Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Think of a family fantasy favourite and it will resonate somewhere in this high-spirited mix of Indiana Jones, It's a Wonderful Life and Tomb Raider. As good as the 1995 original, director Jake Kasdan's rip-roaring action adventure takes the bare bones of Chris Van Allsburg's 1981 book and adds contemporary twists while downplaying the jungle animal perils. This time, four teens are sucked into the Jumanji game universe where they are each given incongruous avatars. They must then use their newly acquired physiques and power attributes to return a green jewel to the Jaguar Rock shrine in order to get back home. The most inspired change finds one female character gender-swapped into Jack Black, who brilliantly mines all the "Instagram princess" humour he can from the fun-threat situations. Dwayne Johnson has a good time sending himself up, too, in this entertaining serving of glossy escapism, which comes with a side order of life lessons learned.