''Welcome to the Jungle'' is a 2013 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by Rob Meltzer and starring

Jean-Claude van Damme Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (, ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme (, ), is a Belgian actor, martial artist, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, at the a ...

Adam Brody Adam Jared Brody (born December 15, 1979) is an American actor, writer, musician, and producer. He is known for his breakthrough role as Seth Cohen on the Fox television series ''The O.C.'', which premiered in 2003. Subsequently, Brody appeared ...

Megan Boone Megan Boone (born April 29, 1983) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as FBI agent and profiler Elizabeth Keen on the NBC drama series ''The Blacklist''. She had a recurring role in '' Law & Order: LA'' and an episodic appeara ...

Rob Huebel Robert Anderson Huebel (born June 4, 1969) is an American actor, comedian and writer best known for his sketch comedy work on the MTV series ''Human Giant'' and for his role of Dr. Owen Maestro on the Adult Swim series ''Childrens Hospital''. He ...

Kristen Schaal Kristen Joy Schaal (; born January 24, 1978) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is best known for her voice roles as Louise Belcher on ''Bob's Burgers'' and Mabel Pines on ''Gravity Falls''. She's also known for playing Mel on ''F ...

and

Dennis Haysbert Dennis Dexter Haysbert (born June 2, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the '' Major League'' film trilogy, Secret Service agent Tim Collin in the political thriller film '' Absolute Power'' ...

. The film premiered at the 2013 Newport Beach Film Festival.

Plot

An office team go on a two-day team-building seminar on a tropical

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

. The group includes Chris, a meek office worker and

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Sc ...

; Phil, a manipulative bully who steals his ideas; Lisa, an HR manager and Chris' love interest; and Jared, a sarcastic slacker. However, when the pilot is found dead and Storm, their ex-

Marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

guide, is mauled by a

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus '' Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on u ...

, the office workers must fend for themselves. Phil tries to assume leadership, but the group votes for Chris. Phil immediately wants to sacrifice Javier so they can eat him. He finds some

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

and adds a hallucinogenic herb that induces an orgy among some of the coworkers. They split into two teams. Chris’ team consists of Lisa, Jared, and Brenda. Phil feeds his team more psychedelic herbs and sets himself up as God. Chris` team finds an abandoned building with supplies. Storm is revealed to be alive and not a marine. Chris' team is captured by Phil's group, and Chris beats Phil by pretending to be a better God. A ship rescues the workers, except Phil who is left behind. Storm is arrested for impersonating a marine. Chris gets Phil's job, but quits, taking Lisa with him. It is also revealed Jared is now dating Brenda.

Cast

Production

Shooting took place in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

in early 2012.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

, reports that 22% of nine surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

rated it 25/100 based on seven reviews. John DeFore of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' wrote, "A decent cast is stranded on a desert island with a script best suited for campfire kindling". Betsy Sharkey of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' wrote that the film is not funny or clever enough to work as a satire or farce, though it is unclear for which the film was aiming. Steven Rea of ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'' rated it 1.5/4 stars and called it a "bumble-headed throwaway".

References

External links

* * * * {{Metacritic film, title=Welcome to the Jungle 2013 films American adventure comedy films Universal Pictures films 2010s adventure comedy films Films set in Puerto Rico Films shot in Puerto Rico Films set on islands Films set on uninhabited islands 2013 comedy films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language adventure comedy films