Ursula's mother: When Lyle comes back from that jail, this wedding will proceed as planned. If you do ANYTHING to upset that, I'll remove your reason for wearing a loincloth.
Have you ever started watching a movie inside a theatre and about 15 minutes into the feature presentation you can't wait to leave? That is exactly the feeling created as 'George of the Jungle' unfolds. Based on the cartoon of the same name, 'George of the Jungle' is an absolutely abysmal offering from Walt Disney Pictures and it looks as if Disney now believes that movie audiences will buy into anything and I do mean ANYTHING. The first few minutes of the film features an exploration team deep in the jungles of Africa whose leader (the cast mostly features nameless, tasteless and untalented wannabe actors) is a rich snob and immediately sickens the audience with his unlikable and obnoxious personality. His bride to be has a voice that could crack glass and torture the most vicious attack dogs all in the same breath and she immediately becomes embroiled in a jungle confrontation with a lion.
Enter George (Brendan Fraser). He's a jungle hero raised by nature when he was separated from his family in a plane crash when he was an infant. Naturally he saves her from peril and proceeds to use a few pro-wrestling moves (clothesline, elbow drop and suplex) all in cartoon fashion which exploits cruelty to animals in extremely poor taste. We laugh about that sort of thing in cartoons as politically incorrect as it may seem in today's day and age but for some reason it doesn't work here in live action. George's companion is a gorillas named "Ape" voiced by John Cleese and George is soon rewarded by the girl he saved as she takes him back to America (San Francisco to be exact) and introduces her to her very wealthy family and friends. She is engaged to a man suited to her position and George returns to his jungle for the film's climax.
Brendan Fraser is such a talented young actor whose work in such films as 'School Ties' and 'With Honors' was a treat and I don't understand the reason he chose this jaw dropping project of extremely crude and unfunny material. I saw 'George of the Jungle' on opening day with a theatre filled mostly with small children and their parents and the laughs were very few and far between so there goes the theory of appealing to the kiddies and upon looking around the theatre some parents were shaking their heads and putting their hands in front of their face in embarrassment. I saw it with my 69 year old father who kept falling asleep.
'George of the Jungle' is a live action film based on a cartoon that features visuals and sound effects derived directly from cartoon antics and it features people falling in excrement, animals expiring gas from the bottom end in people's faces, wooden dialogue, quick scenes of lost logic, and faceless performances with no creative turns from anybody behind the camera. If this film were edible, you would get food poisoning. Definitely a candidate for worst film of 1997 (that honor still belongs to John Leguizamo's 'The Pest' until I digest this one further) and one of the worst films of the 90's.
By : Walter Frith
Source: rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup
Rating: 3
Outlandishly stupid GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE is a MONTY PYTHON level comedy for the grade school set. It even has MONTY PYTHON regular John Cleese supplying the voice of George's intellectual sidekick, the ape named "Ape."
Brendan Fraser, who has been in a long string of silly movies (including ENCINO MAN) and a few serious ones (the best being SCHOOL TIES) hams it up as George. Everyone in the show knows that they have signed up to do a farce so they milk the slapstick as hard they can. Depending on your point of view, this film is either truly awful or so bad it is good. In either case, be warned that a little of this repetitive movie can go a long way.
The show starts with Ursula Stanhope (played by Leslie Mann from THE CABLE GUY), a rich heiress from "Frisco", and her snooty fiance, Lyle Vandergroot (Thomas Haden Church), on a safari in darkest Africa. They are there to see apes, and while in camp, they hear of the existence of a white ape.
Ursula, a ditzy blonde with the brainpower of a church mouse, seems well matched to her intended. Lyle, with his ascot and his desire for a latte in the jungle, has an intelligence equal to his fiancee's. He is also a major coward and a liar. Both Mann and Church play their characters as pure camp.
The best actor in the show is never seen. Keith Scott, with a voice like Robin Leach from "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," is the film's all-knowing narrator. When Lyle, on a lark, causes one of his guides to fall several thousand feet into the river canyon, the narrator reassures the kiddies in the audience. "Don't worry," he tells them. "Nobody dies in this story. They just get really big boo-boos." And when George gets shot point blank in the head, the narrator reasons with us, "George can't die because he's the star."
After the narrator, the next best parts of the film are the few special effects. Most of us never seen a full grown elephant that jumps around and has all the mannerisms of a dog. George has just such a hybrid, and the elephant is the largest and most unusual version of man's best friend you are ever likely to see. Imagine an elephant playing fetch.
Of course, George's raison d'etre is his proclivity to crash into everything, especially trees. ("Watch out for that tree!" is the show's mantra.) Fraser has the muscular body and the ridiculous smile that makes him well chosen for the part. George's costume consists solely of what he refers to as a "mud flap," and his home is a Swiss Family Robinson-style tree house, complete with an elevator.
After way too many flatulence jokes, GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE finally runs out of gas and ends. But don't leave yet. There's a funny epilogue set in Las Vegas.
And then it does end, well sort of. The film's theme song is guaranteed to remain firmly planted in your brain for months. You'll be singing it at the office, driving your coworkers crazy. ("George, George, George of the jungle, watch out for that treeeeee!" Aargh, I'm doing it again.)
By : Steve Rhodes
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