I did not see the original “Hot Tub Time Machine”, which was released in 2010, but a lot people did and many consider it a modern cult classic comedy. Now, a whopping five years later, we get the just plainly ridiculous “Hot Tub Time Machine 2”, which joins the list of “Taken 3” and (while it could turn out to be a good film) “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” as 2015 sequels that had no business being made.
The star of the original, John Cusack, is out (though there are a few images of him) and “Parks and Recreation”‘s Adam Scott is in as Cusack’s character’s son, Adam. The trio who took that fateful dip with Cusack in the first film, Lou, Nick and Jacob (played by Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson and Clark Duke) get back into the tub, to try to go back in time to prevent Lou from being murdered, but instead are sent to the future.
With a wild premise like this there are really no rules, so the possibilities for gags and crazy storylines are limitless. Unfortunately, “Hot Tub Time Machine 2” is simply a hot mess. The only genuine laughs come from occasional exchanges between the characters insulting each other, along with some basic, but still funny, movie and TV show references. The “Nick Webber Strut”, performed by Robinson, is the film’s only solid running joke.
The time travel aspects of the story are overly complicated – maybe on purpose – but it doesn’t work. And a heavy reliance on over-the-top sexual humor drags the viewing experience into the gutter. With only a Dixie cup’s worth of comedy in this entire hot tub, director Steve Pink chooses to go the all-too predictable route, filling the remainder of the movie with scenes of sex, drugs and alcohol, which continuously take the storyline down the drain. No doubt many people, upon leaving the theater, will be wishing they could step into a time machine of their own to go back a few hours and rethink their decision to see “HTTM2”. It’s an SNL skit on steroids: funny/wacky premise, a few clever moments, but goes way too far and for way too long.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Hot Tub Time Machine 2” gets a C-.
Running Time: 93 min.