Jumanji: The Remakes

I recently convinced my daughter to watch the original Jumanji, after years of refusing, claiming that it seemed "too scary". I'm happy to report that she absolutely loved it, and it lead to a marathon viewing of not only the original, but the two remakes. I'm embarrassed to admit that this movie marathon costs me $15, because heaven forbid they be available for free on any of my streaming services.

I'm fairly certain that I Reboxed the first remake when it was released, since I was immediately sold on the cast: The Rock, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Nick Jonas, that chick from Dr. Who... who WOULDN'T want to watch that?! I'm not ashamed to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it. After a second viewing, I still do, and my daughter LOVED Jack Black's portrayal as a teenage girl.

If you haven't seen it, and you don't mind spoilers, I'll give you a rundown. It opens in 1995, with a teen kid finding the game in the sand at the beach. Being a kid in the 90's, he has no interest in board games, so the game evolved itself into a video game, which he plays and gets sucked into. Fast forward 20 years (sound familiar?) and the game is found by a group of four teens in their local high school media room. They decide to play and are sucked into the game to play as the avatars that they have selected.

Bethany, the stereotypical perky blonde popular girl, is sent in as cartographer, Dr. Shelley Oberon, played by Jack Black, and to my kid's credit, he does play her perfectly. In the game, the group comes across Alex, the boy who disappeared in the 90's, who's avatar is played by Nick Jonas. Bethany quickly falls for Alex, in game, and upon beating the game, is excited to meet him, until she finds out that he was sent back to his own time, and is therefore no longer a 16 year old kid, but a 36 year old man with a family. He's also played by Collin Hanks, who is hella good-looking, so I'm sure that makes it harder for her. They do end up meeting him, and he and Bethany, despite the age difference, still have obvious chemistry.

That's to be expected from Bethany, who hasn't had adequate time to move on, but Alex has had TWENTY YEARS! He's lived his life, built a family, and even named one of his kids after her. In the sequel, the teens go back into the game, along with a few others, and when the game breaks and she's blocked from going in, Bethany tracks down Alex for help to fix it. At his house, you see his daughter, the one he named after her, and him, but never his wife. The chemistry between him and Bethany and still palpable and not only does he help her fix the game, but he goes back into it with her. In this sequel, Bethany is in college, but Alex is 37 or 38. I NEED to know if they end up together! It's not that the age difference bothers me too much. Legally, she's an adult, but it's a pretty big difference, and for them to have the audacity to be so great together and then to just leave me hanging, is downright rude!

I don't necessarily want another sequel, because The Next Level was pretty terrible, but maybe a spin-off? Some fanfic or something that I can read. I'm almost tempted to go back and rewatch the movie just for those longing looks. I mean, WOAH! Thank God no one looks at me like that, or this self-dater would have some issues! Actually, I think I WILL give it a rewatch, since not only did I pay $9 for it, but I'd get to see my favorite not-couple and see both The Rock and Awkwafina play as Danny Devito. Terrible as the film may have been, that was some quality acting. You also can't top Kevin Hart as Danny Glover. He nailed it.