Hot Tub Time Machine 2 Review:

Does Hot Tub Time Machine 2 live up to the first?

Well let’s put it this way…if you want a comedy then Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is for you because it’s raunchy, crass, and filled stupid humor then this is your film.

It’s a definite guy flick filled especially with all the penis jokes, boob jokes and humor targeted to a young men. The original cast reprises their roles in Hot Tub Time Machine with the exception of John Cusack, who the glue that helped drive the originals nostalgic throwback mockery of the 80s, especially if you lived in the 80s.

This time around HTTM 2 focuses on Lou (Rob Corddry) and his self-destructive, non-caring ways. Lou basically doesn’t care because he feels he owns his destiny, but the problem is that he’s run out of ideas and his world is crumbling around him. Everyone hates him, especially his Jacob (Clark Duke). Nick (Craig Robinson) is his only friend and Rob and Craig are perfect onscreen together. They deliver the funny, but there is no flashback nostalgia this time around, which may leave some viewers missing the first.

We had no expectations this time around because we knew that they were going to the future which is always a risk because you have to see someone’s vision of what may be. In this one Lou and Jacob have created most of the technology so it’s funny. Nick’s career is as bad as a one hit wonder, who lost his wife because of his drive for fame. We actually wish there was more storyline there and maybe a scene with the wife and her father to mock the first. Cliché’ maybe, but it would have be extremely funny.

There were so many things they could have don’t to mock the first, which usually helps mad capped comedies. Harold and Kumar is a successful franchise because it makes extreme fun of itself, yet has a storyline with a message. That is the one thing Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is missing.

Instead of John Cusack reprising his role, Adam Scott plays his son Adam Jr., and Cusack’s character is only seen in a photo with a minimal storyline write off.

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The premise of Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is about finding Lou’s killer and the crazy-zany adventure the friends have to embark on to figure it out. In the sequel, Lou (Corddry) finds himself in trouble, so he Nick (Robinson) and Jacob (Duke) fire up the hot tub time machine in an attempt to get back to the past. But they inadvertently land in the future. Now they have to alter the future in order to save the past… which is really the present.

Confused? you won’t be the movie is easy to follow and is filled with lots of comedy that makes this film the laugh out loud first film of 2015. HTTM2 uses a Terminator like storyline mixed with Fringe which is an ongoing joke in the movie.

Bottom line, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is unapologetically tactless, absurd, and at times downright offensive comedy. This is a movie for the Harold & Kumar crowd.

RATING: 4 out of 5

Watch the trailer:

Stars: Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke

Director: Steve Pink

Writer: Josh Heald, Josh Heald

Paramount Pictures