Two requirements for this list, because I think it's more difficult than the other:

You have to be willing to call it a "great" movie, and it has to have a definitively happy ending.

From this year I've got two contenders:

Inglorious Basterds
I Love You, Man

Million Dollar Baby
Titanic
Se7en
Schindler's List
Philadelphia
Casablanca

You're not off to a good start.

I suppose this could become one of those sprawling, epic debates some people 'round here live for, except I have neither the inclination or the temperament, so I'll just say I fail to see how either what happens at the theatre or Pitt's demonstration in the following scene that his character is at least as much of a psychopath as Waltz's qualifies as an unambiguously happy ending.

Kill Bill Vol. 2 - absolutely. But unless this is yet more irony I've failed to grasp, I think both the climax and ending of Inglourious Basterds are almost the very definition of ambiguous.

"Happiness"


hey, the boy finally got to shot his load. a happy ending in more ways than one, huh?

I just watched "The Lives of Others" this week. I think that fits pretty well.

Nobody's Fool

Some Like it Hot
True Stories
Hot Fuzz
The General
The Great Dictator
Scrooged

Chinatown
The Shining
Streetcar Named Desire
The Graduate

edit:

non-joke answer:

Monsoon Wedding
The 40-Year Old Virgin (maybe one of the best)

CADDYSHACK

Role Models

Stripes

Shaun of the Dead...everything works out, more or less.

Yeah, but I wanted to cry at that one part.

COCKTAIL!!! fuck yeah, i'm on fire this morning.

The Ladies Man.

Shit, I gotta go to work. I'll spend it thinking about ambiguous and unambiguous films of varying sadness.

EDIT: on cocktail - I wanted to cry at that one part too.

Hamlet 2. shit. gotta leave.

EDIT: Hamlet 2 is great.

Stranger than Fiction

Anchorman

Pee-wee's Big Adventure

Pulp Fiction has a happy ending for Butch and Fabionne.

And my boy, Frank Capra,-- well let's just say a lot of his films have happy endings, yet I would be willing to argue with anyone that all of his films are great.

Fantastic film. So friggin good.

Easily the best happy ending ever in all of film that I can think of.

From Wikipedia, for those of you who've forgotten:

Danny's putt reaches the edge of the cup. At that moment, Carl detonates the explosives, rocking the course. The force of the explosions is enough to cause the ball to drop, thereby winning the $80,000 bet for Ty and Al. Smails attempts to renege but Al's thugs are summoned to convince him otherwise. Czervik turns to the crowd and proclaims "Hey, everybody! We're all gonna get laid!"

The gopher emerges, unharmed by the explosives, and dances to Kenny Loggins' "I'm All Right" as the story ends.

Hannah and Her Sisters