If you’re a massive fan of Ricky Gervais in The Office, and couldn’t get enough of the Jean-Claude Van Johnson TV series, you might enjoy this movie because it’s so not-funny that it’s almost funny. And I must admit, it has its decent comedy moments occasionally. But if I never watch it again in the rest of my life, I won’t be missing anything.
This movie is tolerable only because I was waiting for it pick up, but it never did, and I really struggled at times to stay watching at times. It’s slightly entertaining occasionally, and when I say slightly I mean only if you’re desperately bored – exception being if you’re a massive fan of this weird genre, in which case you might actually love this movie.
If someone told you to check out Welcome To The Jungle and never specified it’s a Van Damme movie, they’re probably actually referring to The Rundown (2003) starring Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Christopher Walken and Rosario Dawson – that movie was also marketed under the name Welcome To The Jungle and is a really good action-packed super funny comedy adventure movie, unlike this 90 minute mess around featuring Van Damme. It’s like they all got high and made it all up on the fly, no pre-written script, just winging it.
I can’t even say Van Damme is the star of this movie – he’s probably an equal co-star alongside half a dozen other strange characters, especially those played by Adam Brody (main protagonist) and Rob Huebel (main antagonist).
Van Damme’s children Kris and Bianca also take extremely minor roles in this movie, as two of a dozen nobodies standing around, saying practically nothing for the whole movie. I’m really not sure whether this movie helped their careers or harmed them!
There’s also loads of rude words and naughty adult gestures throughout, so it’s not very suitable for young families.