The problem is that there are different kinds of “happy” movies, aren’t there? There are movies that are bittersweet, those that are hysterically funny, those with happy endings…those that are just fun the whole way through without too much emotional investment, and those that are emotional rollercoasters that have a feel-good ending. How to choose?
Rather than talk about movies that are truly warming to the heart or that have a message of any real sort, and since you already know how much I love Jurassic Park (it does make me happy), I picked one that is just a damn blast from start to finish and doesn’t ask more of the viewer than to sit back and have a good time.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
If you can watch this movie without laughing your ass off, I’m just not sure about you. If you haven’t seen it, the basic idea is a group of teenagers in detention get zapped into an old video game (think the first Nintendo console) and suddenly become the game characters. They then have to go through each level of the game and win before they run out of lives (each has a health meter on their arm).
If for no other reason you need to see Jack Black play a prissy teenage girl – “Martha! Come look at my penis! This thing is CRAZY!”
The sequel (The Next Level) is fun too, but lacks a lot of the previous film’s charm. Welcome to the Jungle is just insanely funny and a big rollicking adventure – it has a few sweet moments and a sad one, but still, it’s not trying to change your life or say anything about the world. Watching the various actors channel their teenage counterparts (Dwayne Johnson is a nerdy boy with allergies, Chris Hart a big tough football player, they cover all your high school stereotype bases) is a blast.