>>REVIEW
ZATHURA
STARRING Jonah Bobo, Josh Hutcherson and Tim Robbins
DIRECTED BY Jon Favreau
Opens Friday, November 11
Check listings
Sifting through Jon Favreau’s past film credits as actor-producer-director-writer, one can’t doubt a simple unholy fact – Favreau has made a pact with the devil. How else to describe a talent that has grown in such wicked leaps and bounds over the past 10 years? (God, while great, has always been known to take his time.)
Favreau may have started unceremoniously as a bit player on Seinfeld back in ’94, but two years later, Swingers, his most famed production, would become a massive pop culture classic and lay the foundations of his stardom. Though his acting career stuttered with roles in Deep Impact, Daredevil and Wimbledon, Favreau ably directed himself in Made, and Will Ferrell as the world’s tallest midget in Elf. Now, in what might be the best family adventure to come in years, Zathura – unlike Jumanji in just about every way minus the board game – has all the makings of something special.
The family film follows two young brothers, played by talented youngsters Jonah Bobo and Josh Hutcherson. The boys are captive space travellers stuck inside a ’50s-style board game called Zathura. They play it inside their middle American house that travels through a breathtaking cosmic backdrop filled with malfunctioning razor-wielding robots, man-eating raptor-sized lizards with space cannons and, worst of all, a know-it-all PMS-laden teenage sister, all marking, possibly, Favreau’s biggest commercial hit yet.
The film’s overall direction is dynamic without being overly cliché, thanks to a playful yet strong script that pokes fun at itself when maintaining plausibility becomes pointless. To top it off, the cast – whether they are live action or created by Muppet-wizard Frank Oz and Image Works – and the big orchestra soundtrack all come together to create a motion picture spectacle that would make even Steven Spielberg proud. It’s sincere, entertaining and devilishly well crafted.
Oh, and for those readers out there, this was based on a book, apparently. |
Copyright ©2005 FFWD. All rights reserved.