The first Hot Tub Time Machine surprised me. I expected it to be stupid, and I’ll admit it was, but there was also a strange kind of genius that made it enjoyable. The over the top film was almost a parody, and the actors were in on the joke. So when the first one succeeded, I knew it was only a matter of time until we saw a sequel.
We meet our heroes 10 years after the original Hot Tub. They’re all living lives of immense wealth and success, but they’re feeling like something is missing. One thing that’s missing for sure is John Cusack, who wasn’t available for the sequel. So they shoehorned in Adam Scott, playing Cusack’s kid. Losing the closet thing to a hero the original film had was extremely damaging, resulting in a movie that’s mainly about sidekicks. None of the guys in this one had the chops to play a hero.
The entire plot focuses on Lou getting shot in the penis. Yes, I wrote that right. After Lou takes a bullet to the junk, the entire crew goes back to the time machine to find the would-be assassin. This time, they head on out to the future, 2025 and recycle the same jokes from the past.
Everything the first movie did right, this one did wrong. One of the best parts of the first film was the focus on the 1980s, which the movie’s demographic grew up in. The nostalgia of the ridiculous clothes and haircuts was enough to make most laugh out loud. This one takes us to a 2025 where the only thing that shows us it’s the future is self driving cars, and men wearing paisley.
The future looks bleak.
The gags are sick, homophobic and uncomfortable for everyone involved. They lack the humor of the original movie and instead, just focus on a lot of butt sex and gay jokes, along with a bride inexplicably turning into a dominatrix on her wedding day.
It felt like a bunch of really unfunny Saturday Night Live sketches strung together at the last minute, resulting in a confusing, disjointed plot that really didn’t have the same level of silly fun as the original.
The best word to describe this movie is ‘desperate’. It was a shameless cash grab, and it shows in the script. It’s like they created a check-off list of things that were funny in the first movie, and decided to cram them into this script with no thought whatsoever for the end product.
All the charm of the first movie has been sucked out and instead, turned into a recycled jumbled mess with none of the laugh out loud moments you’d expect from a movie about a Hot Tub that’s a time machine. It’s disappointing and depressing and it feels like something is missing.
I think that something is John Cusack. He’s the one that really brought the story together in the first movie. The other characters, while funny, are not leading men. They’re comic relief. When the comedy is lacking, there’s no need for it.
All in all, I’d like to go back in time and warn myself not to watch this. It sullied my impression of the original. I think it’s time to drain this hot tub.
WE GAVE IT: 2 Stars – Watch the Official Trailer and Official Movie Poster below!
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Hollywood is a place where fans do the talking, and that talking is done with their wallets. The original movie, which was released in 2010, cost $36,000,000 to produce and brought in just over $61 million worldwide. That is a good return on investment; so good that a sequel was in order.
