Review of Jungle (2017) by Thequietgamer — 03 Feb 2018

A director for horror movies takes a stab at making a survival film that's based on a true story. It's a well put together movie on the surface, but there's nothing going on underneath. Yossi is never given any room to become anything more than a faceless guy who got lost in the jungle.

The stuff that happens to him is surprisingly tame compared to other films of the like out there. I get that the slower pace is probably more realistic, but despite Greg McLean's penchant for horror it's the more brutal things that actually happened to Yossi that failed to make the cut here.

The presence of McLean's previous filmmaking experiences can be felt here. The soundtrack and trippy hallucination sequences feel ripped straight from a horror flick, and are among the movie's more interesting elements.

One particularly grotesque moment in the movie is brought to life by some impressive gore that is not for the eyes of the squeamish or those with a fear of parasites. There is something inherently watchable about a person surviving by themselves in the unforgiving world of nature we so often avoid.

While some of that still shines through here, "Jungle" never manages to transcend to anything beyond just watchable. The shiny exterior can't make up for the hollow interior. It's missing that uplifting element one can feel when witnessing a story about a man overcoming the odds and surviving by finding that very special, very human driving force for life that exists within all of us, but is found by so few.

Daniel Radcliffe is all there really is. It's impressive just how much that means though. The incredibly talented and likable actor carries things much further than they otherwise would have gone.