A Ressaca 2

You might have overly loved the first Hot Tub movie and it might exceeded your expectations. Therefor you might have very high expectations of this one. But this one just drags the hilarious along and does not care too much on making sense. In fact, you could say it spits on anything that tries to explain what is going on or is trying to give it a certain quality at all.

What this succeeds in doing, is being gross, mean and infantile. Now if that is what you're expecting going into this, you'll have a lot of fun. But remember: this is not about quality, and I cannot stress that out enough. It's about a group of people gathering together and taking the p... as the British would say (translation: having fun). Take that with a grain of salt and it'll help enjoy the movie. I know I was entertained enough, with just watching one sketch following another. Remember: this is just a movie (with no scientific explanations to the weird things that are happening).

Hot Tub Time Machine is one of my favorite "stoner" comedies. I know it doesn't technically fall under that category but the style of humor is similar to movies like Harold & Kumar in that it's dumb humor, gross-out gags, and just unbridled ridiculousness. And that's fun to me. Hot Tub Time Machine 2 keeps that same formula but unfortunately it's missing a few key things that made the first one so great.

First is the novelty factor. We've seen these guys time travel before so the whole "explaining time" aspect isn't all that interesting. Second, there's no consistency. The first movie had a plot - it was an adventure from start to finish and you were with these characters the whole way. It was straightforward and it worked. Here, they try to save Lou from being killed by going back in time to stop the killer, but instead they go forward in time and apparently the killer is from that time and ended up going back in time to kill Lou, or something. It's just a dumb convoluted plot. Not that plot is important in a comedy; it just helps to have some sort of narrative to follow instead of scene after scene of ridiculousness.

And third and most importantly, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is missing John Cusack. He held the first movie together like glue. He played Adam, a likable everyman that the audience could relate to, and it helped that he had some of the funniest lines in the movie. This movie is all over the place without him. Lou is now the main character, and as much as I love Rob Corddry, his character gets really old really fast. His entire character revolves around gross-out humor and shock value, and it worked wonders in the first HTTM because Adam's sense of reason helped balance it out. Jacob is now the only voice of reason but he's Lou's son and serves as the punch-line to a lot of jokes in the movie. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Adam Scott is the newcomer playing Adam Jr., the son of John Cusack's character. The gang meets Adam Jr. in the future and he ends up going on the adventure to find Lou's killer with them. I love Adam Scott and he was fine in this movie, but he didn't really add anything noteworthy to the group's dynamic. He plays a geeky character who's about to get married, then on their adventure as you can imagine, drugs get consumed and mistakes are made. He definitely provides some laughs, and the group is still enjoyable to watch for the most part, but you can definitely feel a void in the character department.

The most important thing about a comedy is obviously the laughs, and this movie has a few. Much of the dialogue feels like shock value for the sake of being crude. Again, it works sometimes. Other times, not so much. Everything was done better in the first film. This definitely feels like a cash grab movie, especially since they didn't even bother asking John Cusack to return because they knew they'd have to pay him a sh*tload of money (although he does have a nice little cameo in the unrated version). But all in all, it's not terrible. It's a run-of-the-mill raunchy comedy with some funny moments and a lot of disgusting ones. It's worth maybe a one-time watch - if you were a fan of the first one you'll find some good chuckles here and there, and if you haven't seen the first one then you might enjoy this even more because you have nothing to compare it to.

As far as sequels go, it could have been a lot worse. The fact remains though that Hot Tub Time Machine 2 was simply unnecessary.

Opening five years after the events of the first film Lou Dorchen and Nick Webber have become very successful thanks to using other people's ideas. Then, at a party, Lou is shot in the groin and later dies. His son Jacob and Nick drag him to the time machine and they hope to travel back in time to stop the shooting... they actually end up in the future; a time when their lives are somewhat different. Evidence suggests that the killer is from this time period; the trio will have to find the killer before he goes back to commit the crime. They suspect former friend Adam Yates who was bitter after missing the trip in the first film that led to Lou and Nick's success. They find his son Adan Jnr, and he joins the search. In what follows they get into a number of sticky situations.

This sequel was rather disappointing; there were some genuinely funny moments but too many gags relied on the fact that Lou is a thoroughly unpleasant character... he is a bully who more often than not gets away with it. Most of the gags are fairly crude without the wit to be funny. The film is clearly inspired by numerous other time travel films, which are inevitably name checked by the characters. The cast do a decent enough job with the material. Overall this is far from a must see but if you like your comedies crude you might enjoy it... I'm just glad it only cost me 50p and that went to a charity!

After watching this movie, it only confirms what I already believe, and thats critics don't know what the f*ck there talking about most of the time. I was a bit put off by all the bad reviews, but I am glad I gave it a watch because this was frickin hilarious! Sure the plot doesn't make sense or it doesn't have John Cusack, but who gives a f*ck! you get more of Craig Robinson, Rob Courddry and Clark Duke, who let's be honest provided most of the laughs from the original. Sure it's more crude and it may not appeal to all those artsy fartsy critics who are whining about the movie not being PC, but if you want a good stoner movie to watch with the guys and enjoy something without taking it too seriously, watch it! I think it is on par with the first and has been unfairly judged. Compared to most comedy sequels, that always do the same thing as the first (hangover sequels), at least this went in a completely over the top direction that was more like a bunch of comedy skits than an actual movie. Overall, I thought it was hilarious and a definite guilty pleasure. Sure it won't appeal to everyone, and its not supposed too. Obviously for a movie like this you don't expect much just a lot of laughs and this is definitely a goofy stoner comedy best enjoyed under the influence.

7/10

Who really went into this expecting a masterpiece? Was the first one any better? Nah, not really. Sequels always face harsh criticism, but as far as ridiculous movies with sequels go, this one really isn't that bad. Lighten up, it's a comedy.

I got a lot of laughs from this movie. I got a lot of laughs out of all the "future" advancements we've made as a society. From "smart cars" that get the O.K. to execute people, the scary (but kinda fun looking) club scene, to the hilarious TV shows we all (probably legitimately) have to look forward to. The end credits are also worth sticking around for, these fools changing American history in photographs is just fun.

Most of the criticisms I've read here are about bad plot, stupid storyline, etc... Quit trying to be some newspaper critic. You're not going to get recruited to a "My BFE Town Today" column off Amazon. It's a silly movie, if you expected more, you should stick to the films that are worthy of judging and criticism.

If you want some laughs, with actors you don't expect anything else from, give this movie an hour and a half of your time.