Zathura
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG
Website: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/zathura/splash/
Release Date: 2005-11-11
Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Jonah Bobo, Dax Shepard, Kristen Stewart, Tim Robbins
Director: Jon Favreau
Screenwriter: David Koepp, John Camps
WorkNameSort: Zathura
Our Rating: 2.00
Jon Favreau’s sort-of-sequel to Jumanji is full of nonsense physics and missed opportunities, though it almost redeems itself via its realistically fractious portrayal of brothers forced into a playtime gone weirdly cosmic. Older kid Walt (Josh Hutcherson) couldn’t care less about quality time with little Danny (Jonah Bobo), even when the latter discovers a vintage space game in their basement that sends their house shooting into the great void. All manner of alien-busting adventures ensue, yet few attain the Buck Rogers breeziness that the story concept (and the game’s retro box art) would seem to portend. Instead, there’s plenty of furniture-smashing carnage, and an extensive education in how to turn on a gas range or blow out a home’s pilot light. (Helluva baby sitter, that Favreau.) The movie deserves credit for delaying the kids’ inevitable reconciliation Walter despises Danny as much as a real sib would but that accuracy becomes scant consolation when we realize we’re still stranded in space with two kids who won’t stop screaming at each other. Isn’t space the place where no one can hear you fuss?
This article appears in Nov 9-15, 2005.