Brief Synopsis: While cleaning out their high school’s basement during detention, four teenagers discover a mysterious video game cartridge from the 1990s with the perfectly inconspicuous title “Jumanji.” They select their characters — Spencer, the gangling nerd, chooses Dr. Smolder Bravestone, a super athletic archaeologist with an exploding boomerang and smoldering intensity; Martha, the shy bookworm, picks Ruby Roundhouse, a martial artist who specializes in dance fighting; Fridge, the too-cool-for-school jock, selects Mouse Finbar, a short-tempered valet with a crippling weakness for cake; and Bethany taps Professor Shelly Oberon, an overweight middle-aged man with many -ologies to his credit. OR, as the audience simply knows them for the whole film: Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black. Once they press “start,” the video game transports them into the jungles of Jumanji, and they quickly realize they have to finish the game…or die trying.  

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was probably my biggest surprise of 2018 because I’m going to admit that my expectations were lower than Kevin Hart/Mouse Finbar’s tolerance for cake. In my defense, my childhood memory had romanticized the original Jumanji (1995). After all, it was going to be a tall order to beat out my favorite actor Robin Williams, a pre-Spidey kiss Kirsten Dunst, a jungle animal stampede, a house splitting in two, and a safari hunter that’s the physical manifestation of parental disappointment (complete with a loaded shotgun and handlebar mustache). Honestly, I didn’t need another Jumanji movie to tell me that board games (especially never-ending Monopoly games) are hazardous to my health. 

“Well, Ben, that’s where you’re wrong, because Jumanji isn’t a board game anymore — it’s a video game!”

Well…I mean…yeah, you got me there unknown reader with whom I’m pretending to have this conversation. But if I needed to know video games can be bad for my psychological and emotional health, then I would play Super Smash Bros. with my friends and forever shame myself by accidentally throwing Star Fox into the abyss a thousand times — kind of like how the video game characters in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle fall from the sky (for whatever reason) every time they reincarnate.

…And that’s my terrible way of transitioning back to talking about the film instead of stalling because, let’s be honest, I don’t really have a shocking reason why Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle won Best Comedy for 2018. It’s because it was a joyless, boring action film with too much CGI and cheesy pickup lines used by adults pretending to be teenagers. 

And that, my friends, is called “Deadpan” humor. For more examples of deadpan humor, view the lovely GIF gallery below: 

By the way, what do you call it when someone beats their readers over the head with a bad joke? Dead-PUN humor. ANYWAY, moving on…

It may be an old saying, but it’s still a good one: humor is subjective. For me, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a delightful surprise because it was pure, nonstop entertainment. As an action/adventure comedy, it delivers time and time again with iconic-ish performances from our celebrity cast, who put way more effort into their roles than anyone probably expected. Dwayne Johnson being super insecure about everything and touching his muscles for the first time was hilarious, Karen Gillan’s sad attempt at seduction turning into a dance fight was beautiful, Jack Black acting like a teenage girl was perfect (especially when it came to his crush on the “surprise” celebrity appearance…), and this might have been the first time that I felt Kevin Hart’s loud frenetic energy actually fit the role he was cast in. Really, what makes the film fun is you can tell that the cast had a blast working with each other (I would love to see B-roll footage of their outtakes), and that led to the Jumanji sequel having a wonderful sense of comedic timing and heart.