It was the summer of 1958. Having watched “Walt Disney’s Disneyland” Sunday nights, 1954-’58 on ABC-TV, I pestered my father to drive cross-country from Fullerton, Whitehall Township, to Disneyland, Anaheim, Calif.

My father, an independent businessman, was ready for a road trip at the unfolding of a gas-station road map, which my mother as navigator penciled in to track our progress.

A stack of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse comic books rose between my sister and me in the back seat of the blue and white Mercury.

We took the southern route. At a Ghost Town in Death Valley, the temperature was 104 degrees Fahrenheit, I wanted to run around and explore. My mother exclaimed, “Get me out of here.” We quickly dispatched to the air-conditioned sanctuary of the car’s interior.

At Disneyland, in Adventureland, we rode The Jungle Cruise, and enjoyed many other attractions.

In August, after we got back to Fullerton, my family moved to Center Valley. But that’s another story.

I was eight when I first rode The Jungle Cruise.

Now I am 71 and saw “Jungle Cruise” the movie, one of Summer 2021’s best times in the movie theater and a really fun ride, albeit a cinematic one, until it goes off the rails.

“Jungle Cruise” the movie was inspired by the box-office success of another Disney ride-to-movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003).

I can’t wait for the ride-to-movie of “It’s a Small World,” a Walt Disney Studios-designed attraction at the 1964 New York World’s Fair’s UNICEF pavilion in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., that opened in 1971 at the Magic Kingdom, celebrating its 50th anniversary in Orlando, Fla.

In “Jungle Cruise” the movie, it’s circa 1916. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is Skipper Frank Wolff, a steamboat captain on the Amazon River. Emily Blunt is Dr. Lily Houghton, an English botanist.

The duo is reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart, down to the skipper’s cap and rascally nature, and Katharine Hepburn, down to the proper attire and prim outlook, in the great director John Huston’s “The African Queen” (1951), believed to have inspired The Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland.

In lieu of Robert Morley from “The African Queen,” for flibbertigibbet comedic relief, we have Paul Giamatti, as Nilo Nemolato, a jungle boats owner.

Dr. Lily enlists Skipper Frank to head up river in search of the mysterious petals of the Tears of the Moon, purported to have healing powers. Along for the ride is Lily’s brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall), who tried but failed to get England’s Royal Society to cough up an arrowhead artifact reputed to be key to finding the petal power (The flowers’ representation has a Disney “Beauty and the Beast,” (2017) aspect.).

Also seeking the magic elixir is Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), a German aristocrat who wants it for Germany’s World War I cause. Nasty Nazis figured in “The African Queen,” as well. The prince navigates a German submarine, a U-Boat. (I was looking for Snoopy and the Red Baron to appear in a dog fight.)

The screenplay for “Jungle Cruise” is littered with the skeletons of Hollywood movie cliches, rewrites and a preponderance of special effects. It’s “Apocalypse Not.” Where’s Joseph Conrad when we need him?

When you have a duo with the megawatt screen chemistry of Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, just write them a screenplay that gives them plenty of screen time with each other (as, for example, in their online promo interviews for the film).

Instead, the “Jungle Cruise” screenwriters give Skipper a pet jaguar named Proxima as if an outtake from “The Lion King” remake (2019), inject a preponderance of mumbo-jumbo about cursed conquistadors, and create overly-long scenes of computer-generated imagery depicting Medusa-like snakes emerging from faces (Now where did we see that before? Oh, yeah, “Pirates Of The Caribbean.”).

The screenplay-by-basketball team is: Michael Green (Oscar nominee, adapted screenplay, “Logan,” 2017; screenwriter, “Green Lantern,” 2011); Glenn Ficarra (screenwriter, “Bad Santa,” 2003) and John Requa (screenwriter, “Bad News Bears,” 2005) based on a screen story by John Norville (“Tin Cup,” 1996), Josh Goldstein (TV’s “American Dreams,” 2002, 2003), Ficarra and Requa.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra (one of Liam Neeson’s go-to action film directors for “The Commuter,” 2018; “Run All Night,” 2015; “Non-Stop,” 2014, and “Unknown,” 2011) lets “Jungle Cruise” run aground. Scenes with Blunt and with Johnson and Blunt are quite good. Scenes in the “Jungle” are rushed and special-effects laden.

The production credits are top-drawer, in art direction, sets, costume and score (James Newton Howard).

“Jungle Cruise” has a not-bad premise, but it sinks, like so many screenplays, in the third act. It’s easy to have a great start to a movie, which “Jungle Cruise” has. It’s not so easy to have a great end to a movie, which “Jungle Cruise” also has. “Jungle Cruise” has parts of a good film. Spoiler Alert: The final scenes make a reality of Johnson’s nickname. The scary scenes (I didn’t find them scary, just disgusting.) have been put in to appeal to a certain demographic. Perhaps the “Demon-Graphic”?

In between, though, dear movie-goer must slog through an awful lot of supernatural, difficult-to-parse scenes (filmed through a lens darkly). It’s as if the film-makers didn’t have enough confidence in what’s on the page to let us see what’s on the screen. The farther the Skipper and Lily go into the jungle, the more grim is the going. To paraphrase Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, “It’s a bungle in the jungle.”

I’m a fan of Dwayne Johnson, a Freedom High School, Class of 1990, Bethlehem Area School District product (as it’s said in the sports department), who has terrific comedic chops, which he gets to exercise here with the Skipper’s bad puns. I wanted more.

Johnson has been making movies at a fast and furious pace: 106 acting credits on the Internet Movie Database since 1996 (including WWE, with professional wrestling a family business). Johnson often gets typecast in Tarzan-like roles (“Hercules,” 2014; “Moana,” 2016; “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle,” 2017); remakes (“Walking Tall,” 2004; “Get Smart,” 2008; “Race To Witch Mountain,” 2009) and spin-offs (“The Scorpion King,” 2002, his first lead role; “Fast Five,” 2011, and its sequels; “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” 2013).

Still, it’s hard to argue with success. Johnson’s films have grossed more than $3.5 billion in North America and $10.5 billion worldwide.

I’m a fan of Emily Blunt, who has one of the most enigmatic, charming and expressive faces in cinema. In “Jungle Cruise,” Lily, the character that Blunt plays, is a female Indiana Jones. I wanted more.

Blunt, who began starring in theatrical features at about the same time as Johnson, has 48 acting credits on Internet Movie Database since 2003, including “The Devil Wears Prada,” 2006; “Looper,” 2012; “Edge of Tomorrow,” 2014; “Into the Woods,” 2014; “Sicario,” 2015; “The Girl on the Train,” 2016; “A Quiet Place,” 2018; “Mary Poppins Returns,” 2018; “A Quiet Place, Part II,” 2020).

“Jungle Cruise” takes Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt for a ride. I would like to ride The Jungle Cruise again. I probably won’t see the film again.

“Jungle Cruise,”

MPAA rated PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. Parents are urged to be cautious. Some material may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers.) for sequences of adventure violence; Genre: Action. Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy; Run time: 2 hr., 7 min. Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Credit Readers Anonymous:

The “Jungle Cruise” closing credits include lovely, flowing animated drawings of the characters and scenes. “Jungle Cruise” was filmed in Hawaii and Georgia.

Theatrical Movie Box Office,

Aug. 6-8: “The Suicide Squad” opened at No. 1 with $26.5 million, 4,002 theaters, scuttling the one-week No. 1 ride of “Jungle Cruise,” dropping one place to No. 2, with $15.6 million, 4,310 theaters, $65.3 million, two weeks.

3. “Old” dropped one place, $4.1 million, 3,138 screens, $38.5 million, three weeks. 4. “Black Widow” stayed in place, $4 million, 3,100 theaters, $174.3 million, five weeks. 5. “Stillwater” stayed in place, $2.8 million, 2,611 theaters, $10 million, two weeks. 6. “The Green Knight” dropped three places, $2.5 million, 2,798 theaters, $12.1 million, two weeks. 7. “Space Jam: A New Legacy” dropped one place, $2.4 million, 2,869 theaters, $65.6 million, four weeks. 8. “Snake Eyes” dropped one place, $1.6 million, 2,080 theaters, $26 million, three weeks. 9. “Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions” stayed in place, $1.2 million, 1,303 theaters, four weeks. 10. “F9: The Fast Saga” dropped two places, $1.2 million, 1,715 theaters, $171 million, seven weeks.

Box office information from Box Office Mojo as of Aug. 8 is subject to change.

Unreel,

Aug. 13:

“Free Guy,”

PG-13: Shawn Levy directs Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Taika Waititi and Utkarsh Ambudka in the Action, Comedy, Science-Fiction film. A bank teller discovers he’s an NPC (Nonplayer Character), one not controlled by either the player or AI (Artificial Intelligence) inside a brutal, open world video game.

“Respect,”

PG-13: Liesl Tommy directs Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Audra McDonald and Saycon Sengbloh in the Biography, Music, Drama. It’s based on the story of pop, rhythm and blues and gospel singer Aretha Franklin.

“Coda,”

PG-13: Sian Heder directs Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant in the Music Drama. Ruby, a CODA (Child Of Deaf Adults) is the only hearing person in her deaf family. She must choose between a career in music and taking care of her parents.

Movie opening dates from Internet Movie Database as of Aug. 8 are subject to change.

Three Popcorn Boxes out of Five Popcorn Boxes