Level Up

Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) is a stupid sequel to a stupid virtual reality comedy, that was a reboot of a Robin Williams vehicle. So why do we find it hilarious. 

If you remember, the last movie took a group of teens into a video game, taught them lessons, made them bond, and sent them back to reality. A year later, they are getting back together for a Christmas reunion. Except nerdy Alex Wolf who was going to go to New York and make something of himself doesn't want to fact the group. He's still a shlub, and doesn't want the rest of the gang to know - especially Morgan Turner, who became his girlfriend by the end of the first movie, but broke it off because he felt inadequate. He goes home to his mom's place and finds his grandfather, Danny Devito, is staying with them. 

Then, in the middle of the night, he finds the old Jumanji game and goes in.

The rest of the gang come looking for him, and meet Devito, and Danny Glover, Devito's old friend, now enemy. When they go looking for Wolf, boom, they all wind up inside Jumanji, except the popular girl, Madison Iseman.

Now, Devito is in the Rock's body, Glover is Kevin Hart, the big football player (Ser'Darius Blain) is now Jack Black, and Turner is sexy dance fighter Karen Gillan. The best part of this is seeing Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart doing Danny Devito and Danny Glover. Just hearing Johnson say "Ehh?" or "Jew-mehn-ji" would set Ms. Spenser off in hysterics. Hart in Glover's character kept asking if they were dead, and asking why he has become a "small, muscular boy scour."

I'll skip a lot of adventures and goofiness to say that they finally find Wolf, and he's in Awkwafina's body. (They recognize him when he gets caught thieving and says "Oy vey".) Also, there is a new feature lets people switch the character they are playing, which is a big relief for some. And finally, Iseman gets into the game with Nick Jonas, as a horse.

So not really a lot else to say - we laughed a lot. We also recognized that it doesn't make much sense. For one thing, everybody is going to want to play as Johnson, nobody would choose Jack Black. Also, Devito and Glover kind of took over the movie, but they still tried to give everyone a character arc. They didn't really succeed, especially Blain and Iseman. 

But that doesn't matter. I'd say this succeeds as a body swap comedy, and the character switch feature means we get to see Dwayne Johnson AND Awkwafina doing Danny Devito.