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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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New trailer released for disney’s “jungle cruise” starring dwayne johnson and emily blunt  coming to theaters and on disney+ with premier access july 30 .

This morning, Good Morning America gave fans an exclusive look at the new trailer for Disney’s “Jungle Cruise,” and now the full trailer—bursting with thrills, laughs and surprises—is available, along with a new poster and images from the trailer. “Jungle Cruise” will release simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access on Friday, July 30. 

Inspired by the famous Disneyland theme park ride, Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” is an adventure-filled, 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.

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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.

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Film credits.

Jungle Cruise (2021)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure violence.

127 minutes

Dwayne Johnson as Frank Wolff

Emily Blunt as Dr. Lily Houghton

Jack Whitehall as McGregor Houghton

Edgar Ramírez as Aguirre

Jesse Plemons as Prince Joachim

Paul Giamatti as Nilo

• Jaume Collet-Serra

Writer (story)

• Glenn Ficarra
• Josh Goldstein
• John Norville

Cinematographer

• Flavio Martínez Labiano
• Joel Negron
• James Newton Howard

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• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Jungle Cruise

Based on Disneyland's theme park ride where a small riverboat takes a group of travelers through a jungle filled with dangerous animals and reptiles but with a supernatural element. Based on Disneyland's theme park ride where a small riverboat takes a group of travelers through a jungle filled with dangerous animals and reptiles but with a supernatural element. Based on Disneyland's theme park ride where a small riverboat takes a group of travelers through a jungle filled with dangerous animals and reptiles but with a supernatural element.

• Jaume Collet-Serra
• Michael Green
• Glenn Ficarra
• Dwayne Johnson
• Emily Blunt
• Edgar Ramírez
• 1.2K User reviews
• 297 Critic reviews
• 50 Metascore
• 5 wins & 9 nominations

• Frank Wolff

• Lily Houghton

• MacGregor Houghton

• Prince Joachim

• (as Quim Gutierrez)

• Sir James Hobbs-Coddington

• Chief's Daughter

• Society Guard

• Society Member

• Society Worker
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Dwayne Johnson & Emily Blunt Answer Burning Questions

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Did you know

• Trivia Many of the puns Frank uses are taken directly from the Disney Parks attraction on which the movie is based. These "so bad they're good" jokes are one of the reasons why Jungle Cruise skippers are so important to the ride experience.
• Goofs Prince Joachim knows where the trapped Spanish are located. There was no record of this because only Skipper knew where he trapped them.

Frank Wolff : If you're lucky enough to have one person in this life to care about, then that's world enough for me.

• Crazy credits The bay in the Disney logo is seen to have the water glowing purple, and after the Disney logo fully appears the camera dives into the water and leads to the Tree of Life, which opens the film.
• Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: D23 Expo 2019 Extravaganza (2019)
• Soundtracks Nothing Else Matters Reimagined by Metallica and James Newton Howard With featured performances by James Hetfield , Lars Ulrich , Kirk Hammett , Robert Trujillo Written by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich Associate Producer and Engineer Greg Fidelman

User reviews 1.2K

• Jul 30, 2021
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• Will 'Weird Al' Yankovic's song 'Skipper Dan' about Disney's Jungle Cruise ride be featured in this movie?
• July 30, 2021 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Thám Hiểm Rừng Xanh
• Kaua'i, Hawaii, USA
• Davis Entertainment
• Flynn Picture Company
• Seven Bucks Productions
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $200,000,000 (estimated)
• $116,987,516
• $35,018,731
• Aug 1, 2021
• $220,889,446

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 7 minutes
• Dolby Atmos
• IMAX 6-Track

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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

Directed By

Produced by.

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We can't wait to go on an adventure with emily blunt and dwayne johnson in jungle cruise.

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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Review: ‘Jungle Cruise’ doesn’t sink, but it’s far from smooth sailing

Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson in Jungle Cruise (Photo: Disney+)

CHICAGO - A primary goal for any big screen adaptation should be to capture the spirit of the source material. In that respect, Disney’s "Jungle Cruise" can be called a success — though the source in this case is a theme park ride.  First setting sail in 1955, the Disneyland attraction (recently revamped ) shares more than a seedling of story with the film that bears its name. Like the ride, taking this "Jungle Cruise" required a long wait, as the film was delayed by a year thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic. As with many such rides, this cinematic one cares more about atmosphere and experience than character or story.  The Disneyland ride and the film both do better with fun than with thrills, and both include some lazy stereotypes.  There are differences, of course: at 127 minutes, the film’s not short, while the ride doesn’t benefit from the charisma of two movie stars. But as with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, this movie manages about what’s expected of a film version of a goofy amusement park boat ride: It’s a pleasant distraction, and is just as likely to float in through one ear and then sail right on out through the other. 

What’s the story of "Jungle Cruise"?

Emily Blunt plays Lily Houghton, an adventuress with a scientist’s mind in search of a mythical tree in the Amazon which is said to grant miraculous healing with its every bloom. 

After "liberating" a precious artifact linked to the tree right out from under the nose of the nefarious German Prince Joachim ( Jesse Plemons ), Lily and her brother MacGregor ( Jack Whitehall ) set out to find the flowers that could revolutionize science and medicine, hiring shady river cruise captain Frank ( Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson ) to steer them through a landscape where, as Frank says, "everything is trying to kill you." 

And if the myths are true, that includes the malevolent spirit of a conquistador ( Edgar Ramírez ) cursed to prowl the river as penance for the massacres he perpetrated in pursuit of the tree. 

Related: Disney's Jungle Cruise attraction takes on water with guests on board, officials confirm

There are worse premises for a movie, but there are also far better, and "Jungle Cruise" liberally borrows from a number of others, among them the "Indiana Jones" films, "The Mummy" franchise, "The African Queen," and of course "Pirates of the Caribbean." The trouble with cribbing from other films, especially great ones, is that the comparison is rarely flattering. 

Stacked up against the "Pirates" films, "Jungle Cruise" doesn’t totally suffer by comparison, but set it alongside "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and it’s a very different story. Director Jaume Collet-Serra bounces from escape to escape at an oddly leisurely pace, stopping occasionally for a scene meant to attach the audience to the characters or to Frank’s pet CGI jaguar, Proxima. Somehow, it’s far more successful at the latter. (Good kitty!)

Who should see "Jungle Cruise"?

Die-hard fans of The Rock aren’t likely to be disappointed by the man’s performance as Frank. He delivers plenty of eyebrow-waggles and punchy punchlines, but not much else. Still, that’s more than enough for this movie. 

His performance also benefits from the presence of Emily Blunt, who anchors the movie with a kind of practical effervescence. She imbues Lily with an air of good-hearted chaos that should be, but somehow isn’t, at odds with the character’s obvious competence. As a foil for Johnson, she’s great, but even better as an adversary for Plemons, who brings some "Dr. Strangelove" energy to the proceedings. Whether he’s eating three peas in an exacting manner or chit-chatting with otherworldly spy-bees, Plemons adds an appealing weirdness to a film that could use even more than he can provide. 

Yet at the end of the day, "Jungle Cruise" still makes for a good excuse to (safely) go to the movies. Adults may find themselves gleefully groaning at the puns or recoiling from the many, many snakes. Kids will have even more fun — this is a movie that sneaks in a fart joke before the six-minute mark, though some unsettling visual effects, mild violence and light innuendo make this a PG-13 film with PG energy. 

Those looking originality or emotional resonance may want to seek another treasure, but for those content with a pleasant diversion should find it here. Great cinema it ain’t, but if The Rock fist-fighting a jungle cat, Emily Blunt swinging on a vine, and Jesse Plemons dementedly eating three peas appeals, head straight for the X on the map. 

"Jungle Cruise" opens in theaters across the country and on Disney+ with Premier Access on Friday, July 30.

Gear up for "Jungle Cruise" with these free movies

Empire State (2013): Dwayne Johnson stars alongside Emma Roberts and Liam Hemsworth in this heist thriller, which is based on a true story. "When two friends attempt to rob an armored car depository containing millions, they must elude a veteran NYPD detective and angry local crime bosses."

The Great Buck Howard (2008): If you’ve ever dreamed of seeing John Malkovich play a floundering magician, here’s your chance. Emily Blunt joins Malkovich, along with Adam Scott, Steve Zahn, Colin Hanks, and Colin Hanks’ dad, Tom Hanks. 

Black Mass (2015): Jesse Plemons stars with "Pirates" actor Johnny Depp in this based-on-a-true-story thriller, in which "a notoriously violent mobster expands his considerable reach on the streets of Boston while also working directly with the FBI."

The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box (2013): Here’s another adventure story about in which a powerful artifact is key: "17-year-old Mariah Mundi's life is turned upside down when his parents vanish and his younger brother is kidnapped. Following a trail of clues to the darkly majestic Prince Regent Hotel, Mariah discovers a hidden realm of child-stealing monsters, deadly secrets and a long-lost artifact that grants limitless wealth - but also devastating supernatural power." The cast includes Michael Sheen and "Game of Thrones" standout Lena Headey. 

House of Wax (2005): Also directed by Jaume Collet-Serra , this horror movie strands a group of college kids in an abandoned town that has an unusual use for wax. Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray star. 

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Go behind the scenes of action sequences, 'heart-racing' stunts in 'Jungle Cruise'

LOS ANGELES -- It took an unimaginable about of expertise (and some movie magic) to pull off stunts and action sequences like those in Disney's upcoming film "Jungle Cruise," but Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt were up for the challenge.

"Doing a stunt is always a lot of fun, but it's always a lot of fun when you have actors who are willing and excited to actually engage in the stunt," Johnson, who plays Frank and is also a producer on the film, said in a new featurette. Watch it in the player above for a behind-the-scenes look at the film's action sequences.

"Everything feels massive," Johnson added. "The stunts feel epic and sweeping and heart-racing."

VIDEO: Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt talk about new film 'Jungle Cruise'

The adventure film, based on the popular Disney theme park attractions, follows riverboat captain Frank Wolff (Johnson) and scientist Lily Houghton (Blunt) on an epic adventure through the jungle as they hunt for a tree that is rumored to heal all but could "awaken a great evil" if it falls into the wrong hands.

"Lily is one of those characters who is so reckless that her action sequences are never slick," Blunt said of her character's stunt work. "She is so fearless that she just figures it out somehow on the way down, and she throws a good punch."

The film is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and also stars Edgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti.

"Jungle Cruise" will be released in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access Friday, July 30. Click here to pre-order or get your tickets now .

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of this ABC station.

SEE ALSO: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt surprise custodian who became a teacher in his 40s

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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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How Do You Watch Disney’s Jungle Cruise ?

Attention, wannabe skippers! After a year of COVID-19-related delays, Disney’s Jungle Cruise is finally hitting your screens big and small. How? Well, the film based on the Disneyland ride is the latest and, currently, the last to be part of Disney’s Premier Access program. Whether you’re ready to brave the outside world to see Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt lob insults and journey rough waters or not, we answer all your Jungle Cruise questions before the movie’s release this weekend.

Can I see Jungle Cruise in theaters?

Yes, if you prefer to see the glorious backside of water in Jungle Cruise on the big screen, you can catch the film in a theater near you. It will have a simultaneous release on Disney+ for families who aren’t too comfortable going to theaters yet.

So it will be on Disney+, too?

It will! But it won’t be streaming free for subscribers, as Luca did, because it is — drumroll, please — a Premier Access title. Similar to the studio’s Black Widow and Cruella , if you want to watch Jungle Cruise at home, it’ll come at a price.

How much does Premier Access cost?

Some of you may know the drill by now, but Disney Premier Access is a rental program for certain new films on Disney+. If you want to watch Jungle Cruise , you’ll pay a onetime $29.99 fee on top of your monthly $7.99 Disney+ subscription.

How long will I have to watch Jungle Cruise ?

If you don’t plan on canceling your Disney+ subscription right after watching the movie, then you’re good! Once you purchase a title on Premier Access, it will remain on your account for as long as you have a subscription, so you can rewatch Jungle Cruise as many times as you want. Congrats.

If I already paid for a previous Premier Access title, do I need to pay again for Jungle Cruise ?

What is Disney about if not spending more money? So yes, no matter how many films you’ve gotten with Premier Access, you still have to pay the rental fee for Jungle Cruise .

When will Jungle Cruise be available for free on Disney+?

If you’d rather not pay that much for Jungle Cruise , you’ll only have to wait around two months to see it for free. The film will arrive on Disney+ for all subscribers on November 12.

Can I buy Jungle Cruise on digital outside of Disney+?

Yes and no: You can’t buy Jungle Cruise through rental programs like iTunes and Google Play when the movie first arrives in theaters and on Premier Access, but Disney has been making its films available on digital platforms about a month after their theatrical debut — or even earlier in the case of Cruella and Black Widow . So, soon!

Will there be any more Premier Access films?

As of now, nope, Jungle Cruise is it! According to Disney, in a report on Deadline, the company’s Premier Access “experiment” has been quite the hit ; but for others, like Scarlett Johansson, not so much . We’ve noted before how Disney CEO Bob Chapek has mentioned that Premier Access could be applied to other theatrical titles if the studio sees fit, though nothing has been announced in the months since. But hey, we can’t really ignore the fact that we’re still in the midst of a pandemic — so in short, we’ll see.

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A Ride on the Lazy River

Jaume Collet-Serra does his best to inject some weird electricity into ‘Jungle Cruise,’ but even a B-movie virtuoso like him can get swallowed up in Disney’s waters

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There’s a wry bit of staging early on in Jungle Cruise diagramming the brutal, bottom-line realities of the food chain; bugs, fish, and birds of different sizes keep consuming one another until the last one gets picked off by a hawk. No matter how deadly something may be, there are bigger predators hovering somewhere up above.

For fans of the Spanish B-movie virtuoso Jaume Collet-Serra— and I am one of them —this little bit of CGI choreography could read as the coded admission of a genre specialist about the nature of his latest job-for-hire. “I like to work within certain limitations and find creative solutions to the problems I’ve been given,” Collet-Serra told me in 2016. The problem posed by taking on a $200 million family franchise movie is a unique one: how to keep from completely disappearing in the belly of the beast.

Typically, Collet-Serra’s thrillers effectively hinge on the logistics of emancipation or escape, whether it’s Liam Neeson stuck on an airplane in Non-Stop , Liam Neeson stuck on a train in The Commuter , Liam Neeson stuck at Madison Square Garden in Run All Night , or (best of all) Blake Lively stuck on a rock in the ocean, trying to evade a ravenous great white shark. The Shallows ’ Jaws- meets- Gravity riff—with a little bit of Frogger thrown in—was a surprise summer hit and deservedly so: It’s a primal scare machine infused with serene, aquamarine beauty. (When Lively encounters a school of glowing jellyfish just before the climax, it’s a close encounter with a sort of Spielbergian sublimity.) Even a nasty, tasteless little throwaway like 2009’s Orphan has its ingenious aspects, including a hidden-in-plain-sight twist executed in a way that would make M. Night Shyamalan himself grin.

Jungle Cruise is not ingenious, or nasty—no nuns take a claw hammer to the skull in this one—and there’s no universe in which something this ostentatiously expensive could reasonably be called a B-movie. Like Pirates of the Caribbean before it , it’s a corporate exercise in intellectual property renovation, and in order to work, it doesn’t require artistry; if anything, too much independent vision could be a liability. But even working in mercenary mode, a bit of Collet-Serra’s trademark wit bleeds through. An early sequence shows curmudgeonly riverboat helmer Frank (Dwayne Johnson, whose muscles do not look like they belong in the year 1916) scamming a gaggle of tourists with an array of clunky, prefab mechanical gimmicks he’s rigged along his usual route—a veteran’s tricks of the trade. Over and over again, Frank’s passengers willingly fork out wads of cash for the pleasure of being taken advantage of; without ever officially breaking the fourth wall, the scene simultaneously celebrates and lambasts the movie’s roots as an old-school theme park ride.

The original Walt Disney World Jungle Cruise, which wound its way through 1,900 feet of artificially murky water in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, was conceived of as an experiential cousin to the studio’s 1950s True-Life Adventures documentary series—exotic travelogues aimed at family audiences, featuring on-location footage narrated with pedagogical stiffness. The ride has gone through multiple upgrades over the years, but the theatrical release of Jungle Cruise dovetails with Disney’s PR-driven decision to refurbish the attraction on an intellectual level: the newly unveiled versions will excise “negative depictions of native people,” and curb the underlying British-imperialist pastiche.

The contradiction between an old-school adventure serial tone à la Raiders of the Lost Ark and cautiously progressive politics can be uneasy, and Jungle Cruise struggles when it downshifts into PC point-scoring mode. It’s considerably more successful when it leans into its retro textures and acknowledges the sources it’s so brazenly stealing from. In addition to the True-Life Adventures docs, designer Bill Evans based Jungle Cruise on John Huston’s classic romance The African Queen , and Johnson’s rumpled Humphrey Bogart cosplay as Frank is one of several nostalgic touches that show Collet-Serra and his screenwriting team goofing sweetly on movie history.

For instance: Having secured Frank’s services for a trip down the Amazon in search of the mythical Tree of Life—specifically in hopes of procuring an enchanted petal that could be used to cure all of the world’s sicknesses—indomitable British botanist Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) brings aboard a hand-cranked camera that she uses to capture twitchy, pixelated black-and-white footage of the skipper. These interludes must be the first time (notwithstanding any wrestling promos) that the Rock has ever been shot in black and white, and the effect is unexpected and charming. Meanwhile, as an evil German aristocrat trying to outpace Lily to the Tree (and use its powers to swing World War I to the Fatherland), Jesse Plemons seems to be impersonating Werner Herzog circa the cursed, jungle-set making of the documentary Burden of Dreams —a suspicion heightened by the equally maligned presence of a supernaturally reanimated 16th century conquistador named Aguirre (Edgar Ramírez), whose wrath poses its own threat to our heroes.

That these references are likely to go over the heads of the film’s intended audience of children (and most of their parental guardians) is a strictly no-harm, no-foul proposition; where a movie like Space Jam: A New Legacy is fully dependent on its pop-cultural allusions, Jungle Cruise is aiming for the kind of broad, crowd-pleasing tone that Stephen Sommers achieved in 1999’s The Mummy (the franchise that turned Johnson into a movie star in the first place). What made The Mummy enjoyable was a dopey charm distinct from actual stupidity, and which had a lot to do with the performances of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. Johnson and Blunt have a similar dynamic: her graceful slapstick physicality bounces humorously off his granite-like presence, as do her deadpan line readings. The back-and-forth banter isn’t at the level of The African Queen but the rhythm they work up isn’t too bad, and it suits Collet-Serra’s on-the-fly sensibility—his gift for keeping even the most clichéd material moving fluidly from left-to-right.

Where Jungle Cruise slows down—and gets stuck—is in its elaborate mythology (which also scuttled the Pirates series) and those aforementioned attempts at political correctness, the most widely publicized of which involves the character of Lily’s brother McGregor (Jack Whitehall). In the wake of Avengers: Endgame offering up a blink-or-miss-it bit involving a gay member of a support group and Josh Gad taking credit for supposedly queering his goofy sidekick role in Beauty and the Beast —neither exactly a cause for celebration— Jungle Cruise is being proudly touted by its studio as a third-time’s-the-charm breakthrough. During a bit of downtime in between action scenes, McGregor explains to Frank that he puts up with Lily’s globe-trotting antics because his sister stood by him at a moment of familial ostracization because his romantic interests “lay elsewhere.” “To elsewhere,” Frank toasts, all but winking at the screen, a live-and-let-live benediction from the People’s Champ.

All of which is nice enough, but there’s a crucial difference between having a major character just casually be gay and hinging his development on closeted frustration. The early 20th century setting becomes justification for a deceptively double-edged kind of representation—an exchange that scans more like a lesson in tolerance than genuine narrative or emotional development. (Jungle Cruise gets to have its gay-panicky innuendo “fun”moments later anyway, when McGregor asks Frank about sticking something into him.) A bolder movie might have had Johnson meet him face to face, or at least given Whitehall a more desirable comedy-duo partner than an animated jaguar. But then it would be more difficult to neatly excise the moment in order to appease conservative foreign censors. (Compare the calculated coyness of the McGregor subplot with the centering of a queer teenage girl in Netflix’s recent and acclaimed animated comedy The Mitchells vs. the Machines .)

There’s a similar self-consciousness in the way Jungle Cruise revises the retrograde (and Disney-driven) trope of indigenous cannibals, turning the mid-film appearance of an Amazon tribe into another joke about expectations and fakery—one that lands with a thud. By the time Collet-Serra cuts to an upper gallery of women applauding Lily’s stinging, public rebuke of boys’ club sexism, the pandering has become as much of a lazy cliché as the the magic totems and sunken civilizations stitching the story together—line items getting ticked off methodically in the service of broad, cross-demographic appeal. The nicest thing that you can say about Jungle Cruise is that it’s well-made, with florid colors, intricate production design, and a moody musical score by James Newton Howard that sounds weirdly like Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters.” But it’s a fine line between craftsmanship and engineering, and between being an artist and following a blueprint. At one point, Lily looks over an ancient river map and concludes that the cartographer must have been a “minor genius,” which could be another inside joke about authorship. Hopefully, as far as Collet-Serra and his minor moviemaking genius are concerned, he follows his own path out of the theme park toward somewhere grittier.

Adam Nayman is a film critic, teacher, and author based in Toronto; his book The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together is available now from Abrams.

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‘Jungle Cruise’ docks with $34M in theaters, $30 million on Disney+

For a movie that cost $200 million to produce, as “Jungle Cruise” did, its $34 million domestic box office opening weekend would traditionally be a major disappointment. But the pandemic has upended the movie theater business, scrambling the rubric for success as the industry mounts a recovery.

Today, that haul seems almost respectable, though it doesn’t mean “Jungle Cruise” will be profitable, at least not in its theatrical iteration. A film with that price tag would traditionally have to generate at least $500 million globally to break even.

However, Disney is hedging its bets and opening the film simultaneously on Disney+, the studio’s subscription streaming service, where it will be made available to subscribers for $30. The studio deployed the same strategy for COVID-19 era releases like “Cruella” and “Black Widow.” Disney reported on Sunday that “Jungle Cruise” earned $30 million globally on Disney Plus Premier Access, which is half of what “Black Widow” made in surcharge revenue.

Jaume Collet-Serra directed the family friendly movie, which is based on the Disney theme park ride and co-stars Jesse Plemons, Edgar Ramirez, Jack Whitehall and Paul Giamatti. Set in the early 20th century around the first world war, “Jungle Cruise” follows a morally dubious riverboat captain (Johnson) who takes an intrepid British scientist (Blunt) and her brother (Whitehall) on a mission to find the Tree of Life, which is believed to possess healing powers.

Box office analysts say audiences have been more skittish about going to the movies because of the resurgence of COVID cases across the country. However, some experts suggest the worsening public health situation isn’t the sole reason that “Jungle Cruise” didn’t dazzle in its debut in theaters and at home. It’s a genre that, outside of exceptions like “Jurassic World” and “Jumanji” sequels, has mostly fallen out of favor with cinemagoers. “Jungle Cruise” received mixed reviews from critics and secured an “A-” CinemaScore.

“The primary reason for the lukewarm launch is not COVID or the option to stream the movie; the weakness is the film itself,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “‘Jungle Cruise’ is a classic Hollywood action adventure, and today, that genre has lost its edge.”

Elsewhere on box office charts, Universal’s “Old” and A24’s “The Green Knight” are locked in a close battle for second place. It’s too narrow to call, though industry insiders believe “Old” will pull ahead once final numbers are tallied on Monday.

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the mind-bending thriller about a beach that makes you old fell 60% from its initial weekend of release, pulling in $6.76 million from 3,379 venues. “Old” debuted last weekend to a leading $16.5 million, pushing domestic ticket sales to $30 million. Internationally, the film added $7.5 million from 44 markets, bringing its global tally to $48 million.

The medieval fantasy adventure “The Green Knight,” starring Dev Patel, arrived above expectations with $6.78 million from 2,790 North American theaters. From the studio behind “Zola,” “Lady Bird” and “Moonlight” and other beloved indies, “The Green Knight” tells the story of King Arthur’s headstrong nephew, who embarks on a quest to confront the eponymous Knight — a gigantic tree-like creature.

Also new to theaters this weekend, Focus Features’ well-reviewed drama “Stillwater,” took the No. 5 spot with $5.12 million from 2,531 locations. Directed by “Spotlight” filmmaker Tom McCarthy, “Stillwater” stars Matt Damon as a father who travels to France to aid his daughter who was imprisoned for allegedly murdering her girlfriend while studying abroad. It’s inspired by the story of Amanda Knox, an American who spent four years in an Italian prison before being exonerated. Knox has criticized the movie, claiming the filmmakers and stars of “Stillwater” are profiting off her name and glamorizing the struggle of her wrongful murder conviction. Knox had no involvement in the film.

“By fictionalizing away my innocence, my total lack of involvement, by erasing the role of the authorities in my wrongful conviction, McCarthy reinforces an image of me as a guilty and untrustworthy person,” Knox wrote on Twitter. “And with Matt Damon’s star power, both are sure to profit handsomely off of this fictionalization of ‘the Amanda Knox saga.'”

“Stillwater” ranked below “Black Widow,” which is currently in its fourth weekend in theaters. The Marvel superhero adventure, headlined by Scarlett Johansson’s avenging Natasha Romanoff, brought in $6.1 million. After about one month on the big screen, “Black Widow” has generated $166 million. That’s a decent haul for COVID times, but it’s by far the worst result for recent installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Johansson made headlines this week for suing Disney, alleging the studio’s decision to premiere the film on Disney+ on the same day as its theatrical debut was a breach of contract and cost her tens of millions. Disney fired back, claiming Johansson benefitted from its hybrid release on Disney+ and saying her claim showed “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Since rival studios have similarly put movies online sooner than usual to boost streaming service subscribers, the outcome of Johansson’s public legal dispute could mark a watershed moment for the way actors are compensated for their work.

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New York City often referred to simply as New York is a real-world city located in New York State in the United States of America. It also has nicknames such as "The Big Apple" , "The City That Never Sleeps" and "NYC" .

• 1.1 Features
• 2.1 Background
• 3.1.1 Adventureland Treehouse
• 3.1.2 Adventure Trading Company
• 3.1.3 Bengal Barbecue
• 3.1.4 Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye
• 3.1.5 Jungle Cruise
• 3.1.6 Skipper Canteen
• 3.1.7 Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar
• 3.2.1.1 Raiders of the Lost Ark
• 3.2.1.2 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• 3.2.1.3 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• 3.3.1 1964 World's Fair
• 3.3.2 Casablanca
• 3.3.3 Mystic Manor
• 3.3.4 Pleasure Island
• 3.3.5 Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room
• 4.1 American Waterfront
• 4.2 Avengers Campus
• 4.3 Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar
• 4.4 Stark Expo
• 4.5 Streets of America
• 5 References

Description [ ]

New York City is the largest metropolitan city in the USA and is composed of five Burroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island.

Features [ ]

• Central Park :
• Coney Island :
• Empire State Building :
• Hotel Hightower :
• New York Globe Telegraph headquarters :
• Statue of Liberty :
• Times Square :

History [ ]

Background [ ], jungle cruise appearances [ ], disney parks [ ], adventureland treehouse [ ].

Aya Kouame-Beauciel's letter mentions them having just finished constructing an observatory in New York City.

Adventure Trading Company [ ]

The baseball cap for the New York Yankees belonging to Wan "Short Round" Li hung on the bulletin-board for the Adventure Trading Company in Adventureland .

Bengal Barbecue [ ]

There is a miniature portrait in the possession of Professor Blauerhimmel, depicting the 1899 meeting of S.E.A. in the Hotel Hightower.

Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye [ ]

The newspaper, "New York Register" appears on Eye on the Globe newsreel on the subject of tourists lost in tours of the Temple of the Forbidden Eye .

Jungle Cruise [ ]

During the 2021 refurbishment, Alberta Falls mentioned New York City in an edition of The Daily Gnus newspaper. She mentioned having travelled there along with Cairo and London due to her father's frequent travels prior to 1919. New York resident Duke Ellington 's song Flamingo is played by Nigel Greenwater in Disneyland's Jungle Cruise and The Mooche and an instrumental of Diga Diga Doo is played by Albert Awol in the Magic Kingdom's version of the ride, the latter of whom having been supplied with the music by the Library of Lost American Melodies in Manaus, Brazil. Both the American rides also contain crates from Hightower Industries .

Skipper Canteen [ ]

The Hotel Hightower is mentioned in the menu description for Shiriki Noodle Soup, stating the dish was served at the Hotel Hightower's 1899 New Year's Eve party. There are various other allusions to Harrison Hightower III within the establishment .

Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar [ ]

A feature of this bar was a portrait of Trader Sam 's alleged grandfather Billamongawonga AKA Trader Bill , sent to him in 1912 by the New York City Preservation Society when they recovered it from the Hotel Hightower. Sam is also shown to have been good friends with New York resident and later governor, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt and has art from The New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams decorating the establishment.

Indiana Jones [ ]

Raiders of the lost ark [ ].

Jock Lindsey wears a New York Yankees cap.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom [ ]

Short Round wears a New York Yankees cap.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [ ]

Indiana Jones ' enemy Walther Donovan recruited Indy to search for his father while in Donovan's Manhattan apartment.

Other connections [ ]

1964 world's fair [ ].

The 1964 New York World's Fair held attractions such as Ford's Magic Skyway from which Big Bertha 's animatronic originates and It's a Small World which the Jungle Cruise frequently references.

Casablanca [ ]

Rick Blaine is mentioned as having been born in New York.

Mystic Manor [ ]

There is a portrait in Mystic Manor of Lord Henry Mystic , Albert and several members of S.E.A. attending a New Year's Eve Party in the Hotel Hightower the December 31 of 1899.

Pleasure Island [ ]

Teddy Roosevelt was a founding member of the Adventurers Club .

Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room [ ]

In Enchanted Tiki Room: Get the Fever! , some of the birds were mentioned as originating from New York.

Other appearances [ ]

American waterfront [ ].

Much of this area of Tokyo DisneySea is set in New York, including the attractions Tower of Terror, Turtle Talk, McDuck's Department Store and the S.S. Columbia .

Avengers Campus [ ]

There are various allusions to New York City in the history of the Avengers and Stark Industries with events such as the first appearances of Iron Man, the 1974 World's Fair, and the Battle of New York. [1] The city's Sanctum Sanctorum is visited in the attraction The Sanctum via a mystical transportation site in Orange, California.

Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar [ ]

There are assorted connections to New York in this bar, mostly via Jock Lindsey's love of the New York Yankees.

Stark Expo [ ]

The New York World's Fairs are referenced as having been attended by Stark Industries.

Streets of America [ ]

This area of Disney's Hollywood Studios had an in-universe faux street depicting New York City.

References [ ]

• ↑ https://www.syfy.com/syfy.com/avengers-campus-mcu-easter-eggs-hidden-everywhere
• 1 Frank Wolff
• 3 Lope de Aguirre

Jungle Cruise

Adventure Around Every Corner

Embark on a river cruise where dangerous beasts and dry wit abound. Board a canopied tramp steamer piloted by your trusty skipper, who will expertly navigate you through some of the world’s most treacherous waters.

Steam past lush foliage, butterflies and waterfalls on the Amazon in South America. Glimpse an abandoned camp overrun by curious gorillas on the shores of the African Congo.

Watch for angry hippos, hungry lions and “sleeping” zebras along the Nile and be on the lookout for a missing Jungle Cruise vessel and its helpless passengers. As the cruise continues down the Mekong River, you just might learn that the jungle always gets the last laugh.

It’s a 10-minute, 10,000-mile journey that you won't soon forget!

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