George of the Jungle – Film Review

Title: George of the Jungle

Age: U

Released: 16th July 1997

Director: Sam Weisman

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Romance

Rating: **** (4/5 stars)

About: Baby George is the lone survivor of a plane crash and is raised by a wise gorilla in the jungle. One day, he saves Ursula and moves from his sweet jungle life in Africa to San Francisco.

Review: Okay, you can hate on this film as much as you want. But you have to admit it’s a great film.

I did question my rating to be honest… It’s not quite worthy of 4 stars, but I loved it and I feel like 3 is too little (so I guess 3.5 is where I would put it, but I don’t do half stars – You can check out my rating system here if you want to see how I base things).

But I honestly think that this film is so underappreciated.

I mean it’s kinda kid-ish but actually so good. I mean it’s cheesy goodness, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

This film is great fun and is good for families to watch together.

It might not be five star worthy, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with it.

Sitting with a score of 5.5 on the Internet Movie Database, George of the Jungle is clearly a film in need of some love. So many people think that it only has one good running joke, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

George of the Jungle has so much going for it.

For starters, you’ve got Brendan Fraser (an absolutely amazing man and actor), who in my mind is one of the most underappreciated leading actors in films. This is the man who made the second Mummy film watchable, and is just a general amazing actor!

Then you’ve got the hilarious narrator – with lines like: “meanwhile, at a very expensive waterfall set” the narrator says over one scene change, later on reassuring the kids that “Don’t worry. Nobody dies in this story. They just get really big boo-boos”.

Or what about “Okay, kids, let’s stop and review the important information – Lyle is a big doofus. Poor George was really shot, but can’t die because, hey, let’s face it, he’s the hero”.

Fraser is great as George, but there are some surprising faces also to be found in the cast. Leslie Mann plays female lead Ursula, and there’s John Cleese as the voice of the ape and then you’ve also got Thomas Haden Church as the villain.

Played in an almost panto-esque fashion George of the Jungle is simply good fun.

I’m so surprised by how many people were hating on this film, because it  isn’t supposed to be any kind of art.

Instead, it’s a highly entertaining knock around family film. That is perfect for any occasion.

Don’t expect anything serious, that’s not what this film is like. Just expect something fun and entertaining!