Did board-game sales plummet after the terrors of Jumanji?
It's hard to imagine any kid rolling the dice for Monopoly after the unrelenting brutality of marauding elephants and screeching monkeys in Chris Van Allsburg's chilling tale.
But one of the rules of Hollywood is that movie kids never learn from watching other movies. So 10 years after Jumanji, a new duo of bickering siblings discovers a dusty old board game called Zathura, and the resulting destruction makes Doom look like Candyland.
Children seem to love the concept, at least the half-dozen I took with me to help calibrate my cynic-meter. Ranging from 10 to 13, the junior previewers each found something to love in Zathura: A Space Adventure, and demanded a glowing review.
Glowing may be a bit much from a parent feeling assaulted by meteor showers and mindless Zorgons. But I'd have to agree that Zathura is a rousing tale with an agreeable balance of fear and teachable moments, the kind of adventure story that seems old-fashioned these days.
Van Allsburg is an expert at spooking kids to the verge of downright meanness. The robo-elves of The Polar Express turned the North Pole into a Stepford factory town. Jumanji made you wonder how often the beloved author was left alone in childhood to unhappy ends.
Zathura pulls back a bit from that precipice. Two brothers bicker relentlessly as their dad (Tim Robbins) tries to work at home on a quiet Saturday afternoon. The boys hate their creaky old house -- though parents will salivate over the triple-wide, Craftsman-style bungalow that co-stars.
Danny and Walter hate their parents' divorce, and they seem to hate each other. In a nice touch, no one even acknowledges the presence of a self-absorbed 15-year-old sister, until she's awakened at 2pm for emergency service.
Younger brother Danny (Jonah Bobo) finds a forgotten board game called Zathura and starts to play the space adventure.
Disdainful older brother Walter (Josh Hutcherson) grows interested when the house is suddenly pelted by burning meteors and floats into outer space.
Like Jumanji, the problem with Zathura is that danger piles upon danger without progression, logic or point. The kids have no control over their destiny, merely waiting in horror for the next assault.
Zathura softens the approach with a slacker astronaut portrayed nicely by Dax Shepard. He has been stuck in the game for a while, and knows to finish his salami sandwich before getting overheated about the latest Zorgon attack.
Some of the set pieces stretch on far too long, with each conclusion telegraphed well in advance. Zathura is painfully stretched, and should have come in at a speedier 80 minutes.
But screenwriter David Koepp hits realistic notes and positions the family for comeuppance.
"All I know," Danny trembles, "is when we play this game, bad things happen."
True, except for a movie that your kids will probably appreciate.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
Despite the intense sunshine, we were hardly breaking a sweat as we cruised along the flat, dedicated bike lane, well protected from the heat by a canopy of trees. The electric assist on the bikes likely made a difference, too. Far removed from the bustle and noise of the Taichung traffic, we admired the serene rural scenery, making our way over rivers, alongside rice paddies and through pear orchards. Our route for the day covered two bike paths that connect in Fengyuan District (豐原) and are best done together. The Hou-Feng Bike Path (后豐鐵馬道) runs southward from Houli District (后里) while the
President William Lai’s (賴清德) March 13 national security speech marked a turning point. He signaled that the government was finally getting serious about a whole-of-society approach to defending the nation. The presidential office summarized his speech succinctly: “President Lai introduced 17 major strategies to respond to five major national security and united front threats Taiwan now faces: China’s threat to national sovereignty, its threats from infiltration and espionage activities targeting Taiwan’s military, its threats aimed at obscuring the national identity of the people of Taiwan, its threats from united front infiltration into Taiwanese society through cross-strait exchanges, and its threats from
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at