Welcome To The Jungle (2003)

Average rating

(65%)

Starring:	Dwayne Johnson \| Seann William Scott \| Christopher Walken \| Rosario Dawson \| Ewen Bremner \| Jon Gries \| William Lucking \| Ernie Reyes Jr.
Director:	Peter Berg
Studio:	COLUMBIA TRI-STAR HOME VIDEO
Run time:	100 mins
Genres:	Action/Adventure \| Thriller
Languages:	English
Dubbed:	Italian, Spanish
Hearing-impaired:	English
Subtitles:	Dutch, English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Released:	July 23, 2004
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The Rock (aka Duane Johnson) firmly establishes himself as a major Hollywood force in WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE, an engaging action-comedy directed by Peter Berg. Johnson/Rock plays Beck, a retriever-for-hire, who is sent on one final mission before he can retire and realize his dream of opening up a restaurant. Swapping the cement streets of Los Angeles for the jungles of the Amazon, Beck begins his quest to locate his boss' son, Travis (Seann William Scott). When he walks into the establishment of the beautiful Mariana (Rosario Dawson), he does just that. But before he can drag Travis back to the airstrip and deliver him to his father, the evil Hatcher (Christopher Walken) arrives and reminds Beck that this is his jurisdiction. Apparently, Travis is incredibly close to locating a rare relic, and until that happens, Hatcher isn't letting Travis out of his sight. Of course, Beck uses his talent for kicking ass to escape with Travis, but after their jeep tumbles off a mountain, they find themselves trapped in the jungle with Hatcher hot on their trail. Berg's film breathes with a lighthearted air that is truly refreshing for the action genre, while the relentlessly hilarious interplay between The Rock and Scott is a sight to behold.

Rating of 3 stars out of 5

The Scorpion King star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson vies for the 21st-century action man crown in this energetic comedy adventure from Very Bad Things director Peter Berg. Ably filling the void left by muscle men Stallone and Schwarzenegger (there's even an Arnie cameo), the pro-wrestler demonstrates acting prowess to match his physical strength. He plays a Mob “retrievals expert” who's eager to go straight and become a chef. Given the final job of recovering his boss's double-dealing son (the wisecracking Seann William Scott) from the Brazilian jungle, the man who ironically doesn't like to fight, soon has a huge battle on his hands. With its exciting set pieces and quick-hit humour, the frenetically paced film delivers everything you'd expect from a high-octane action yarn. Though token female Rosario Dawson is criminally underused, few viewers are likely to complain. Especially with rent-a-psycho Christopher Walken providing such value for money as an unhinged, gold-mining despot.

Highest rated reviews

19 out of 21 people found the following review helpful:

superb..................

williamsgwynfa from from gwaenysgor, 14th July, 2007

this dvd is superb. My son is a big fan of The Rock, who plays Beck a 'retrieval specialist', sent by his boss to the Brazilian Amazon jungle to recover his errant son, Travis (played by Seann William Scott). The only trouble is Travis does not want to leave, he is to busy tracking down an artifact of native treasure, a solid gold statue hidden in the jungle. This artifact propels Beck and Travis between battling armed nationalists, led by bar-owner Mariana (played by Rosario Dawson), and the bad guy of the film, Hatcher (played by Christopher Walken), whose empire is an enormous open-pit gold mining operation, worked by the poor local people, who are kept in line by whip-wielding thugs. Will Beck and Travis succeed against the bad guys? I am not going to tell you, as this would spoil your enjoyment of the film. Watch it to find out.

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18 out of 19 people found the following review helpful:

One of the most out-and-out fun action movies of recent times, one of the best working titles of recent times.

theOneliner.com from Truth or Consequences, Scotland, 17th April, 2004

Retrieval expert Beck (The Rock) is sent into the Brazilian jungles to drag junior Indiana Jones wannabe Travis (Seann William Scott) back to his mob boss father, but becomes entangled in Hatcher (Christopher Walken)'s empire building and population control schemes. A quest to find one man becomes a quest to find an artifact of enormous value, which along the way becomes a quest to free the natives from Hatcher's oppressive regimes. Finding a few deeply funny moments in unexpected places and a pretty decent chemistry between Scott and The Rock, Welcome to the Jungle is in many ways a return to old-school, just plain fun action movies that have become rare of late. A few too many unnecessary stylistic flurries from director Peter Berg can grow a shade annoying by the final reel, but there's far more to like here than we'd dared to hope. Uncomplicated but occasionally exhilarating fun, and has perhaps the best 'tumbling down a hillside' scene yet seen. The biggest disappointment is the studio shying away from its intended title, Helldorado.

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9 out of 10 people found the following review helpful:

Surprising

CyberRuby from East Yorkshire, 30th July, 2004

I like The Rock.

There, I said it. I'm not ashamed.

That said, when a friend of mine rented this for a Thursday night in, I was not overly enthusiastic - I'd never heard of it; the cover looked rather dodgy, and I'm not usually a fan of this kind of action flick. Particularly when Seann William Scott is involved (Bullet Proof Monk, anyone? Ick.)

However, I thoroughly enjoyed it; The Rock has enough charisma (and muscle) to practically carry the film on his own, bridging the ropey plot-line, the occasional dubious set-piece (humping monkeys, nuff said) and managing to banish the gurning Carrey-wannabe antics of Scott to the background where they belong.

If you're looking for some solid, amusing, no-brainer entertainment, I can't recommend this highly enough.

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