Hey Disney, put it on Disney+
The title may say “Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” but this movie has little to do with Kipling or the 1967 animated movie of the same name. Instead, anyone even slightly familiar with the work of Stephen Sommers (“The Mummy” movies among others) will know a B-grade adventure is in the works, one with no talking animals but a good lead performance and a lot of fun thrills for older kids and even adults.
It starts out fairly reminiscent of the old story. Here Mowgli is the 5 year old son of an Indian guide taking the British, specifically Col. Jeffrey Bryden (Sam Neil), into the jungle. Their presence upsets the fearsome tiger Shere Khan, who attacks their camp. Mowgli is somehow separated from everyone else (in one over the top bit involving a carriage and kerosene explosion), winding up being raised by the panther, Bagheera.
“Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story’s” Jason Scott Lee plays the kid as a teen. Mowgli has grown into the super-ripped lord of the jungle, making friends with some of its creatures while getting attacked by several more. This is when he will also reconnect with Kitty (“Game of Thrones” Lena Heady), Bryden’s daughter, who he remembers picking a rose for and giving it to by the fireside light when they were both children.
Despite his appearance and inability to speak English, Kitty doesn’t see the noble savage but the young boy she grew up with. She brings him to live with her at the base, where she and a Doctor (a funny and pithy John Cleese) teach him to speak again and about all the refined British things that will make him an upper class gentleman. Then again, he’ll also run into man’s own savagery, like Kitty’s fiancee (Cary Elwes), who hunts for sport.
Lee is a more than able physical presence and he has charisma to spare, adding a touch of sorrow to even a goofy line like “I run with the wolf-pack. You must run with the man pack. It is the proper thing”. Heady is actually a sunnier presence here than Thrones fans would expect, while Elwes handles the double-crossing villain role with deceitful deviousness.
It’s also kind of fun to see Lee interact with the animals in the early-going; he play-wrestles with Baloo as King Louie looks on with his crown. But look out for Kaa, an anaconda who wraps around Mowgli and won’t let go without a fight. Yes, Kaa looks very fake, sometimes the animals and Lee have noticeably been video-shopped into the same scene together, and the jungle looks like a soundstage. But Sommers is very good at upping the excitement level, especially in the second half when the bad guys want treasure and Mowgli has to save his love, Kitty. There’s quicksand, fights and falls from cliffs, and all sorts of booby traps inside this hidden tomb. It’s remarkable that Sommers managed to get away with this level of thematically scary violence in a PG film. It’s not for little kids, but just the type of movie 10 year old me would have gotten a kick out of.