


These scenes are unsuitable for small children, and the "PG" rating is laughable. And now the movie truly escalates in its violent action, with business involving giant snakes, quicksand, falls from cliffs and an eerie scene in which a man is buried alive in an ancient trap in the temple. In a cruel twist, he and some ruthless friends kidnap Kitty, knowing Mowgli must come after them, and that with her as a hostage he will lead them to the hoard. But Boone has noticed Mowgli's diamond-encrusted dagger, and guesses that the jungle boy has discovered the temple of treasures. It is the proper thing." Kitty breaks the engagement. Mowgli is crushed, but philosophical: "I run with the wolf pack. At a dance, Mowgli waltzes gracefully with her, but then a cruel practical joke is played, and before long Kitty's engagement to Boone is announced, with her lukewarm consent. And a tender feeling, the beginnings of love, grows up between Mowgli and Kitty.Ī sinister young officer named Boone ( Cary Elwes) considers her his territory, and he and his fellow officers take delight in humiliating the young man from the trees. He comes to live on the base, among such classic colonial types as John Cleese (in pith helmet), and learns excellent English in no time flat. Then fate reunites him with Kitty ( Lena Headey), who with her father ( Sam Neill), a British officer, is stationed nearby. Mowgli stumbles upon a forgotten temple in the jungle, filled with unimaginable riches.

Then there's a flash-forward to the present, and we're in Temple of Doom territory.

After a mishap separates them and he grows up in the jungle, there are cute little sequences where he rescues a bear cub that has become trapped in a log. The film begins as if it's going to be a live-action version of the Walt Disney cartoon, with young Mowgli making friends with a British girl his age, named Kitty. Here, in a role that might have turned silly in other hands, he brings perfect conviction he seems at home in the jungle, in action sequences, in quiet talk and waltzing at a formal ball. Lee is a casting problem for Hollywood - he doesn't fit in the usual molds - but when he is in a role that fits, as in " Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" or " Map Of The Human Heart," he shows a rare range of dramatic power and physical presence.
