Hot Tub Time Machine 2





Directed By: Steve Pink

Starring: Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Adam Scott, and Chevy Chase

I was a fan of the original Hot Tub Time Machine some five years ago.  It wasn't the greatest comedy I've had the pleasure of viewing, but it was thoroughly entertaining.  You simply can't go wrong making fun of the 80s.  That was the strength of the film.  Fast forward five years to the present, and we've now got a time travel sequel looking to mar the original.  Hot Tub Time Machine wasn't a film that ever merited a sequel, and I doubt the prospect of a Hot Tub Time Machine 2 got many moviegoers excited.  That being said, they were right if they held some doubts about this one.

Five years after the events of the original, the gang is still enjoying the spoils of having forever altered the very fabric of time.  Though his band has broken up, Lou Dorchen (Rob Corddry) remains the head of Internet juggernaut Lougle.  Nick Webber (Craig Robinson) is finding musical gold stealing material from potentially successful artists that will never be because of him.  Adam Yates (previously portrayed by John Cusack) is off on some journey to find himself.  Finally, we have Jacob Yates (Clark Duke).  His days are spent as his father Lou's butler in their $2.3 billion home.  It's safe to say that none of this crew has any unfulfilled wants or desires.

Lougle is starting to show some cracks in its armor.  Though he's the head of R&D, Lou's only idea is to create nitrotrinadium, the chemical needed to operate his hot tub time machine.  This is exactly what he proposes at a meeting one day.  To staff members like Brad (Kumail Nanjiani), this is a lofty goal.  To his fellow executives, it's a goal that won't help them clobber their competition anytime soon.  At their corporate party, the idea man Lou is shot in the crotch.  To save him, Nick and Jacob take him to the hot tub time machine and put his existing supply of nitrotrinadium to use.  They get wasted and travel through time.  The only catch is that they've traveled to the future, 2025 to be exact.  According to the Repairman (Chevy Chase), the hot tub time machine takes people to where they need to be.  Consequently, the trio needs to meet their buddy's offspring Adam Yates Jr. (Adam Scott), the son none of them ever knew.

I've said this many times about wilder movies, and I guess I need to say it again. Crude, disgusting antics do not equate to genuine humor. Unfortunately, director Steve Pink fills his Hot Tub Time Machine follow-up with nothing but these antics.  While, to some extent, this plays to his rather predictable vision of the future, it's overkill that puts his sequel on par with nightmares like A Haunted House, Scary Movie V, and Movie 43.  It's just a sad affair overloaded with totally unnecessary references to penises and sex.  In the midst of all these bad jokes, Pink tries to pay homage to far superior time travel movies.

Pink’s Hot Tub Time Machine 2 may just be the dumbest, most uninspired movie upon which I've laid my eyes this year.  There once was a time at which a movie about time travel to the future meant something, and it's not now.  We are in the future already according to Back to the Future, so jumping to 2025 is a pointless cinematic endeavor.  Society will continue to become increasingly disconnected.  Technologies like smart cars will emerge and take over our highways.  Plenty of today's celebrities will be tomorrow's hobos.  We all know this, and there's very little novelty in trying to create the future we already see coming.  With an inane narrative and undercooked performances from the cast, Hot Tub Time Machine 2's journey to the future does nothing creative and yields no comedic gold, no matter how many references it makes to Terminator, Back to the Future, or Looper (which shouldn't exist given that their first trip took place before 2012).

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is certainly not the great white buffalo of raunchy comedies.  It's more akin to the vulture snacking on road kill in the dead of night.  You'll need some kamikaze shots for this one because Hot Tub Time Machine 2 gets a wasted rating.  Don't waste your precious time or money on this trip to 2025.