Jungle 2 Jungle (1997)

Although this is a Disney flick based on a rather lame French film, it's not all that bad. The star power helps. Tim Allen heads this remake of what was called "Little Indian Big City" on it's American dubbed release ("Un Indian Dans La Ville"). Allen plays a Wall Street type who is going to marry a self centered model (Lolita Davidovich). His first wife, from what must of been a hippie type marriage, is now on an island living with the natives. She was a doctor in what remains unexplained but must have been something like the Peace Corp, and stayed with the village. When Allen travels to the tropical land to get his estranged mate (JoBeth Williams) to sign divorce papers, he finds out he has a 13 year old son.

Sam Huntington plays Mimicicou, the boy. He wears a loincloth and a headband and tries to seem like a native boy who knows English because his mom has taught him some. He's cute and sweet and we grow to like him. The chemistry he evolves with Allen is quite nice. We grow to care about them and want them to be a father and son. They make the film's contrived ridiculousness almost work.

But there has to be a subplot and it's a mess, as it was in the original. In this part of the film, Martin Short plays Allen's rather neurotic partner who gets them involved in a scheme to launder money for some sort of Russian mafia. David Ogden Stiers has his worst role in ages in this part of the film. It never works and Stiers looks ludicrous here. There is also the lame storyline about Allen's egotistical fiance. Meanwhile, Valerie Mahaffey and Luis Avalos have fun and entertain us as Short's wife and son. We wish there was more of this in the film.

The best part of the film is that director John Pasquin uses every opportunity to show Huntington in a loincloth and/or shirtless. He's a beautiful example of pubescent boyhood. Pasquin even gets Avalos into the act of going shirtless in what is supposed to remind us that there is little difference between island boy and city boy. Huntington looks beautiful whether in tropical locale or scaling the Statue of Liberty. He has a smile that will kill you.

Although the original script took four writers and it takes two more to adapt it here, the film is really lacking in substance. It could have so much more. Still, this is better than the original.

The Scene that Remains Huntington in a loin cloth.

(Review written in 1997)

Report Card

Script: D

Acting: C

Cinematography\Lighting: C

Special Effects\Make Up: B

Music: A-

Final Grade: C+