out. Radcliffe is getting better with his every new film. With performance like this, surely everybody would accept him in the coming days. So we could see him in big projects, in big roles. Good writing and direction, but it was based on the biographical book of the same name. The film was entirely shot in Australia, but you can witness the real South American atmosphere. Something what bothered me was, Yossi an ex army man, so this kind of survival skills is taught in the army camps, yet he was scared and struggle like a normal person. Overall, it is a good film to go for it.

_8/10_

The Yossi Ghinsberg Survival!

Jungle is directed by Greg McLean and adapted to screenplay by Justin Monjo from the book written by Yossi Ghinsberg. It stars Daniel Radcliffe, Joel Jackson, Alex Russell and Thomas Kretschman. Music is by Johnny Klimek and cinematography by Stefan Duscio.

Film is the retelling of real incidents when in 1981 Israeli adventure Yossi Ghinsberg entered deep into the Amazon Rainforest and found hell waiting for him.

People keep doing it, these adventure types going into treacherous Mother Nature territory to explore and discover the untapped world - only to find misery, while some are never seen again. Greg McLean mixes adventure and horror perfectly, which when coming from the director of Wolf Creek and Rogue comes as no surprise. It's standard formula in narrative drive, man meets new friends in beautiful surrounds, it's all very jolly and daring, and off they go in search of wonderment.

Of course, as is often the case, these stories can sometimes end in utter distress, Ghinsberg was a very lucky fellow to come out alive and tell his amazing story, which is in turn compelling and excellently performed by the cast. As problems begin to surface, the group dynamic begins to facture, with one particular character highly dubious in motives intent. The terrain gets steadily worse, then they got to eat of course, and as bodies begin to wane, decisions on a survival course of action take precedence. Then it's over to high peril for Ghinsberg who has to try and salvage body and mind in the hope that he might somehow escape his jungle nightmare.

Once the pic turns its entire focus on Ghinsberg's solitude, things become a little repetitive and much of the chilling danger begins to ebb away. Yet we are willing him to survive, to stay hooked in as we grasp for a semblance of good news to come out of an otherwise dark tale. Clearly from Ghinsberg's perspective, the real man himself, there was a yearning to be a better man, for better or worse, but the film is a little out of focus for an in depth portrayal of Yossi, with this blend of survival horror and characterisation not quite working. That said though, this still comes as highly recommended viewing, as does further reading on the incidents featured here. For come the closing credits, as real people are shown in photos, and their actual fates written in type, you know there has been no titillation here. 7.5/10

**Not even that bad**

_Mild spoilers:_

Four douche bags hike into the jungle, one of them Hairy Potter, and not one of them has a significant reason to do so. Immediately the viewer is rooting for the wilderness to take them out one by one, but unfortunately we don't even see that happening.

This wasted opportunity could have been so interesting, with survival action like building a shelter, cooking water, making fire, finding edible food, fighting predators, fighting each other, finding the killer, getting the girl... Instead we are presented a "true story", boring, dragged out and without a climax of any sort. Instead, we get a monkey shot off a tree, clobbered to death and eaten above a pre-made camp fire without even taking it apart. Unbelievably Hairy Potter's actor lost weight for this garbage.

Acting, camera, score, action scenes and computer generated images are all top notch. Cannot save the movie from a mediocre 2.5 stars though. If a true story is boring, get inspired. Don't just re-enact it.

28 October 2017

I am migrating my reviews from a different site which has become simply garbage. TMDB looks awesome and I look forward to be a part of it.