I’m still an old fat guy, right?

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

7.2/10 on IMDb
77% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
Low energy entertainment

Watch it if you: Want to watch a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously because it know what it is;
Want a fun, entertaining movie that plays off the strengths of its actors;
Want a good laugh
Four high schoolers undergoing a Breakfast Club (1985) styled detention discover an old video game console and are sucked into the game, Tron (1982) styled. Inside the game, they need to get used to their character avatar bodies while figuring out the way to save Jumanji and leave the game.

When I first heard of this movie, I couldn't help but think, "Really? Does this really need a sequel?" The answer is a hard no. But you know what, they did it anyway, and I have to concede: I was very pleasantly surprised.

I actually enjoyed this movie! It was really funny and very entertaining!

I liked the things they did in this movie specific to video games, like the characters seeing cut scenes, and non-playing characters only repeating set lines. These things were really interesting and it would have been cool if they expanded on the way video games are experienced when played.

But for what they did, it was really interesting. I also really like how a lot of the humour was derived from the specific actors playing them.

All the actors are playing against their character tropes, and this is where the best part of the movie comes from.

For example, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's actual character is some scrawny nerd, so he gets to do funny things like react to his newfound strong body with the largest arms he's ever seen.

Jack Black's character is an insta-obsessed pretty and popular girl, and so he does a lot of amazing things in this movie that made me actually see him as a teenage girl. I kind of forgot that it was Jack Black, and I was honestly watching a teenage girl inside Jack Black's unfortunate body. He is fantastic and steals every scene that he's in.

Karen Gillan is a babe but the young girl that plays her character is this awkward and socially isolated girl who doesn't know what to do with her midriff and her short shorts. There is one scene in this movie that focuses on her and it is so hilarious, the whole cinema was in stitches watching her.

Then, there's Kevin Hart.

And I actually like Kevin Hart and he was really funny in this movie as a jock who's not used to being a short, slow, and weak character. But his was the only character where I felt he didn't at all connect to his high school character, who was originally very quiet and almost stoic-like. Then he becomes Kevin Hart and he's suddenly cracking hilarious jokes and being really animated. I don't think I would have wanted Kevin Hart to change the way he acted (in the end, Kevin Hart playing himself is still enjoyable), but they could have written his teenage counterpart differently so it wouldn't seem so disjointed.

There aren't many down sides to this movie because it was entertainment through and through, but some things I can get nitpicky on are:

• The villain was very mediocre. In video games there's usually a huge emphasis on the villain and there's a huge boss fight but it was pretty underwhelming here.
  
• I felt like Dwayne Johnson had most of the things to do here. The other characters' special abilities help but they weren't written very well enough to have everyone do an equal amount of things.
  
• I really liked when they did the cut scenes joke for the exposition parts of the movie, but they did this once and never again, despite having a lot of cut scenes in this movie.
  
• On that note, it would have been funny to see all the characters lazing around while our main protagonists were off somewhere else, completing a prior level of the game. Then once they progress to the next level it would have been funny to wait for that level to load while all the characters take their place. Chris Stuckmann says something similar in his review and I was actually thinking, while watching the movie, that it was odd to have the villain do things behind the scenes if it weren't a cut scene that our main characters can see.
  
• Nick Jonas is decent in this too. I've always thought he was the cutest Jonas brother and had a crush on him in high school so he is welcome eye candy in this movie. But one thing that bothered me was: There's no way his character is 'the missing piece' they needed to find, since his character was meant to start the game at the same time that the other characters started. At first I thought the characters were making it up to make him feel better, but as they kept repeating it, I got the feeling that they actually believed he was the missing piece.

Overall, I really was not expecting to actually like this movie. It was fun, and entertaining, and it's just a good ole mindless film to laugh about and not think too much about. I like that they didn't try to unnecessarily add in character complexity to the point where they were trying to be more serious than they actually were. Of course, there's a bit of character conflict and drama, but it's just enough to get by, I never felt really bored by it. Jack Black is a living legend, and he steals the movie, but Dwayne Johnson and Karen Gillan are amazing in this too. Kevin Hart is the same old Kevin Hart and there's nothing wrong with that, he was a source of great laughs too. An all round fun movie.