Product Description

Two young couples set out to explore the jungles of New Guinea in search of Michael Rockefeller, heir to the Rockefeller fortune, who went missing there over 40 years ago. But their hunt for a big payday turns them into the hunted, as the native cannibals track their every move and incomprehensible bloodshed awaits at the gory end.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73229 in DVD
• Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
• Released on: 2007-11-13
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 83 minutes

Customer Reviews

Bring You to Your Sha-na-na-na-na-na Knees
Based on the jacket of this DVD, I set my expectations for "a bloody gore fest." Trust me, Welcome to the Jungle qualifies more as a bore fest than a gore fest.

I didn't say it was a bore fest exactly. But the Welcome to the Jungle cast doesn't even run into their first native tribe member until about an hour into the film, and the film is only about an hour and 20 minutes long.

Back in 1961 Michael Clark Rockefeller (heir to the Rockefeller fortune) disappeared after a boating accident during an expedition in the Asmat region of New Guinea. It was speculated that Rockefeller drowned, but sensationalized by the theory that he was abducted, living among or perhaps even eaten by cannibals.

Welcome to the Jungle is about two young couples that get the bright idea to take their inexperience and hike into the Asmat jungles to see if they can find any proof of Rockefeller's true fate. Going back to the jacket of the DVD, it tells you that trouble starts when the couples run into "a fierce tribe of cannibals deep in the jungle." This gives you the impression that our couples are indiscriminately attacked while on their innocent trek. But everyone knows that today's Asmat Tribesman would only attack if provoked, right?...Like, say, because some knuckle-head desecrated an Asmat gravesite.

Some of the cast do indeed get brutalized. But a gore fest? No. Friday the 13th has *a lot* more slicing and dicing than you ever see in Welcome to the Jungle. In fact, you never actually see any of the real brutality while it's occurring in Welcome to the Jungle; you do see some of the carnage...but certainly not in the large doses that all of the hype seems to suggest.

Welcome to the Jungle has that handheld camera, Blair Witch Project feel throughout. Writer/Director Jonathan Hensleigh (also directed 2004's The Punisher and co-wrote a bunch of very popular flicks) goes for storytelling here...not shock. Yes, when things finally get ugly in this movie...it ain't pretty. It's R-rated stuff, but probably tamer than you're thinking it is.

So all in all...it's an okay movie. I'm no gore-monger, so the lack of it was just fine with me. With the underlying sense that something horrible is going to happen, Hensleigh does a masterful job of quenching the boredom of what amounts to more of a jungle expedition documentary than an all out Horror film.

Well gotta go. Lunch is served. Beef carpaccio...mmmmmmmmmm.

Welcome to the Jungle, We'd Love to have you for Dinner.
Well it definitely ain't Cannibal Holocaust, that's for sure,
but it's does have a few of it's own moments.
None nearly as graphic or remotely as brutal, mind you.

Four morons set out into the jungle in search of the lost Rockerfeller,
in hopes of rescuing him, and claiming the million dollar reward.
What they find instead is hostile, blood-thirsty, cannibals who paint themselves white, and well.....they eat morons.

The dialogue is juvenile, but it keeps the story moving.
Struggles within the surrounding communities, as well as highway robberies, prevent the viewer from losing interest before entering the jungle.
Once inside the green labyrinth away from civilization confrontations flare, and the stupidity flows in abundance.

Obvious connections will be drawn between this and "The Blair Witch Project" due to the identical style and pace.
But this flick had one thing going for it that it's predecessor didn't.
A visible, tangible enemy.
If "Blair Witch" ended with cannibals, you'd essentially have this flick.

Sadly though, none of the violence takes place onscreen,
all you're ever witness to is the bloody aftermath,
(chick hung from a pole through her head, various organs and limbs scattered about, and a writhing, limbless wonder)

My one major gripe is that they don't even bother to show the cannibals eating people.
Which is insane, considering this is a cannibal movie!!
But like I said it does have it's few redeeming moments.

MORAL OF THE STORY:
Easy Money comes with Hard Consequences

Had potential
This film had potential to really be better than it was.It wasn't bad by any means though.The basic idea is 4 friends who set sail to a new guinea port to explore the new guinea jungle to try and find Michael Rockefeller,hier to the Rockefeller throne.He supposedly went missing 40 years ago and there supposedly have been sightings of a white man with the natives.Is is still alive?did natives who are known to be cannibals eat him?did he die some other way?The one friend knows a helicopter pilot who has flown over this area and supposedly seen a white man.They get the coordinates(also a van) and before long the 4 friends are out looking for him.They end up getting shot at at the one border.Before long the friends(2 couples) are arguing and split up.I say it had more potential because a couple times it seemed like something was happenning and it would just cut to the next day.It did that a couple times.Also this movie had possibly the most annoying character ever in a film.The one friend Mikey is so annoying,ignorant and stupid you almost want to kill him yourself.With all that being said the last 20 mins when these natives are seen isenjoyable and worth a watch.