Hi everyone, Bryan Here…
With the success of the ‘Hot Tub Time Machine‘, both critically and financially, it made sense to make a sequel. Well that time has come and original director and writer Steve Pink and Josh Heald have conjured up more or less a similar story, but this time with more gross out humor and less 80’s pop culture references. Instead of going back in time, the gang minus John Cusack jumps in the tub and end up in the year 2025 in New Orleans, where it looks more like 2015 with the exception of pets flying on hover boards and automobiles acting like humans.
It’s fairly difficult these days to make something fresh and original in the time-travel genre. More often than not, it’s the same thing we’ve seen over and over, with a few exceptions. And as a young Jacob (Clark Duke) tries to explain to Lou (Rob Corddry) and Nick (Craig Robinson) why they are in an alternate timeline of 2025, Nick can only compare things to ‘The Terminator‘ or ‘Looper‘. If you try to in the least bit to understand the time travel equations or aspects that ‘Hot Tub Time Machine 2‘ is trying to convey, you might have an aneurysm.
The best case scenario is that you go into this with an open mind and laugh at all the raunchy jokes and hilarious improv these actors deliver. Make no mistake, you’ll leave with sore cheeks from laughing so hard. Heald and Pink give us a montage of what’s been going on with our characters since the first film. Lou has become even more of a dick since the first film and has single handedly crashed and burned his company ‘Lougle’, whereas Nick has continued to “write” hit songs and make tons of money. As for Jacob (the supposed smart one of the group), he has literally done nothing with his life, besides watch television and become the brunt of abuse from his dad Lou.
During a party for Lou, a mystery person shoots Lou’s dick off with a shotgun, where Lou, Nick, and Jacob jump into the hot tub again (a quick explanation is given as to why Lou has the hot tub) and are transported to the year 2025 to save Lou’s life. I know, how could Lou be alive and have his man parts in tact in the future, when we clearly see them blown to bits in the past. It’s all loosely explained as an alternate timeline, but again, try no to think about it too much. So now the three men must try and find and stop Lou’s killer.
Corrdy explained in an interview recently that this type of film wasn’t John Cusack’s affinity, which is why he probably wasn’t in the film, although he is mentioned quite a bit. In this alternate time line, Pink and Heald did a good job of replacing Cusack with Adam Scott, who plays Cusack’s character’s son. It’s quite fun as Adam Scott fully commits with his warm almond milk and man skirt. These four guys riff off each other perfectly, and as seasoned comedians, always deliver each joke with perfect timing.
Perhaps the highlight of the film is a Christian Slater hosted reality show called ‘Choozy Doozy’, where anal rape is common. Instead of a fairly cohesive story like we had in the first film, Pink and Heald decided to put a bunch of raunchy and vulgar scenes together to gain more laughs and gross out moments, than a fluid story. But the camaraderie of these four guys and their funny jokes definitely keep this film from being the big stinker it could have been. But luckily for you and I, ‘Hot Tub Time Machine 2‘ delivers the laughs often, even if many things don’t make sense or play out.
3 out of 5 Stars
– Bryan Kluger