It's less a return to Kipling than to the 1942 Alexander Korda epic, and some of the lush matte shots will touch a chord with Technicolor nostalgists.

| Mar 2, 2024

There is not a cartoon or song around. Rather, such fine actors as Sam Neill, John Cleese and Cary Elwes ham it up with great energy and wit on sumptuous locations.

| Mar 1, 2024

A wearisome, if well-polished, film, desperately uncertain how best to please its audience.

| Mar 1, 2024

It is crude, old-fashioned stuff but the Indian settings are spectacular.

| Mar 1, 2024

Despite all the obvious derivations from other productions, the harder edge and the continual excitement contribute to a consistently high entertainment value.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Sep 14, 2020

It isn't Kipling, but it is good old-fashioned Saturday-matinee fun.

| Jun 17, 2020

Lee manages to convey both childlike trust and manliness, handsomely demonstrating that goodness and strength can share the same form.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 17, 2020

Jungle Book entertains in a way both contemporary and traditional.

| Apr 15, 2016

The new attempt - a live-action adaptation - is unlikely to supplant the cartoon version in anyone's affections.

| Apr 15, 2016

The acting troupe are great fun: Lee looks fit, Headey is sweet enough in a narrow role, Cleese fine-tunes his predictable Fawlty bit and Elwes stiff-upper lips to excess.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 15, 2016

That's the biggest problem with this Jungle Book. Sommers is so busy spinning his camera, crowding the soundtrack with animal noises and piling on the cheesy visual effects that he can't stop for a reflective moment or a character-revealing touch.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 15, 2016

This Jungle Book, however, is more remindful of Disney's classic wildlife adventure pics than it is of a cartoon, and it is most remindful of that other jungle classic, Tarzan.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 15, 2016

Anyone familiar with Rudyard Kipling's stories will be forgiven for spending the first half of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book squirming with outrage and confusion.

| Apr 15, 2016

In the end, Rudyard's Kipling's The Jungle Book gains very little from this newest incarnation. As live-action fare, it has nothing on the 1942 version of the story that starred the Indian actor Sabu as Kipling's wild child.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 15, 2016

This live-action rumble-in-the-jungle version of the story of Mowgli, the boy brought up to adulthood by wolves, may lack the songs and magic of the classic Disney feature-length cartoon, but it is closer to Kipling's original tale.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 15, 2016

Frequently beautiful and with much to recommend it.

| Apr 15, 2016

Stunning production design, smart pacing, and a well-handled romantic angle make for a seamless, if undemanding, entertainment.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 15, 2016

Beautifully mounted and shot, "Rudyard Kipling's 'Jungle Book' " still feels somewhat callow. Its title aside, it never really deals with the issues that the great Kipling raised continually in his distinguished body of work.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 15, 2016

A visual feast, pitched equally between kids' and adult fare.

| Apr 15, 2016

Rent the animated film instead.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 14, 2016