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Jungle

5/10

Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Thomas Kretschmann, Alex Russell, Joel Jackson

Director: Greg McLean

A story of a battle for survival in the jungles of Bolivia, based on true events that occurred in 1981.

With a guide and two acquaintances, Yossi (Radcliffe) ventured into the jungle, hacking a way through the rainforest before building a raft and taking to the river.

It's not really clear why the quartet splits up after a few days, but at any rate Yossi and photographer Kevin (Russell) continue on down the river, which does indeed look like one of No Return and proves too much for the raft, as it attempts to negotiate one set of rapids too many.

The rest of the movie, marred by quite unnecessary flashbacks to the central character's earlier life, concerns Yossi's desperate attempts to make it back to civilisation after being parted from his comrade.

Radcliffe gives his all as Yossi, and is to be commended on never accepting 'easy' roles. But the film is long indeed and one stretch of jungle looks very much like the next. An Australian film shot mainly in Colombia!

David Quinlan

Australia 2017. UK Distributor: Signature. ChromaColor.
116 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 15 Oct 2017