Saturday, June 13, 2015

I rent, I watch, I review: Hot Tub Time Machine 2

Hot Tub Time Machine 2

Ah, Hot Tub Time Machine, you got greedy. You went ahead and made a movie that had a concept so silly and so simple that it just worked. Hot Tub Time Machine is gleefully goofy and it ends on a really weird, fun note. I got a huge kick out of the first film, but what I realized while watching the sequel is that, there was a base reality in the first Hot Tub that made the wackiness more digestible and enjoyable. By contrast, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is just completely bonkers and not particularly funny. It starts off with the concept that Lou (Rob Corddry) invented Google (and changed the name to Lougle) and things get crazier from there. Nick (Craig Robinson) is a hugely successful recording artist, thanks to ripping off songs that came out during his original reality. Jacob (Clark Duke) has pretty much gotten the raw deal by being Lou's son. Nothing else fun is happening to him. John Cusack's character? Not in the movie. Cusack's not in the movie. Instead, it's Adam Scott, who I love, but... whatever.

Point is, the movie starts with crazy then gets crazier. The jokes, however, are lazy and then proceed to get lazier. It really just seemed like the screenwriter took the crazy ideas and thought the ideas would just be funny in themselves. But, really, Craig Robinson singing "Stay" by Lisa Loeb isn't THAT funny by itself. It's kinda amusing, but too often you're supposed to accept all of these ridiculous things as they are without any added humor or cleverness to them.

I can get more into it, but there's no need in completely tearing the movie down. HTTM2 is just not funny. It has a few good moments, mostly to do with Adam Scott, but I just can't accept this new crazy alternate universe. They just didn't do anything clever with it. They had these ideas and took the laziest route with them. This makes HTTM2 wind up feeling flat. For shame.

Grade: D



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